September 25th, 2015 Our compiler is old. There are comments in the source from 1982, which was when Microsoft was just starting its own C compiler project. The comments of that person (Ralph Ryan) led me to a paper he published in 1985 called “The C Programming Language and a C Compiler”. It is an interesting read and some of what he describes is still reflected in the code today. He mentions that you can compile C programs with two floppy drives and 192K of RAM (although he recommends a hard drive and 256K of RAM).

Oct 22, 2018 - Free C/C++ Compilers, Interpreters and Development Environment. This is a fork of the Tiny C compiler (which is listed elsewhere on. For an individual or hobbyist programmer, Microsoft Visual Studio. Linux/Alpha users can now download and use Compaq's optimising C compiler freely by simply. Microsoft makes the full version of their c compiler freely available. Where can I download a compiler for C and C++ for a 64-bit Windows 7 PC?

Align text inside a text box using the options under the Drawing Tools Format menu. First, highlight the text inside the text box to display the Drawing Tools Format menu. To specify the text direction inside the text box, click the 'Text Direction' option. Vertically align text inside a text box. Ms word align text vertically.

Being able to run in that environment meant that you couldn’t keep a lot of work in memory at a time. The compiler was designed to scan programs and convert statements and expressions to IL (intermediate language) as quickly as possible and write them to disk without ever having an entire function in memory at one time.

In fact, the compiler will start emitting IL for an expression before even seeing the end of the expression. This meant you could compile programs that were quite large on a pretty small machine. Note: Our compiler consists of two pieces (a front-end and a back-end). The front-end reads in source code, lexes, parses, does semantic analysis and emits the IL.

The back-end reads the IL and performs code generation and optimizations. The use of the term “compiler” in the rest of this post pertains only to the front-end.

For C code (especially K&R C), this approach worked well. Remember, you didn’t even need to have prototypes for functions. Microsoft added support for C in C 6.07.0, which was released in 19891992. It shared much of the same code as the C compiler and that is still true today.

Although the compiler has two different binaries (c1.dll and c1xx.dll) for C and C, there is a lot of source code that is shared between them. At first, the old design of the compiler worked OK for C. However, once templates arrived, a new approach was needed. The method chosen to implement this was to do some minimal parsing of a template and then capture the whole template as a string of tokens (this is very similar to how macros are handled in the compiler).

Later, when a template is instantiated, that token stream would be replayed through the parser and template arguments would be replaced. This approach is the fundamental reason why our compiler has never implemented two phase lookup. The design of our compiler also made it unsuitable for other purposes where you wanted to retain more information about a program. When we added support for static analysis (/analyze) in the compiler, it was added to the same code base as the actual compiler, but the code was under #if blocks and we generated separate binaries (c1ast.dll and c1xxast.dll). Over time, this resulted in more than 6,000 #if preprocessor blocks. The static analysis tools built an AST for an entire function by capturing pieces as the regular compiler does its parsing. However, this captured AST is fundamentally different from what the real compiler uses for its data structures, which often lead to inconsistencies.

Also, as new language features were added, most had to be implemented twice: once for the compiler and again for static analysis. About three years ago we embarked on a project to finally perform a major overhaul of our compiler codebase. We wanted to fix problems we have had for a long time and we knew new features such as constexpr were going to need a different approach. The goal was to fundamentally change the way our compiler parses and analyzes code.

We quickly decided on a few key tenets to guide our development. The most important tenet is that all rejuvenation work that we do will be done in the same development branch as features. We don’t want to “go dark” and have two divergent codebases that are difficult to reintegrate.

We also want to see value quickly, and in fact, we need value quickly. The first phase of this work has finally shipped in Visual Studio 2015.

We have changed a lot of the guts in the compiler’s internal implementation, although not much is directly visible. The most visible change is that c1ast.dll and c1xxast.dll are no longer present.

We now handle all compilation for static analysis using the same binary as the one we do for code generation. All 6,000+ #if blocks are gone and we have less than 200 runtime checks for analysis. This large change is why code analysis was disabled in some of the RC builds of the C compiler as we ripped out the #if blocks and then had to build the new infrastructure in its place. The result of this is that we now generate a full tree for functions and can use that same data structure to generate code or to perform static analysis.

