Migrating from VC6 to VC8: Resources

In order to update Internet Hearts with WinFX features, I'm going to leverage C++ Interop and recompile at least some of the source code with /clr so I can start using managed APIs.  Therefore, my first step was to get the source code (which hadn't been touched in about 6 years) building with Visual C++ 2005 (aka "VC8").  Yes, I could have kept pieces compiling with VC6.  Or I could have changed my approach to keep using VC6 everywhere and leverage PInvoke or COM Interop instead of C++ Interop.  But C++ Interop is the most natural choice for this project... plus I want my unmanaged code to get the benefits of the latest & greatest VC compiler.  Don't be fooled into thinking that Visual C++ 2005 is only interesting for managed code!

Of course, the jump from VC6 to VC8 is pretty large.  A lot has happened in those 7 (or is it 8?) years!  Actually, the biggest adjustment is going from VC6 to VC7.1, due to significantly increased compliance with ANSI/ISO standards, resulting in breaking changes.  But if you've already made the jump to VC7.1, moving to VC8 should be much easier.  The biggest change you'll notice when moving to VC8 is probably the CRT Security Enhancements, which will likely give you lots of deprecation warnings.

Next time I'll discuss what challenges I ran into upgrading the Internet Hearts codebase, but in the meantime I've done some navigating of the maze known as MSDN, and came up with the following list of migration resources.  I just hope that these funky URLs will be a little more permanent than most permalinks I've tried to rely on!

Overviews:

• What's new in 8.0
• What's new in 7.1
• What's new in 7.0

Moving from 6.0 to 7.1:

• ATL/MFC Breaking changes (6.0 to 7.0) (also seen here but the list isn't as long)
• ATL/MFC Breaking changes (7.0 to 7.1)
• Standard C++ Library changes and issues specific to upgrading
• Compiler breaking changes
• In-depth info on increased standards compliance
• Project upgrading

Moving from 7.1 to 8.0:

• Libraries breaking changes
• ATL obsolete topics and deprecated functions with replacements
• MFC obsolete topics
• Compiler breaking changes
• Deprecated compiler options
• Some removed linker options (mentioned here and here)
• Preprocessor changes

Comments

• Anonymous
  August 19, 2005
  Hi,
  This is interesting and gave lot help.
  First thing I just wanted to confirm that I have VC6 (ATL)application and wanted to convert into VC8 so we have to move from vc6 to vc7.1 or vc directly vc8.0, If so then can u please tell me exact place where i can find step be step migration.
  Thanks in advance,
  
  Regards,
  Madhur
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  Your blog is realy very interesting. http://www.g888.com
• Anonymous
  August 25, 2005
  Madhur, you can move directly from VC6 to VC8. I don't know of any migration info other than what I've posted, but soon I will be sharing my own experience with Internet Hearts, so hopefully you can learn from that!
• Anonymous
  March 19, 2006
  Very nice and informative website.
• Anonymous
  June 02, 2006
  i like your website very much but please do get us more information about it
• Anonymous
  June 22, 2006
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  January 20, 2009
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