Is MFC sitll the dominating framework for windows desktop application?

Question

I just wondering about this.It is said that .NET is better than MFC in a lot of aspects.But when I use my PEID to recursive scan my 'program files' directory,it turns out there are still a lot of programs written with 'Visual C++ 6'(esp. for security software),whose GUI should be written with MFC.

So my questions are:

• Is MFC still the dominating framework for windows desktop aplication?
• What frameworks do IE,firefox,Microsoft office(or other famouse desktop applications,if you'd like to list some) use?
• What frameworks do the desktop applications(e.g. explorer,card games) of Windows itself use?

thanks.

Answer 1

I say windows forms and WCF are pretty widespread. C#/VB.NET are well-entrenched in corporate america.

IE is COM-based. Office is MFC/COM. Windows Apps are usually native code to demo the platform.

Answer 2

For new projects I don't think MFC is the dominant platform, but mostly because newer platforms shield developers from the idiosyncrasies of Win32 and MFC itself and allow for faster development. MFC applications take longer to develop but are, imo, unmatched in responsiveness.

I will not deny that some parts of the platform are irrelevant in 2010 (for example CArchive and most of the Doc/View foundation); on top of that, the dwindling availability of 3rd party components (mostly GUI) is a bit worrisome. FP1/MFCNext was a step in the right direction, I'm anxious to learn about the new MFC functionality in VS 2010.

For optimal integration with the OS, imo C++/MFC is still the best choice because of the nature of C++ as low-level and the fact that Win32 is still the foundation of Windows and that it can most easily be accessed in C or C++.