These same trees are used to evaluate constexpr functions as well, which is a feature we just shipped. We also now track full source position information (including column) for all constructs. We aren’t currently using column information but we want to be able to provide better diagnostics in the future.

As we make these changes, we strive to provide as much backward compatibility as we can while fixing real bugs and implementing new features in our compiler. We have an automated system called Gauntlet that consists of over 50 machines that builds all versions of the compiler and runs many tests across all flavors of 32bit, 64bit, and ARM architectures including cross compilers. All changes must pass Gauntlet before being checked in. We also regularly run a larger set of tests and use our compiler on “real world code” to build Visual Studio, Office, Windows, Chrome, and other applications. This work flushes out additional compatibility issues quickly.

Looking forward, we are continuing to invest in improving our compiler. We have started work on parsing templates into an AST (abstract syntax tree) and this will yield some immediate improvements in our support for expression SFINAE and our parsing of “qualified names”. We will continue to invest in improving our compiler with a goal towards making it fully standards compliant.

That said, we are also very interested in improving our support for Clang as well. In fact, there is a presentation at CppCon on using the Clang front-end with our code generator and optimizer. Here is the link to that session. –Jim Springfield.

Microsoft Visual C++ (often abbreviated to MSVC) is an integrated development environment (IDE) product from Microsoft for the C, C++, and C++/CLIprogramming languages. MSVC is proprietary software; it was originally a standalone product but later became a part of Visual Studio and made available in both trialware and freeware forms. It features tools for developing and debugging C++ code, especially code written for the Windows API, DirectX and .NET.

Many applications require redistributable Visual C++ runtime library packages to function correctly. These packages are often installed independently of applications, allowing multiple applications to make use of the package while only having to install it once. These Visual C++ redistributable and runtime packages are mostly installed for standard libraries that many applications use.^[3]

• 1History
• 2Compatibility

History[edit]

The predecessor to Visual C++ was called Microsoft C/C++. There was also a Microsoft QuickC 2.5 and a Microsoft QuickC for Windows 1.0. The Visual C++ compiler is still known as Microsoft C/C++ and as of the release of Visual C++ 2015 Update 2, is on version 19.00.23918.

16-bit versions[edit]

• Microsoft C 1.0, based on Lattice C, was Microsoft's first C product in 1983. It was not K&R C.
• C 2.0 added large model support.
• C 3.0 was the first version developed inside Microsoft. This version intended compatibility with K&R and the later ANSI standard. It was being used inside Microsoft (for Windows and Xenix development) in early 1984. It shipped as a product in 1985.
• C 4.0 added optimizations and CodeView, a source-level debugger.
• C 5.0 added loop optimizations and ‘huge memory model’ (arrays bigger than 64k) support. Microsoft Fortran and the first 32 bit compiler for 80386 were also part of this project.
• C 5.1 released in 1988 allowed compiling programs for OS/2 1.x.
• C 6.0 released in 1989. It added global flow analysis, a source browser, and a new debugger, and included an optional C++ front end.^[4]
• C/C++ 7.0 was released in 1992. Added built-in support for C++ and MFC (Microsoft Foundation Class Library) 1.0.^[5]
• Visual C++ 1.0, which included MFC 2.0, was the first version of ‘Visual’ C++, released in February 1993. It was Cfront 2.1 compliant^[6] and available in two editions:^[1]
  • Standard: replaced QuickC for Windows.
  • Professional: replaced C/C++ 7.0. Included the ability to build both DOS and Windows applications, an optimizing compiler, a source profiler, and the Windows 3.1 SDK.^[6] The Phar Lap 286 DOS Extender Lite was also included.^[7]
• Visual C++ 1.5 was released in December 1993, included MFC 2.5, and added OLE 2.0 and ODBC support to MFC.^[8] It was the first version of Visual C++ that came only on CD-ROM.
  • Visual C++ 1.51 and 1.52 were available as part of a subscription service.
  • Visual C++ 1.52b is similar to 1.52, but does not include the Control Development Kit.
  • Visual C++ 1.52c was a patched version of 1.5. It is the last, and arguably most popular, development platform for Microsoft Windows 3.x. It is available through Microsoft Developer Network.

