Ghost of VCBlog Posts Past

Eric Battalio

You don’t need to call Ghostbusters. Spend some time (re)reading some great posts from the Visual C++ team blog past. There really are some hidden gems in there!

  • C++ Debugger Tips by Sergey Grankin (8/2006) describes the “special expression and format specifiers that you can use to better examine the content in the debugger’s watch windows.”
  • Spy++ Internals by Pat Brenner (1/2007) gives a behind the scenes look at the popular tool. Go down memory lane — “Spy++ is made to be an observer (and not a modifier) of the system around it. While it can do other things as well, the main purpose of Spy++ is to log messages that are being passed around in Windows.”
  • Some C++ Gotchas by Jonathan Caves (6/2008) is a lesson in why you should not “help” the compiler. As Jonathan says, “let it resolve the code by itself. If you have got it wrong it will tell you. If it compiles and you want to double check the result, then you should debug the code (you already do step through all the code you write in the debugger – don’t you?).”
  • Rvalue References: C++0x Features in VC10, Part 2 by Stephan T. Lavavej (2/2009). “Today, I’m going to talk about rvalue references, which enable two different things: move semantics and perfect forwarding. This post will be long, because I’m going to explain how rvalue references work in great detail.” It is one of the longer Visual C++ team blog articles…
  • How we test the compiler backend by Alex Thaman (6/2010) explores the testing domain, bugs, methodology, and test harnessing. The bug categories are especially interesting. Also, this: “We create A LOT of tests, really A LOT of tests :). We’re talking on the order of hundreds of thousands of small tests.”
  • TechEd 2011: Modern Native C++ Development for Maximum Productivity by Diego Dagum (6/2011) points to native code talks at Tech Ed 2011 including Modern Native C++ Development for Maximum Productivity by C++ MVP Kate Gregory.
  • Friday Miscellany #1 by Eric Battalio (12/2012) offers a few links for your consideration. Stack Overflow is one of them. Do you like the “Miscellany” columns?
  • C99 library support in Visual Studio 2013 by Pat Brenner (7/2013). The list is extensive.

Did your favorite post make this list? If not, share it with us in the comments or recommend new content.

0 comments

Discussion is closed.

Feedback usabilla icon