Managed Extensions now obsoleted by CLI?

  • Thread starter Thread starter J
  • Start date Start date
J

J

I've just been reading a few articles on how Managed Extensions are
now obsolete! Tough thing to hear, as I've been spending every spare
moment studying them to try to solve a problem.

I'd like to get up to speed on this as quickly as possible, and find
out how the new CLI approach relates to my current app (will it fix
anything? Make things more complex?)

It's impossible to google search for CLI, of course. Millions of
irrelevant hits. And the term CLI seems to have been re-appropriated
or extended from its earlier usage to apply to its more modern usage.

It's apparently only starting its new incarnation in Whidbey, so maybe
the term 'obsolete' is premature for Managed Extensions, but is M.E
expected to disappear quickly once Whidbey is released?

I've spotted only two books that may or may not relate:

Shared Source CLI Essentials
by David Stutz, Ted Neward, Geoff Shilling
OReilly
059600351X

[Is this worthwhile?]

And MAYBE:

The Common Language Infrastructure Annotated Standard
by James S. Miller, Susann Ragsdale, Jim Miller
Addison
0321154932

I suspect that the latter is a CLI spec in the 'older' context.

[Are there more books?]

In general, is this worth pursuing as a more versatile and
powerful solution to interop problems, or is it primarily for
cleanup of ugly and ambiguous syntax?

If the former, where can I find books and info on how I can
use it to solve interop problems involving connecting to
legacy C DLLs? I'd like to get the lay of the land to find
out whether to abandon the current attempts to use M.E.
 
J said:
I'd like to get up to speed on this as quickly as possible, and find
out how the new CLI approach relates to my current app (will it fix
anything? Make things more complex?)
Click to expand...

Well, if you are not against installing beta software (I don't recommend
this for a "production" or your "main development" machine), and if you have
a broadband connection you can go here

http://lab.msdn.microsoft.com/vs2005/
It's impossible to google search for CLI, of course. Millions of
irrelevant hits. And the term CLI seems to have been re-appropriated
or extended from its earlier usage to apply to its more modern usage.
Click to expand...

Try plugging this search string into google

CLI C++ site:msdn.microsoft.com

A quick glance at the results seems to offer promise.
It's apparently only starting its new incarnation in Whidbey, so maybe
the term 'obsolete' is premature for Managed Extensions, but is M.E
expected to disappear quickly once Whidbey is released?
Click to expand...

Well, certainly a wise person will drop MC++ as soon as it is feasible. I'm
not sure about this but I _think_ that for those who can not drop it
immediately the old syntax will be supported. You probably should try that
out in the beta or in the shipping product as soon as it is available.
In general, is this worth pursuing as a more versatile and
powerful solution to interop problems, or is it primarily for
cleanup of ugly and ambiguous syntax?
Click to expand...

Yes. :-) IMO, both.
If the former, where can I find books and info on how I can
use it to solve interop problems involving connecting to
legacy C DLLs? I'd like to get the lay of the land to find
out whether to abandon the current attempts to use M.E.
Click to expand...

Until the product ships and we see what gets published, you may want to
tighten up the google search by adding Lippman (as in Stan Lippman) or
Sutter (as in Herb Sutter) to the search string above and read whatever you
can find by either of them on the subject of the CLI binding.

Regards,
Will
 
William said:
Well, certainly a wise person will drop MC++ as soon as it is
feasible. I'm not sure about this but I _think_ that for those who
can not drop it immediately the old syntax will be supported. You
probably should try that out in the beta or in the shipping product
as soon as it is available.
Click to expand...

Yes, Whidbey will continue to support the MC++ syntax.

Command line options:

/clr - new system (C++/CLI)
/clr:oldSyntax - old syntax (MC++)

-cd
 
J said:
I've just been reading a few articles on how Managed Extensions are
now obsolete!
Click to expand...


Deprecated. They will be replaced by C++/CLI which also provides some
more features.

Tough thing to hear, as I've been spending every spare
moment studying them to try to solve a problem.
Click to expand...


Well it isn't such difficult switch. The __gc class is replaced by ref
class, the managed * with ^, also you get stack allocated ref types, and
deterministic destruction.


I'd like to get up to speed on this as quickly as possible, and find
out how the new CLI approach relates to my current app (will it fix
anything? Make things more complex?)

It's impossible to google search for CLI, of course. Millions of
irrelevant hits. And the term CLI seems to have been re-appropriated
or extended from its earlier usage to apply to its more modern usage.

It's apparently only starting its new incarnation in Whidbey, so maybe
the term 'obsolete' is premature for Managed Extensions, but is M.E
expected to disappear quickly once Whidbey is released?

I've spotted only two books that may or may not relate:

Shared Source CLI Essentials
by David Stutz, Ted Neward, Geoff Shilling
OReilly
059600351X

[Is this worthwhile?]

And MAYBE:

The Common Language Infrastructure Annotated Standard
by James S. Miller, Susann Ragsdale, Jim Miller
Addison
0321154932

I suspect that the latter is a CLI spec in the 'older' context.

[Are there more books?]

In general, is this worth pursuing as a more versatile and
powerful solution to interop problems, or is it primarily for
cleanup of ugly and ambiguous syntax?
Click to expand...


Clean up and extension.

If the former, where can I find books and info on how I can
use it to solve interop problems involving connecting to
legacy C DLLs? I'd like to get the lay of the land to find
out whether to abandon the current attempts to use M.E.
Click to expand...


C++/CLI standard is still draft and will be ratified about Match.



Some links:

Latest C++/CLI draft standard:
http://www.plumhall.com/C++-CLI draft 1.8.pdf

C++/CLI presentation:
http://www.accu.org/conference/pres...Relevant_on_Modern_Environments_(keynote).pdf



CLI official standard:
http://www.ecma-international.org/publications/standards/Ecma-335.htm


And a relatively old page of mine:

http://www23.brinkster.com/noicys/cppcli.htm
 
 
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