Is C++ Dead? Nope. It is alive! XAML/C++ and Direct2D is AWESOME!

Ha-ha, made you look.  But the way people talk about C++ you would think that it is some sort of evil gangster zombie thing.  Don’t get it.

Some people view C++ as difficult to work with.  It is. But it does have some great things as well that you don’t get in other languages.  It has a lot of developers who think that programmers should only work at the lower levels of code.  And it has a lot of all capital things like HRESULT, what’s up with that?  But it’s a new world too, and the XAML/C++ with Direct2D or Direct3D is pretty cool beans.  Plus the depth of experience is pretty cool. 

But most important it runs on everything.  Yep.  Everything, except some sensors, then those usually run C or SmallBasic.

 

Ok, the documentation for the XAML/C++ was quite bad up till the GDC 2013, and the documentation started to change.  A new guy at Microsoft has done some great work: Roberto Sonnio.  He has done a great tutorial series on Direct2D:

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2013/03/26/developing-an-app-with-the-visual-studio-3d-starter-kit-part-1-of-3.aspx

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2013/03/26/developing-an-app-with-the-visual-studio-3d-starter-kit-part-2-of-3.aspx

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2013/03/26/developing-an-app-with-the-visual-studio-3d-starter-kit-part-3-of-3.aspx (after April 9, 2013)

Frankly, if I was betting on someone who is going to go far at Microsoft is ME!  No, that wouldn’t happen, but I do think that Roberto is someone to watch, an awesome genius.