Hello

Following hot on the heels of our participation at the PDC in LA, VC team members are heading off to TechEd Developer Europe. As with the PDC, this will be one of our first chances to show you some of our upcoming Visual Studio 2010 features and a great way for us to solicit your  feedback on both what we have implemented so far and also on what we have planned for the future.  VC team members, Steve Teixeira, Jesse Kaplan and our own C++ MVP Kate Gregory will present a number of sessions that should enthrall VC developers at the event (usual disclaimer: these dates/time/speakers are subject to change – please confirm with the event’s official schdule):

• DVP304 Building fast and secure native applications with VSTS 2008
• Lin Xu
• With VSTS, C++ developers have access to a host of great tools to write, debug and profile native code . In this talk, we will show how these tools come together to help you build processes that improve the quality of your software. We will walk through the techniques that make native applications more secure, more performant and bug-free.
• Tuesday, November 11 15:15 – 16:30

• TLA401 Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 for Unrepentant C++ Developers
• Kate Gregory
• Visual C++ 2008 is packed full of changes for those who prefer the C++ language syntax and power. This session covers STL/CLR, the new extensible marshalling library, and changes coming in the C++ standard, specifically TR1. If templates don’t scare you, Boost has intrigued you, and you’re the one everyone turns to for mixing managed and native code, this session is for you.
• Wednesday, November 12 10:45 – 12:00

• WIN306 Managed to Native Interoperability: Best Practices for Today with an Eye towards the Future
• Jesse Kaplan
• You’ve got thousands or millions of lines of unmanaged code that does its job just fine, thanks. The productivity and potential of managed code is alluring, but you don’t want to rewrite all of your well-tested unmanaged code. The good news is that you don’t have to! Interop allows you to use managed code where it makes sense without throwing out your existing investment in unmanaged code. In this session we’ll discuss when, where and how to use the different managed to native interop technologies. We’ll also discuss upcoming features and tools and how they will make interop easier.
• Wednesday, November 12 17:30 – 18:45

• DVP310 Parallel Programming for C++ Developers in the Next Version of Microsoft Visual Studio
• Steve Teixeira
• Build more responsive C++ programs that take full advantage of multicore hardware! We demonstrate how the new Parallel Pattern Library (PPL) enables you to express parallelism in your code and how the asynchronous messaging APIs can be used to separate shared state and increase your application’s resilience and robustness. Finally, we take a look at some of the new capabilities of C++0x and Visual Studio to help you efficiently code and debug your multi-threaded applications.
• Thursday, November 13 15:15 – 16:30

• TLA320 Building the Next Generation C++/MFC Applications
• Ale Contenti
• The next release of MFC will provide encapsulations around a number of new Windows platform features. With this functionality you can easily build applications that integrate into features such as desktop search, application restart, recovery functionality and leverage the new Windows UI metaphors such as Live Icons and Rich Preview. These features represent one of the most significant updates to MFC in years. By attending this session you will learn the details on all these new classes so you can rapidly build Windows applications that stand out from the crowd.
• Thursday, November 13 15:15 – 16:30

• TLA318 Building Visual C++ Applications
• Marian Luparu
• The next release of Visual C++ will incorporate an MSBuild-based build system. MSBuild will provide C++ developers with an open, extensible and customizable architecture and a wealth of new features, such as significantly better diagnostics. Attend this session if you want to learn how to take advantage of the new build system and leverage the capabilities MSBuild provides in v4.0 as well as the new customization and extensibility points in the C++ Project System.
• Friday, November 14 09:00 – 10:15

• TLA321 Taming Massive Codebases Using the Visual C++ IDE
• Marian Luparu
• Has your application source code quadrupled in size over the past years? Are you finding it hard to wrap your head around the sprawling and interconnected web that makes up the different source components? Want to find out how Visual C++ can help you tame this wild monster? Come and join us for a fun session and learn how the Visual C++ IDE puts power at your fingertips to help you make sense of your multi-million lines of source code. In this session we will cover ways to increase your productivity by using the latest editing, navigation and browsing tools available in Visual C++.
• Friday, November 14 13:30 – 14:45

• TLA06-IS Microsoft Visual Studio Languages Chat
• Jonathan Aneja, Ale Contenti, Lisa Feigenbaum, Luke Hoban, Marian Luparu, Lin Xu, Dave Remy, Mads Torgersen, Paul Yuknewicz
• In this session, we will discuss Microsoft’s core languages (Visual Basic, Visual C#, and Visual C++), functional language (F#) and dynamic languages (IronRuby and IronPython). Each language has its own style and advantages. Come chat with representatives from the Microsoft Visual Studio product teams, bring your questions, and get ready for a fun discussion!
• Friday, November 14 15:15 – 16:30

There is also a MFC hands-on lab:

• WIN04-HOL Lighting Up MFC Applications on Windows Vista

Team members will also be travelling on to the German Technical Summit immediately after TechEd Developers Europe. Marian Luparu will be speaking in the pre-conference series on Migrating from VC++6.0 to VS 2008. Also of interest to VC++ developers will be Steve Teixeira’s keynote on Bringing out the Best in Multicore Systems – both sessions will be in English.

Thanks

Amit and Damien