Microsoft New Visual C Architect Stanley Lippman Interview
Chris Maunder
In
Glory translation
Stanley Lippman has a long historical background in C language and C communities. He is one of the earliest uses of C . He used to be a member of Bjarne StrousTrup leader in Bell Lab Basic Project Group, who has done the chief software engineer of Walt Disney Characteristic Animation Company, and writes like "C Primer". A large number of people who are exciting.
Stanley recently added Microsoft, serving Visual C architects, I grabbed the opportunity to make a follow-up to understand the Visual C in his eyes, now and future and his personal goals of Visual C . First of all, it is also the most important thing that I have to provide an authority answer for the majority of C developers - most people have depressed questions: Is there a technique we originally mastered in .NET's world? Will C will drop the secondary location of Win32 development? Does Microsoft will continue to improve C compatibility commitments?
Remember this is very important: Starely is a Visual C language architect, and he is new, therefore, like the tools such as MFC, ATL, WTL, and Visual Studio, are not within the influence of Stanley and the experience range. Therefore, this interview focused on the majority of developers concerned: What is the future of Visual C ?
First of all, I asked Stan what attracted him to work for Microsoft.
Starely's UNIX technology background is deep, and there are also a variety of heterogeneous platform development experience. Obviously, some platforms are more useful than others. Talking about .NET, Stanley does not cover up the appreciation of its concept. "The framework is undoubtedly amazed, rich and interesting." Starely once made the experience of working even though threaded conceptual things, therefore, there is a basic class library that is easy to understand. Provide features such as thread models that are easy to understand, and can be accessed by any of the .NET language you choose, it is extremely important.
For Visual C , how to adapt to .NET's overall blueprint, Stanley only has limited ideas, but after further study, he was surprised (also happily), and C did not be abandoned by .NET, actually first. NET language!
So what do you see for the future of Visual C ? And, as a new architect, your goal is?
For future, Stanley is very clear. "I firmly believe that Visual C will have more prosperous future!". Stanley has met the Visual C development group and said that he (she) has unpaid passion and vitality. Starely's goals are very simple, "Visual C will be a C active item worth selecting." His personal goal is to let the majority of C developers choose Visual C not only based on tools and platform considerations, but because it is a solid work of C standard.
About compatibility compatibility
Talking about C compatibility, Stanley admits that the latest release (Visual C 7.0) has not been officially released, but substantive work has long been carried out, which means a wider range of compatibility realization. He will push this compatibility process, especially in the template field. Although Visual C 7.0 does not fully realize all the features that Stanley is easy to see, he claims that this is still the best version of C in Microsoft issued by Microsoft's all versions of C . It is not 100% perfect, but it is still unique to an excellent high standard compatible compiler. Anyone still has a controversial issue will be fully described in the vs.net document of the "Visual C Standard Compatibility Problem".
Microsoft's goal is to provide a "competitive compatible" compiler - this means it is not 100% compatible. Several features mentioned by the ANSI / ISO standard (if the "Export" keyword to the template class will not be implemented, because at least in the eyes, theoretically, Microsoft believes that they are unclear. However, Microsoft is working hard to ensure that Visual C can compile most of the most popular libraries such as Boost, Blitz, Loki, and is fully compatible with STL. Compatible focus is to compile the most popular libraries, not 100% compatible.
Microsoft C Product Manager Nick HodApp also added that although height compatibility is undoubtedly a very important goal, Microsoft will not exchange extreme compatibility at the cost of sacrificing code quality and strongness. Despite this, the recent laboratory test still shows that in terms of compatibility testing, it still beats a few popular compilers.
When can I see the new version?
Starely laughed, he said that if he was decided, he will release an upgrade version every week. However, as complicated as Quality C itself, such as quality control and process (control) must also be observed. The latest version will be released around February 2002 and is expected to be upgraded to the compiler in the same year, but it is not yet determined whether it is possible. Of course, he will fight for an early implementation of the upgrade. Nick Hodapp also agrees to this, and it is very likely that it can be upgraded to VC7 next year. Microsoft is studying the best mechanisms that publish focus on compatibility compilers, in order to bring new weather to next year.
A lot of C developers feel that Microsoft is more petting like C # such as the new language like C #, lets Visual C lead.
Stanley hopes that C will have more seats than now in .NET. At present, Managed C is the greatest advantage that as a transition language. You can transplant your local app to the .NET framework, or use the .NET component in your local application, but this is not the best language choice for developing full hosted applications.
In this unpublished Visual C . Net (VC7), Microsoft focuses on the characteristics of interoperability. In all hosted languages, VC7 has the best interoperability, and has the ability to host the host and unmanaged code in the same image. They also focus on generating MSIL's optimization techniques - VC7 is the only compiler that can generate optimized MSIL. In the future, Microsoft will focus on the consistency of ANSI / ISO (make hosted / non-hosting code compatible with more features), just like focusing on Visual C and C # equivalent functions (such as WinForms). Visual C will be positioned in the system-level language of .NET.
Template support and generic programming are required, and Microsoft is also very enthusiastic to implement Codedom support, and there are also ASP.NET and WINFORMS. With these features, Stanley believes that Visual C will become a powerful programming language option under the .NET framework. Even if the template is not supported, Stanley still insists that Visual C is the only language that can provide more characteristics than C # or VB.NET. Stanley is fortunate to change from the company-oriented transformation into more developers. He will drive the company more openly to developers, and it is more responsible for Microsoft to more and more to developers. Microsoft is known for reform and innovation, but it is also possible to make standards and developers' needs, and Stanley will strive to ensure that Microsoft listens to the sound of the developer community while ensuring higher standard compatibility.
New features such as the C99 specification
When talking about whether to extend the new features of Visual C to adopt the C99 specification, Stanley claims that the relevant standards are still awaiting. Differences in C and C development have become more concerned, because C is no longer ahead of the former. Microsoft's goal is to achieve high standard compatibility (but that is for C instead of c), if the C standard is upgraded and added to new features, Microsoft will incorporate them into the implementation of Visual C .
Microsoft will consider the new features joined:
1. It has been used in the code and can be compiled by other compilers, or
2. These features have become an urgent requirement and obvious developers need them.
Microsoft does not only achieve them just because those features are mentioned in the standard, but will be implemented because of developers.
Revelation
In the .NET world, Visual C clearly has a bright future prospect with vitality and vitality. In terms of simplicity, interest and compatibility, Stanley's goal is to make this compiler into a reference for reference. It should be easy to use, universal, journey, or even when, developers think of C will think of it. Continuous improvements in C compatibility and feature support for ASP.NET and WINFORMS will ensure that Visual C will become a powerful language of the .NET platform and local development.
When talking about whether the developer will turn to C # instead of Managed C , Stanley believes that there will be more people to turn from VB to C # instead of from C to C #. (Visual) C is better, more versatile and is the only optimized compiler on .NET.
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