# Slow Chat Archives > Slow Chat: Visual C++: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow >  [RESOLVED] What about the MFC future?

## ovidiucucu

One of the most FAQ in last years here sounds like Is MFC finished? or is MFC dead?.
So, have we to throw away the good old MFC?

/if yes, I'll do it tomorrow... <evil> :Big Grin: </evil>   :Wink:

----------


## cilu

I was currious about this myself and from what I've seen for 'Orcas' (the next version of Visual Studio) MS is providing a lot of support for MFC, especially on the direction of accesing Vista controls from MFC application thought the .NET framework (mixed-mode applications).

----------


## ovidiucucu

> I was currious about this myself and from what I've seen for 'Orcas' (the next version of Visual Studio) MS is providing a lot of support for MFC, especially on the direction of accesing Vista controls from MFC application throught the .NET framework (mixed-mode applications).


For me sounds like a swan song...  :Wink: 

/the underline is mine

----------


## AymanS

That is correct Orcas release will be supporting native Vista OS features.

Thanks,
Ayman Shoukry
Program Manager
VC++ Team

----------


## steixeira

Just to be really, really clear: we *are* investing in MFC in the Orcas release.  You're not going to see drastic enhancements to the programming model or anything like that, but you will see -- for example -- some changes to better support Windows Vista development.

Thanks,

Steve Teixeira
Group Program Manager
Visual C++

----------


## JohnCz

As a member of VC++ team, last MVP summit, I have asked this question twice, in two different occasions. Each time, people from VC++ group assured us that MFC is here to stay.
I believe they would not have said so without a reason, therefore all gossip about MFC dying, going away is just this: gossip.

----------


## gsuing

So why has Microsoft Press stopped publishing any MFC books?  The last one I know of is from 1999.

----------


## RonaldLaeremans

The question on MFC books is quite simple to answer: MS Press nowadays acts mostly like a stand-along publisher, i.o.w. they publish the books they think will sell big and sales data from books related to MFC does not seem to make that prospect likely.

I do expect there will be good quality books available specifically on the interop between C++ and .Net, including the interop features with Windows Forms we added to MFC. However the changes to MFC as of the 2005 release outside of that realm probably do not warrant a new book. Perhaps with the Orcas release and the support we are adding for Windows Vista there is more impetus for new books that at least contain material on that topic.

The newness or not aside, though, several MFC books are extremely high quality and are still very useful even if some details are out of date.

And just to clarify, the work we are doing to support new Vista controls and other Vista feature does NOT require you to use .Net, it just uses the native platform Win32 or COM APIs directly.

Ronald Laeremans
Acting Product Unit Manager
Visual C++ Team

----------

