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I’d imagine there might still be a surprising number of MFC apps still in circulation. PuTTY, for example, uses MFC (I’d completely forgotten MFC was a thing u

I’d imagine there might still be a surprising number of MFC apps still in circulation. PuTTY, for example, uses MFC (I’d completely forgotten MFC was a thing until I had to write a custom port of PuTTY for a previous company ~5 years ago).

terinjokes 4y ago
In fact, I just upgraded an MFC music application[0] to VS2022 and 64-bit this year, marking the first release in 15 years. I'm not a Windows developer, and had to learn it while working on this upgrade. The MFC documentation has clearly atrophied, but has far as I can tell, there's also not blessed upgrade path for C++ applications. [0]: https://github.com/terinjokes/mixere https://github.com/terinjokes/mixere
- juki 4y ago
  > blessed upgrade path for C++ applications. There is C++/WinRT + WinUI 3, but looking at the screenshot that will pretty much require re-designing the whole UI so it's not going to be a simple upgrade.
  - terinjokes 4y ago
    It's a technical application, so I'm not entirely thrilled by doing that. I just looked for documentation to replace a popup or preference window with WinUI 3, but didn't see anything that made sense for me.
leeter 4y ago
The issue for a lot of devs is if you want to use any of the new stuff you can't ship a single file portable executable. You have to do a packaged installer. So MFC warts and all can still be faster and lighter than other options unfortunately. I was hoping WinUI3 would have a way to do single file delivery but it doesn't as far as I can tell.
- Kwpolska 4y ago
  For GUI things, I prefer a nice installer that will place the files in a sensible location (Program Files) and that will give me a shortcut in the Start Menu, I don't need a single file - and I suppose most users are likely to misplace the single executable or keep it in the Downloads folder forever. Also, what counts as a single file? You can ship a (modern) C# app as a single-file executable. It will be hundreds of megabytes, but to the user, it's just a single file.
  - nyanpasu64 4y ago
    A nice installer is ideal, but more work to setup I think (I've never figured out how to write an installer so far). And I want the ability to download many versions and put them side by side for eg. running old versions, or bisecting bugs.
    - DougN7 4y ago
      InnoSetup for the win!
      - nyanpasu64 4y ago
        Oh I've had so many nightmares trying to extract the underlying files from Inno Setup installers. 7-Zip doesn't work, innoextract and such is fiddly to find and IIRC doesn't work 100% of the time (forgot).
    - leeter 4y ago
      In my case the app in question is about ~6MB and an occasionally used utility, I could make a setup version that dynamically loads things... but why? Most users would prefer to just use it, delete it, and if they need it again grab it again.

terinjokes 4y ago

In fact, I just upgraded an MFC music application[0] to VS2022 and 64-bit this year, marking the first release in 15 years. I'm not a Windows developer, and had to learn it while working on this upgrade. The MFC documentation has clearly atrophied, but has far as I can tell, there's also not blessed upgrade path for C++ applications. [0]: https://github.com/terinjokes/mixere https://github.com/terinjokes/mixere

juki 4y ago
> blessed upgrade path for C++ applications. There is C++/WinRT + WinUI 3, but looking at the screenshot that will pretty much require re-designing the whole UI so it's not going to be a simple upgrade.
- terinjokes 4y ago
  It's a technical application, so I'm not entirely thrilled by doing that. I just looked for documentation to replace a popup or preference window with WinUI 3, but didn't see anything that made sense for me.

leeter 4y ago

The issue for a lot of devs is if you want to use any of the new stuff you can't ship a single file portable executable. You have to do a packaged installer. So MFC warts and all can still be faster and lighter than other options unfortunately. I was hoping WinUI3 would have a way to do single file delivery but it doesn't as far as I can tell.

Kwpolska 4y ago
For GUI things, I prefer a nice installer that will place the files in a sensible location (Program Files) and that will give me a shortcut in the Start Menu, I don't need a single file - and I suppose most users are likely to misplace the single executable or keep it in the Downloads folder forever. Also, what counts as a single file? You can ship a (modern) C# app as a single-file executable. It will be hundreds of megabytes, but to the user, it's just a single file.
- nyanpasu64 4y ago
  A nice installer is ideal, but more work to setup I think (I've never figured out how to write an installer so far). And I want the ability to download many versions and put them side by side for eg. running old versions, or bisecting bugs.
  - DougN7 4y ago
    InnoSetup for the win!
    - nyanpasu64 4y ago
      Oh I've had so many nightmares trying to extract the underlying files from Inno Setup installers. 7-Zip doesn't work, innoextract and such is fiddly to find and IIRC doesn't work 100% of the time (forgot).
  - leeter 4y ago
    In my case the app in question is about ~6MB and an occasionally used utility, I could make a setup version that dynamically loads things... but why? Most users would prefer to just use it, delete it, and if they need it again grab it again.