4 ms·

Do you think they took this approach because it wasn’t yet common wisdom in the industry that tons of generated code is a terrible idea, or because they didn’t

Do you think they took this approach because it wasn’t yet common wisdom in the industry that tons of generated code is a terrible idea, or because they didn’t want to fragment the developer ecosystem by adding a more comprehensive framework above Win32? I suppose it could’ve been a bit of both.

mschaef 3y ago
They introduced this system with Visual C++ v1, which is also known as Microsoft C v8. (There are nuances, but that captures the gist.) The preceding version, MSC v7, was the first version of the Microsoft C compiler to support C++. It's also where Microsoft introduced the first version of Microsoft Foundation Classes. My understanding of the history of MFC is that MFC is Microsoft's second attempt at a C++ class library for C7. Prior to MFC, they had developed a significantly more object oriented framework, but found it in testing to be confusing to developers of the time. (Who had just ascended the Win16 learning curve itself.) Micsoroft retrenched, and the MFC 1.0 they shipped with C7 was a much thinner layer over the Win16 API than what they had initially planed. (The earlier framework was AFX, which is why there are AFX prefixes in the MFC codebase.) My presumption with respect to Visual C++ 1 is that Microsoft found themselves short on time and facing dual mandates of maintaining MFC 1.0 source compatibility and producing a C++ development experience a little like Visual BASIC. So a bunch of IDE trickery and codegen logic was the logical path forward. (IIRC, the Visual BASIC compatibility mandate extended as far as enabling VB custom controls to work in Visual C++ projects.) I haven't used it, but Borland Delphi post dates all of this, and gets it better. Borland was able to specifically build a class library and extend the programming language itself in a way that supported visual design tools. My understanding is that this can give some of the Visual BASIC style point-and-click, but also makes it easier to delve into the underlying framework code and make your own components. (Also important to note that Delphi was Borland's second attempt at a Pascal based windows development tool.... the earlier Turbo Pascal for Windows was a lot closer to the Win16/MFC-like experience)

mschaef 3y ago

They introduced this system with Visual C++ v1, which is also known as Microsoft C v8. (There are nuances, but that captures the gist.) The preceding version, MSC v7, was the first version of the Microsoft C compiler to support C++. It's also where Microsoft introduced the first version of Microsoft Foundation Classes. My understanding of the history of MFC is that MFC is Microsoft's second attempt at a C++ class library for C7. Prior to MFC, they had developed a significantly more object oriented framework, but found it in testing to be confusing to developers of the time. (Who had just ascended the Win16 learning curve itself.) Micsoroft retrenched, and the MFC 1.0 they shipped with C7 was a much thinner layer over the Win16 API than what they had initially planed. (The earlier framework was AFX, which is why there are AFX prefixes in the MFC codebase.) My presumption with respect to Visual C++ 1 is that Microsoft found themselves short on time and facing dual mandates of maintaining MFC 1.0 source compatibility and producing a C++ development experience a little like Visual BASIC. So a bunch of IDE trickery and codegen logic was the logical path forward. (IIRC, the Visual BASIC compatibility mandate extended as far as enabling VB custom controls to work in Visual C++ projects.) I haven't used it, but Borland Delphi post dates all of this, and gets it better. Borland was able to specifically build a class library and extend the programming language itself in a way that supported visual design tools. My understanding is that this can give some of the Visual BASIC style point-and-click, but also makes it easier to delve into the underlying framework code and make your own components. (Also important to note that Delphi was Borland's second attempt at a Pascal based windows development tool.... the earlier Turbo Pascal for Windows was a lot closer to the Win16/MFC-like experience)