Microsoft Corp.: Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0, Enterprise Edition

Microsoft Visual C++ 5.0, Enterprise Edition, improves on a proven, well-known compiler by adding useful tools for building and using ActiveX components.

This version of Visual C++ is part of Microsoft's Visual Studio suite, which offers Visual Basic 5.0, improved performance, and several enterprise features that make it an appealing upgrade. Out-of-the-box, this version of Visual C++ promises better performance for C++ code in terms of both size and speed. On our tests, we saw roughly a 10 percent shrinkage in program size compared with the same program compiled in Version 4.2.

Visual C++ builds on the interface of its predecessors and works in concert with Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 (which is automatically installed on your system if you don't already have it). That's because much of the Help system and tutorials are in HTML pages. Expect to do a lot of back-and-forth between these pages and the poorly implemented table of contents.

Visual C++ has finally integrated a real scripting language--Visual Basic Scripting. With it, you can record, edit and playback macros, and even write add-on modules from within Visual C++.

Starting a project is done with the AppWizard. Besides such basic target types as Microsoft Foundation Classes (MFC) 5.0 (which are now called Microsoft Foundation Classes and Templates), Visual C++ offers such new target types as ActiveX controls for building Web components.

The library, which was previously available from Microsoft's Web site, is now an integral member of the Visual C++ family. Other old favorites--basic MFC applications and ISAPI server-side targets, for example--are also available. The AppWizard generates a working skeleton of code for whatever target you choose.

Several tools have been significantly improved since Version 4.2. ClassView, which shows your classes--from objects, methods, and properties--in an object-oriented manner, has been enhanced to allow you to look at and edit properties and objects of ActiveX controls. Visual C++ lets you concentrate on component design, not on the complex and obscure syntax of ActiveX programming.

A big step forward is that FileView now shows subprojects. With it, different project nodes can be kept separate, which is a plus for team development. Visual C++ comes with Visual SourceSafe 5.0, for code control, and Microsoft Repository 1.0, for sharing components within an organization. DataView allows you to view tables graphically for any ODBC-based database, and Database View offers remote SQL debugging for Microsoft SQL Server and the ability to modify tables and their properties on the fly.

Though Visual C++'s debugging and editing features are powerful, Microsoft doesn't place the emphasis on RAD tool development that Borland does. Still, these features will be a hit with developers who are faced with maintaining SQL Server databases. Microsoft's Visual C++ 5.0 offers new access to ActiveX programming, plus powerful database abilities in an appealing package.