I'm not sure what the VSIP teams plans are with respect to new managed
samples. In the current VSIP8 beta1 drop, as you are probably aware, there
are no managed samples on par with the Figs sample.  

However, work is ongoing with respect to the Managed Package Framework,
which will facilitate implementing a project system with VB .Net or C#. So
ultimately, it will probably be a matter of language preference. While the
core IDE itself is still primarily written with C++/COM, new features like
Team System (http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/teamsystem/) are
primarily authored in C#.

I've been a C++/MFC/ATL/COM type for years and years. But I just spent the
better part of the day writing/debugging a C++ addin, that took me all of
20 minutes to write in C#. (admittedly, it was a bug caused by a bad
parameter I was passing to a DTE automation method, and if I'd used my
brain a bit more, I could have probably caught it sooner).

If your development team is most familiar with C++/ATL/COM, then C++ is
probably your best bet. But if you have some folks that are more familiar
with C# (though a dose of interop/pinvoke), then you might prefer C#.

I'll let others in the community chime in with their preferences.

Sincerely,
Ed Dore [MSFT]

This post is 'AS IS' with no warranties, and confers no rights.