Strictly 32-bit versions[edit]

• Visual C++ 1.0 (original name: Visual C++ 32-bit Edition) was the first version for 32-bit development for the Intel 386 architecture.^[9] Although released when 16-bit version 1.5 was available, it did not include support for OLE2 and ODBC. It was also available in a bundle called Visual C++ 16/32-bit Suite, which included Visual C++ 1.5.^[10]
• Visual C++ 2.0, which included MFC 3.0, was the first version to be 32-bit only. In many ways, this version was ahead of its time, since Windows 95, then codenamed 'Chicago', was not yet released, and Windows NT had only a small market share. Microsoft included and updated Visual C++ 1.5 as part of the 2.x releases up to 2.1, which included Visual C++ 1.52, and both 16-bit and 32-bit version of the Control Development Kit (CDK) were included. Visual C++ 2.x also supported Win32s development. It is available through Microsoft Developer Network. There was a Visual C++ 2.0 RISC Edition for MIPS and Alpha processors, as well as a cross-platform edition for the Macintosh (68000 instruction set).^[11]
  • Visual C++ 2.1 and 2.2 were updates for 2.0 available through subscription.
• Visual C++ 4.0, released on 1995-12-11,^[12] introduced the Developer Studio IDE. Its then-novel tiled layout of non-overlapping panels—navigation panel, combination editor/source level debugger panel, and console output panel^[13]—continues through the Visual Studio product line (as of 2013). Visual C++ 4.0 included MFC 4.0, was designed for Windows 95 and Windows NT. To allow support of legacy (Windows 3.x/DOS) projects, 4.0 came bundled with the Visual C++ 1.52 installation CD. Updates available through subscription included Visual C++ 4.1, which came with the Microsoft Game SDK (later released separately as the DirectX SDK), and Visual C++ 4.2. Version number 3.0 was skipped to achieve version number parity between Visual C++ 4.0 and MFC 4.0.^[14]
• Visual C++ 4.2 did not support Windows 3.x (Win32s) development.^[15] This was the final version with a cross-platform edition for the Macintosh available and it differed from the 2.x version in that it also allowed compilation for the PowerPC instruction set.
• Visual C++ 5.0, which included MFC 4.21 and was released 1997-04-28,^[12] was a major upgrade from 4.2.^[16] Available in four editions: Learning,^[17] Professional,^[18] Enterprise,^[19] and RISC.^[20]
• Visual C++ 6.0 (commonly known as VC6), which included MFC 6.0, was released in 1998.^[21][22] The release was somewhat controversial since it did not include an expected update to MFC. Visual C++ 6.0 is still quite popular and often used to maintain legacy projects. There are, however, issues with this version under Windows XP, especially under the debugging mode (for example, the values of static variables do not display). The debugging issues can be solved with a patch called the 'Visual C++ 6.0 Processor Pack'.^[23] Version number: 12.00.8804
• Visual C++ .NET 2002 (also known as Visual C++ 7.0), which included MFC 7.0, was released in 2002 with support for link time code generation and debugging runtime checks, .NET 1.0, and Visual C# and Managed C++. The new user interface used many of the hot keys and conventions of Visual Basic, which accounted for some of its unpopularity among C++ developers.^{[citation needed]} Version number: 13.00.9466
• Visual C++ .NET 2003 (also known as Visual C++ 7.1), which included MFC 7.1, was released in 2003 along with .NET 1.1 and was a major upgrade to Visual C++ .NET 2002. It was considered a patch to Visual C++ .NET 2002. Accordingly, the English language upgrade version of Visual Studio .NET 2003 shipped for minimal cost to owners of the English-language version of Visual Studio .NET 2002. This was the last version to support Windows 95 and NT 4.0 as a target.^{[citation needed]} Version number: 13.10.3077
• eMbedded Visual C++^[24] in various versions was used to develop for some versions of the Windows CE operating system. Initially it replaced a development environment consisting of tools added onto Visual C++ 6.0. eMbedded Visual C++ was replaced as a separate development environment by Microsoft Visual Studio 2005.

