MS extend C++ significantly for Windows8... and Andrei got name drop

[Adam Wilson]

On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 14:28:46 -0800, Manu <turkeyman at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 25 January 2012 23:59, Adam Wilson <flyboynw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:35:38 -0800, Manu <turkeyman at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>  On 25 January 2012 21:47, bls <bizprac at orange.fr> wrote:
>>>
>>>  On 01/25/2012 07:03 AM, Manu wrote:
>>>>
>>>>  This is fairly interesting. MS have extended their C++ compiler
>>>>> significantly for Windows8 with a bunch of non-standard stuff.
>>>>> FINALLY implement garbage collection, ref counting, properties,
>>>>> delegates, events, generics, etc...
>>>>> If other compilers adopt this tech, D loses some advantages.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>> But you still have to fight with ifndef ,forward declaration, and a
>>>> template syntax against common sense.  Even if you paint shit yellow  
>>>> it's
>>>> not necessarily gold.
>>>>
>>>>
>>> True, but I think this will mitigate a lot of the motivation Windows  
>>> devs
>>> have to seek another language if they're not developing cross platform
>>> apps.
>>>
>>> Sadly, since WinRT requires using these language extensions to  
>>> interface
>>> with the new windows runtime, you won't be able to write a Windows8  
>>> app in
>>> D.
>>> Interestingly though, D supports almost everything they've added to  
>>> C++. I
>>> wonder if it would be possible to do extern(Windows8) to produce a
>>> compatible ABI for linking with MS C++ apps?
>>>
>>> The most interesting features are 'ref new' and 'gcnew', which makes me
>>> wonder, since Windows8 has an OS garbage collector, would it be at all
>>> possible to have D use the Windows8 GC? I'd prefer this to using D's  
>>> own
>>> GC
>>> if it would be supported, and obviously this would be a requirement if  
>>> D
>>> was going to interact with WinRT properly.
>>> Also, WinRT uses 'ref new' to allocate ref counted (effectively COM to  
>>> my
>>> understanding) objects. I think I read somewhere that D already has
>>> extern(COM) no? I wonder if Windows8 ref type linkage is already
>>> technically supported in D?
>>>
>>
>> There is no Win8GC, it's all ref counted. WinRT is COM with extras and  
>> as
>> such should be accessible to D. It would need some extra glue code over
>> what we have now ... like the IInspectable interface.
>>
>
> Really? So what's 'gcnew' for?

That's for targeting the CLR (.NET) so it doesn't conflict with new/delete  
in regular C++. It goes all the way back to the first C++/CLI in Visual  
Studio 2005.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/te3ecsc8.aspx

-- 
Adam Wilson
Project Coordinator
The Horizon Project
http://www.thehorizonproject.org/