Thank you for your detailed answer Bill. I want to clarify a single idea:

Quote Originally Posted by bdunlap
Yes...we need to do more to make native C++ development better, faster and cheaper. We hear you. But it is not likely that you'll ever get the same programming productivity benefits in native as you get with .NET development.
I am sure any C++ developer understands and accepts this tradeoff as long as he can still get the job done. With the current market, passion/pleasure for C++ cannot replace entirely the productivity issue you've mentioned. Although I would love to make everything from scratch (an MFC.NET or something ) using just the compiler and the APIs, that's just not feasible.

So it is indeed great news to know there are plans to improve VC++ as a whole, at least to a level where it can be reasonably competitive. As already mentioned I would be very happy even with 25% of what is currently available for C# and .NET.

Thanks again for all your answers.