32-bit and 64-bit versions[edit]

• Visual C++ 2005 (also known as Visual C++ 8.0), which included MFC 8.0, was released in November 2005. This version supports .NET 2.0 and includes a new version of C++ targeted to the .NET framework (C++/CLI) with the purpose of replacing the previous version (Managed C++). Managed C++ for CLI is still available via compiler options, though. It also introduced OpenMP. With Visual C++ 2005, Microsoft also introduced Team Foundation Server. Visual C++ 8.0 has problems compiling MFC AppWizard projects that were created using Visual Studio 6.0, so maintenance of legacy projects can be continued with the original IDE if rewriting is not feasible. Visual C++ 2005 is the last version able to target Windows 98 and Windows Me.^[25][26] SP1 version (14.00.50727.762) is also available in Microsoft Windows SDK Update for Windows Vista.
• Visual C++ 2008 (also known as Visual C++ 9.0) was released in November 2007. This version supports .NET 3.5. Managed C++ for CLI is still available via compiler options. By default, all applications compiled against the Visual C++ 2008 Runtimes (static and dynamic linking) will only work under Windows 2000 and later.^[27][28] A feature pack released for VC9, later included in SP1, added support for C++ TR1 library extensions. SP1 version (15.00.30729.01) is also available in Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7.
• Some versions of Visual C++ supported Itanium 2
• Visual C++ 2010 (also known as Visual C++ 10.0) was released on April 12, 2010. It uses a SQL Server Compact database to store information about the source code, including IntelliSense information, for better IntelliSense and code-completion support.^[29] However, Visual C++ 2010 does not support Intellisense for C++/CLI.^[30] This version adds a C++ parallel computing library called the Parallel Patterns Library, partial support for C++11, significantly improved IntelliSense based on the Edison Design Group front end,^[31] and performance improvements to both the compiler and generated code.^[32] This version is built on .NET 4.0, but supports compiling to machine code. The partial C++11 support mainly consists of six compiler features:^[33] lambdas, rvalue references, auto, decltype, static_assert, and nullptr. C++11 also supports library features (e.g., moving the TR1 components from std::tr1 namespace directly to std namespace). Variadic templates were also considered, but delayed until some future version due to having a lower priority, which stemmed from the fact that, unlike other costly-to-implement features (lambda, rvalue references), variadic templates would benefit only a minority of library writers rather than the majority of compiler end users.^[34] By default, all applications compiled against Visual C++ 2010 Runtimes only work on Windows XP SP2 and later. The RTM version (16.00.30319) is also available in Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4 (WinSDK v7.1).^[35] SP1 version (16.00.40219) is available as part of Visual Studio 2010 Service Pack 1 or through the Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 Service Pack 1 Compiler Update for the Windows SDK 7.1.^[36]
• Visual C++ 2012 (also known as Visual C++ 11.0) was released on August 15, 2012. It features improved C++11 support, and support for Windows Runtime development.^[37]
• Visual C++ 2013 (also known as Visual C++ 12.0) was released on October 17, 2013. It features further C++11 and C99 support, and introduces a REST SDK.^[38]
• Visual C++ 2015 (also known as Visual C++ 14.0) was released on July 20, 2015.^[39] It features improved C++11/14/17 support.^[40] Without any announcement from Microsoft, Visual Studio 2015 Update 2 started generating telemetry calls in compiled binaries. After some users contacted Microsoft about this problem, Microsoft said they would remove these telemetry calls when compiling with the future Visual Studio 2015 Update 3.^[41][42] The function in question was removed from the Visual C++ CRT static libraries in Visual Studio 2015 Update 3.^{[citation needed]}
• Visual C++ 2017 (also known as Visual C++ 14.1) was released on March 7, 2017.
• Visual C++ 2019 (also known as Visual C++ 14.2) was released on April 2, 2019.

Internal version numbering[edit]

The predefined macro _MSC_VER indicates the major and minor version numbers of the Visual C++ compiler. The macro's value is an integer literal in which the last two digits indicate the minor version number and the preceding digits indicate the major version number.

From Visual Studio 2017, _MSC_VER is incremented monotonically at every Visual C++ toolset update. Thus, for example, the version of MSVC++ 14.1 that ships with Visual Studio 2017 version 15.3.0 sets _MSC_VER to 1911. Microsoft recommends using the >= operator to test the value of _MSC_VER.

