For many years, Visual C++ has included a set of pseudo variables and format specifiers for use in debugging. In the December 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Kenny Kerr shares some of the pseudo variables and format specifiers that he’s found most useful for debugging C++ applications in the x86 and...

Algorithm efficiency is not as straightforward as you might think. A well-designed algorithm on a single processor can often outperform an inefficient implementation on multiple processors. In the October 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Kenny Kerr walks through the development of a fairly simple algorithm...

The process for ink capture and analysis on the Tablet PC is straightforward in managed code. To the uninitiated developer, however, creating unmanaged Tablet PC applications can be rather daunting. In the October 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Gus Class a quick introduction to the Tablet PC ink architecture...

A common misconception is that you need to use the .NET Framework if you want your application to access the Web. The truth is that both managed and native code need to deal with many of the same issues. In the August 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Kenny Kerr shows you how to use the Windows HTTP Services...

In the April 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Kenny Kerr introduced the Windows Imaging Component (WIC) , showing you how you can use it to encode and decode different image formats. In the June 2008 issue, Kenny shows you how to extend WIC by writing your own codecs . In particular, you’ll walk through...

One problem with GUI programming in C++ is that most libraries are too low level, putting much of the burden on the programmer. In the June 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , John Torjo introduces you eGUI++, a C++ library that gives you a high-level interface for dealing with GUI applications . It makes...

Hundreds of languages target Windows either directly through the Win32 API or through the CLR, and more are being built every day. While you've probably heard about many of these new languages and language paradigms, you may be wondering what it all means. In the May 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Joel...

Although the Visual C++ compiler has been improved in a areas including performance, security, and standards conformance, seemingly little has been done in the way of new library and productivity features for quite some time. That has changed with the Visual C++ 2008. In the May 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine...

Recently, our Editor in Chief Howard Dierking had the pleasure of talking to Bjarne Stroustrup, the creator of C++ , about a host of topics, from his thoughts on languages to general industry trends to his own personal reading list. We feature the interview in the April 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine .

The Microsoft Windows Imaging Component (WIC) is an extensible framework for encoding, decoding, and manipulating images. WIC supports different image formats using an extensible set of imaging codecs. Each codec supports a different image format and typically provides both an encoder and decoder. In...

There are a number of reasons for the many buffer overruns in production C and C++ code. The languages provide direct access to vulnerable memory, but developers also make mistakes, and there have historically been few defenses offered by compilers. In the March 2008 issue of MSDN Magazine , Michael...

Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008 bring some significant changes to services. Many of these features are focused on making it simpler to produce services that are more secure, but among the non-security-related service features are a few aimed at improving the overall responsiveness and reliability...

Have you been frustrated by so-called "engineering experts" who extol the virtues of unit testing, yet can offer little more than hand waving when asked for tool recommendations for native code? In the February issue of MSDN Magazine , Maria Blees introduces you to her native code unit testing tool called...

Dynamic languages are traditionally associated with an interactive environment, giving you a run-evaluate-print loop (REPL), and allowing for an explorative trial-and-error approach to programming. The Dynamic Language Runtime (DLR) is a dynamic language support system that sits on top of the CLR and...

The Visual C++ team developed the Active Template Library (ATL) to allow COM clients and servers to be easily created while producing the smallest and fastest code possible. Windows Template Library (WTL) extends ATL with a very rich set of class templates for building applications as simple or as complex...

In a series of recent columns , Stanley B. Lippman has been working through the design of a software simulation of a mouse (EEK!) and its environment using the resources of the Microsoft .NET Framework and C++/CLI, the revised C++ language binding to .NET that was introduced in Visual Studio 2005. In...

Windows Vista and the upcoming Windows Server 2008 include a new thread pool API that should make it much easier for developers to employ the thread pool effectively. In the October issue of MSDN Magazine, Robert Saccone shows you how the new thread pool component addresses a number of limitations of...

Continuing his development of a mouse and mouse environment simulation called EEK!, in the October issue of MSDN Magazine, Stan Lippman explains how he's creating the XML document describing the environment . Stan also describes another way of incorporating an XML file into the program: using a DataSet...