The XCode Python support comment is specious at best. We're talking about C -- the lingua franca of systems programming and important on every major computing

The XCode Python support comment is specious at best. We're talking about C -- the lingua franca of systems programming and important on every major computing platform. I'd be more sympathetic to Microsoft's insistence that it "wasn't their focus" if they didn't have a long history of ignoring industry standards in favour of their own. However, Microsoft recently said they were going to implement more of c99: http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/c99-acknowledged-at-last-as-microsoft-lays-out-its-path-to-c14/ http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2013/06/c99-ac... ...and to their credit, they've almost fully implemented the standard library from the C99 standard: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2013/07/19/c99-library-support-in-visual-studio-2013.aspx http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2013/07/19/c99-librar... Of course, the C11/C++11 committees know how to solve this silliness -- they've intentionally worked on bringing the most recent C11 and C++11 standards closer so that if you implement C++11 you have to implement more C support :-) The world no longer revolves around Windows or Microsoft platforms; every major platform except Microsoft's has an included or defacto compiler that supports C99. Developers wanting to write code that can be used on multiple platforms are understandably upset that Microsoft has made their lives more difficult for no good reason. I view their lack of C99 support the same as their continued refusal to natively support OpenGL on Windows Phone, et al. Although, given they recently implemented WebGL -- I remain hopeful. Finally, I'd note that I'm pragmatic about this; I don't expect full C99 support. I'd accept full C11 support instead -- the controversial parts of C99 were made optional in C11. And they now finally seem committed to at least making a useful attempt at C99/C11 support thanks to the C++11/C++1y standards.