Here are values of _MSC_VER for various versions of the Visual C++ compiler:

These version numbers refer to the major version number of the Visual C++ compilers and libraries, as can be seen from the installation directories. It does not refer to the year in the name of the Visual Studio release. A thorough list is available.^[43]

Compatibility[edit]

ABI[edit]

The Visual C++ compiler ABI have historically changed between major compiler releases.^[44] This is especially the case for STL containers, where container sizes have varied a lot between compiler releases.^[45] Microsoft therefore recommends against using C++ interfaces at module boundaries when one wants to enable client code compiled using a different compiler version. Instead of C++, Microsoft recommends using C^[46] or COM^[47] interfaces, which are designed to have a stable ABI between compiler releases.

C runtime libraries[edit]

Visual C++ ships with different versions of C runtime libraries.^[48] This means users can compile their code with any of the available libraries. However, this can cause some problems when using different components (DLLs, EXEs) in the same program. A typical example is a program using different libraries. The user should use the same C Run-Time for all the program's components unless the implications are understood. Microsoft recommends using the multithreaded, dynamic link library (/MD or /MDd compiler option) to avoid possible problems.^[48]

C[edit]

Although the product originated as an IDE for the C programming language, for many years the compiler's support for that language conformed only to the original edition of the C standard, dating from 1989, but not the C99 revision of the standard. There had been no plans to support C99 even in 2011, more than a decade after its publication^[49].

Visual C++ 2013 finally added support for various C99 features in its C mode (including designated initializers, compound literals, and the _Bool type)^[50], though it was still not complete.^[51] Visual C++ 2015 further improved the C99 support, with full support of the C99 Standard Library, except for features that require C99 language features not yet supported by the compiler.^[52]

Most of the changes from the C11 revision of the standard are still not supported by Visual C++ 2017^[53]. For example, generic selections via the _Generic keyword are not supported by the compiler and result in a syntax error.^[54] Paintbrush free download for windows.

