The Visual C++ compiler has a number of switches that control the generation of native and managed instructions within an executable image. Choosing the correct setting is an important consideration for application performance, deployment, and execution, as well as having implications about which development toolkits can be used.
Latest Compiler and Pre-Compiler Articles
Function Calls, Part 4 (What Exactly Is "this"?)
Learn about a dissasembly view of function calls, and decipher the __thiscall calling convention.
Function Calls, Part 3 (Frame Pointer and Local Variables)
Explore a dissasembly view of function calls, including organization of the stack for local variables and the concept of stack frames and frame pointers.
Tip: Macros to Generate Compile Time Messages
These macros let you generate clickable messages (like error messages) in your Visual Studio compiler output.
Method Call Interception (MCI) in C++
Implementing MCI in C++ using compiler / platform specific features.
Breaking Changes in Visual C++ 2005
There are a number of changes in Visual C++ 2005 that can break your existing programs. The Visual C++ product team has identified some of the changes most likely to impact you.
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MFC Integration with the Windows Transactional File System (TxF)
The Transactional File System (TxF), which allows access to an NTFS file system to be conducted in a transacted manner through extensions to the Windows SDK API. MFC 10, has been extended to support TxF and related technologies. This support allows existing MFC applications to be easily extended to support kernel transactions.
.NET Framework: Collections and Generics
The original release of the .NET Framework included collections as .NET was introduced to the Microsoft programming world. The .NET Framework 2.0 introduced generics to complement the System.Collections namespace and provide a more efficient and well performing option. Read on to learn more...

How to Determine Which Office Version is Installed with VB.NET and C#
Knowing which version of MS Office is installed on the client computer is vital; unfortunately, many programmers see this as an afterthought. Hannes du Preeze shows you four different ways to determine the Office versions installed so that you don't make this mistake.

Building an Azure Queuing Message Pipeline
A developer building messaging solutions with Azure Queuing and Azure Service Bus should follow a Pipeline pattern when processing a significant number of different messages. One approach to building a Pipeline is to layer a message following an Envelope pattern.