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C++/CLI Migration Primer

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The new home for Visual Studio documentation is Visual Studio 2017 Documentation on docs.microsoft.com.

The latest version of this topic can be found at C++/CLI Migration Primer.

This is a guide to moving your Visual C++ programs from Managed Extensions for C++ to Visual C++. For a checklist summary of syntactic changes, see (NOTINBUILD)Managed Extensions for C++ Syntax Upgrade Checklist.

C++/CLI extends a dynamic component programming paradigm to the ISO-C++ standard language. The new language offers a number of significant improvements over Managed Extensions. This section provides an enumerated listing of the Managed Extensions for C++ language features and their mapping to Visual C++ where such a mapping exists, and points out those constructs for which no mapping exists.

In This Section

Outline of Changes (C++/CLI)
A high-level outline for quick reference, providing a listing of the changes under five general categories.

Language Keywords (C++/CLI)
Discusses changes in language keywords, including the removal of the double underscore and the introduction of both contextual and spaced keywords.

Managed Types (C++/CL)
Looks at syntactic changes in the declaration of the Common Type System (CTS) – this includes changes in the declaration of classes, arrays (including the parameter array), enums, and so on.

Member Declarations within a Class or Interface (C++/CLI)
Presents the changes involving class members such as scalar properties, index properties, operators, delegates, and events.

Value Types and Their Behaviors (C++/CLI)
Focuses on value types and the new family of interior and pinning pointers. It also discusses a number of significant semantics changes such as the introduction of implicit boxing, immutability of boxed value types, and the removal of support for default constructors within value classes.

General Language Changes (C++/CLI)
Details semantic changes such as support for cast notation, string literal behavior, and changes in the semantics between ISO-C++ and C++/CLI.

See Also

Mixed (Native and Managed) Assemblies
Component Extensions for Runtime Platforms