'Full C11 conformance is on our roadmap, and updating the preprocessor is just the first step in that process. The C11 _Generic feature is not actually part of the preprocessor, so it has not yet been implemented. When implemented I expect the feature to work independent of if the traditional or updated preprocessor logic is used.'^[55]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^ab'Visual C++ adds Windows support'. InfoWorld. February 22, 1993. p. 17.
2. ^Lextrait, Vincent (January 2010). 'The Programming Languages Beacon, v10.0'. Archived from the original on 30 May 2012. Retrieved 14 March 2010.
3. ^'Do I need these Microsoft Visual C++ redistributables?'. Ask Leo!. Retrieved 2012-11-18.
4. ^Ladd, Scott Robert (August 1, 1990). 'Optimizing With Microsoft C 6.0'.
5. ^Retrieved from http://support.microsoft.com/kb/196831.
6. ^ ^ab'Visual C++ is a strong development tool'. InfoWorld. June 21, 1993. p. 94.
7. ^'Rival DOS Extenders debut at show'. InfoWorld. March 1, 1993. p. 18.
8. ^'Visual C++ 1.5 integrates OLE, ODBC'. InfoWorld. November 8, 1993. p. 5.
9. ^'Microsoft set to prerelease 32-bit Visual C++'. InfoWorld. July 19, 1993. p. 12.
10. ^'C++ IDEs evolve'. InfoWorld. April 4, 1994. p. 79.
11. ^'Microsoft Visual C++ Strategy'.
12. ^ ^ab'Obsolete Products'. Archived from the original on 2005-08-14.
13. ^Toth, Viktor (1996). '1'. Visual C++ 4.0 unleashed. Indianapolis: SAMS Publishing. ISBN9780672308741. Retrieved 26 July 2013.
14. ^'History of Visual Studio (Part 3)'.
15. ^'Major Changes from Visual C++ 4.0 to 4.2'. Archived from the original on 2010-02-28. Retrieved 2018-04-18.
16. ^'Major Changes from Visual C++ 4.2 to 5.0'.
17. ^'Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Learning Edition'. Archived from the original on April 27, 1999.
18. ^'Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Professional Edition'. Archived from the original on April 27, 1999.
19. ^'Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 Enterprise Edition'. Archived from the original on April 17, 1999.
20. ^'Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0 RISC Edition'. Archived from the original on April 29, 1999.
21. ^Shields, Nathan P. (June 8, 2018). 'Criminal Complaint'. United States Department of Justice. p. 128. This alone is not a dispositive link, as Visual C++ 6.0, released in 1998, still has proponents mostly because it does not require the installation of Microsoft’s .NET framework in order to run, as later versions of Visual C++ do.
22. ^'Major Changes from Visual C++ 5.0 to 6.0'.
23. ^This page stresses that Users must also be running Windows 98, Windows NT 4.0, or Windows 2000. Retrieved from http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/vstudio/aa718349.aspx.
24. ^Douglas Boling :Programming Microsoft Windows CE .NET, Third Edition Microsoft Press; 3rd edition (June 25, 2003) Paperback: 1264 pages ISBN978-0735618848 - Companion CD with Microsoft eMbedded Visual C++ 4.0 Service Pack 2Archived 2013-02-11 at Archive.today
25. ^How to: Modify WINVER and _WIN32_WINNT
26. ^Breaking Changes
27. ^Windows Platforms (CRT)
28. ^'Visual C++ 2008 Breaking Changes'.
29. ^Visual C++ Team Blog. 'IntelliSense, part 2: The Future'. Retrieved March 12, 2008.
30. ^'Why IntelliSense is not supported for C++/CLI in Visual Studio 2010'. Retrieved March 13, 2011.
31. ^Visual C++ Team Blog. 'Rebuilding Intellisense'.
32. ^Visual C++ Team Blog. 'Visual C++ Code Generation in Visual Studio 2010'.
33. ^'C++0x Core Language Features In VC10: The Table'.
34. ^'Stephan T. Lavavej: Everything you ever wanted to know about nullptr'.
35. ^Microsoft Windows SDK Blog. 'Released: Windows SDK for Windows 7 and .NET Framework 4'.
36. ^FIX: Visual C++ compilers are removed when you upgrade Visual Studio 2010 Professional or Visual Studio 2010 Express to Visual Studio 2010 SP1 if Windows SDK v7.1 is installed
37. ^'What's New for Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2012'. Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
38. ^'What's New for Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2013'. Microsoft Developer Network. Miicrosoft. Retrieved September 20, 2015.
39. ^Eric Battalio (July 20, 2015). 'Visual Studio 2015 RTM Now Available'. Visual C++ Team Blog. Microsoft.
40. ^Stephan T. Lavavej (June 19, 2015). 'C++11/14/17 Features In VS 2015 RTM'. Visual C++ Team Blog. Microsoft.
41. ^Reviewing Microsoft's Automatic Insertion of Telemetry into C++ Binaries
42. ^'Visual Studio adding telemetry function calls to binary? • /r/cpp'. reddit. Retrieved 2016-08-17.
43. ^'Pre-defined Compiler Macros / Wiki / Compilers'. sourceforge.net. Retrieved 2016-02-11.
44. ^Microsoft MSDN: Breaking Changes in Visual C++
45. ^Microsoft MSDN: Containers (Modern C++)
46. ^Microsoft MSDN: Portability At ABI Boundaries (Modern C++)
47. ^Microsoft forum: Binary compatibility across Visual C++ versions
48. ^ ^abC Run-Time Libraries
49. ^'C99 support'. Microsoft Connect. Archived from the original on 2016-03-04.
50. ^'What's New for Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2013'. Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft.
51. ^Pat Brenner (July 19, 2013). 'C99 library support in Visual Studio 2013'. Visual C++ Team Blog. Microsoft.
52. ^'What's New for Visual C++ in Visual Studio 2015'. Microsoft Developer Network. Microsoft.
53. ^'Walkthrough: Compile a C program on the command line'. Visual C++ Documentation. Microsoft.
54. ^'MSVC 2017 does not support _Generic (type generic macros) in C'.
55. ^Luvsanbat, Bat-Ulzii (July 6, 2018). 'MSVC Preprocessor Progress towards Conformance'. Microsoft Developer Network.

External links[edit]

• Rejuvenating the Microsoft C/C++ Compiler, September 2015