Ivor Horton's Beginning Visual C++® 2010

INTRODUCTION

WELCOME TO IVOR HORTON'S BEGINNING VISUAL C++ 2010. With this book, you can become an effective C++ programmer using Microsoft's latest application-development system. I aim to teach you the C++ programming language, and then how to apply C++ in the development of your own Windows applications. Along the way, you will also learn about many of the exciting new capabilities introduced by this latest version of Visual C++, including how you can make full use of multi-core processors in your programs.

PROGRAMMING IN C++

Visual C++ 2010 supports two distinct, but closely related flavors of the C++ language, ISO/IEC standard C++ (which I will refer to as native C++) and C++/CLI. Although native C++ is the language of choice for many professional developers, especially when performance is the primary consideration, the speed and ease of development that C++/CLI and the Windows Forms capability bring to the table make that essential, too. This is why I cover both flavors of C++ in depth in this book.

Visual C++ 2010 fully supports the original ISO/IEC standard C++ language, with the added advantage of some powerful new native C++ language features from the upcoming ISO/IEC standard for C++. This is comprehensively covered in this book, including the new language features.

Visual C++ 2010 also supports C++/CLI, which is a dialect of C++ that was developed by Microsoft as an extension to native C++. The idea behind C++/CLI is to add features to native C++ that allow you to develop ...