Is VC++ .Net dead/dying?

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ultranet - 19 Jun 2004 08:18 GMT

I have cruised around

http://msdn.microsoft.com/visualc/ and the rest of the site, and i am
not able to find a single C++ or VC++ certification exam that will be
available after June 30, 2004. I emailed support, and the reply was:
"We understand your concerns in this matter.

We would like to inform you that at this moment we do not have any plan or information if there will be replacements for the discontinued exams."

Does anybody know if any C/C++/VC++
certification exams are being planned that will replace those that are
being obsoleted?

P.S. Does this mean that VC++ as a language is likely to obsoleted, and
future versions of Visual Studio will come w/o VC++ support as well? I know
there is a 2005 release of VC++ coming up. I am a little confused. Is
VC++ being completely replaced by C# after that? It looks like native
code will still be used in LognHorn, based on some references on the
site. Some big-font clarification on the site (by Microsoft) itself would probably be
useful to many people, not just me.
P.P.S. I still don't believe that MS Office, for instance, will come in non-native fashion. Mainly because then everybody will be able to decompile it. And i think MS is not a fan of that happening.
P.P.P.S. Given that roughly 50% or so of MS apps code in the future is still very likely to be native, why discontinue native-code certifications w/o a replacement? Or there VC++ .Net certification in the pipeline to replace 6.0? If yes, then when?

Thanks,
<rsa/

Reply to this Message

David Lowndes - 19 Jun 2004 10:39 GMT

>P.S. Does this mean that VC++ as a language is likely to obsoleted

I doubt it - for the same reasons you do.

It's probably more a reflection on the apathy that most C++ developers
have for the certifications!

Dave

Signature

MVP VC++ FAQ: http://www.mvps.org/vcfaq

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Carl Daniel [VC++ MVP] - 19 Jun 2004 15:47 GMT

> Does anybody know if any C/C++/VC++
> certification exams are being planned that will replace those that are
> being obsoleted?

I don't. I and every other C++ developer I know have always considered the
certifications to be a complete waste of time. I suspect that the C++ certs
were dropped because of lack of interest on the consumer's part, not on
Microsoft's.

> P.S. Does this mean that VC++ as a language is likely to obsoleted,
> and
> future versions of Visual Studio will come w/o VC++ support as well?

VC++ Is not going anywhere. Visual Studio 2005 represents gigantic
investments in the future of C++, but for native and managed (.NET)
development. The Visual C++ Team's mission is to make C++ the language of
choice for .NET development, bringing the full power of C++ to .NET and the
full power of .NET to C++. Personally, I don't anticipate writing any .NET
code in C# again once VC++ 2005 ships. At the same time, VC++ 2005 also has
great new features for native development including lots of IDE
improvements, C++ standards conformance improvements, optimizer
improvements, native AMD64 and IA64 code generation, profile guilded
optimization, ... the list goes on and on.

C++ isn't going anywhere.

-cd

Reply to this Message

Ronald Laeremans [MSFT] - 20 Jun 2004 22:43 GMT

Hi,

David and Carl have both addressed the major issues you raised. C++ is
absolutely not going away. In fact I truly believe we have a stellar release
that is going to go out in Whidbey/2005/8.0.

I have been working with the Microsoft Training and Certification teams to
get new C++ training and exams developed. The major issue is indeed that C++
developers have shown to be significantly less interested in certification
than C# and VB developers. As such it is quite hard to make the economics
work of developing and rolling out this material. That doesn't mean we will
not keep trying though, but it does mean that the reply you got is factually
correct in that we do not yet have concrete plans or dates to share.

Ronald Laeremans
Group Program Manager
Visual C++ team

>I have cruised around
>
[quoted text clipped - 29 lines]
> Thanks,
> <rsa/

Reply to this Message

ultranet - 21 Jun 2004 07:47 GMT

Thank you all for clarifying this. I was pretty sure that the new exams would eventually come up, but wanted to make sure i wasn't mistaken, and to understand this transition better.
Now my doubts have been dispersed. Thanks.

P.S. I am currently studying "Programming with Microsoft Visual C++ .NET", by George Shepherd, and David Kruglinski, 6th edition, 2003. I understand that since the new exams aren't yet ready, this question may not have an answer (i mainly take exams as important from the stand point of best practices). But i'd be grateful for any feedback in terms of whether it's worth continuing reading this book, or wait for something reflecting latest changes (which would apparently be 8.0-based). If 8.0 changes can be caught up with relatively quickly, as opposed to equaling to a major overhaul, then i'd be inclined to continue with this book.
P.P.S. On a side note, it might be helpful to some curious folks like myself, if there was a note somewhere on the site next to discontinuation, saying that replacement exams for VC++ 6.0 will eventually be available based on VC++ .Net.

Thanks again,
<rsa/>

> Hi,
>
[quoted text clipped - 47 lines]
> > Thanks,
> > <rsa/

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Is VC++ .Net dead/dying?

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