MFC and STL

Question

Would you mix MFC with STL? Why?

Answer 1

Sure. Why not?

I use MFC as the presentation layer, even though the structures and classes in the back-end use STL.

Answer 2

Yes I do mix 'em because I find MFC too unwieldy for normal natural looking c++. Though you might have to write some code for conversions where your STL code talks to MFC code.

Answer 3

I mix them all the time. The only minor PITA was serialization - the MFC containers (CArray, CList, CStringArray, etc.) support CArchive serialization, but when using STL containers you have to roll your own code. In the end I switched to using boost::serialization and dumped the MFC CArchive stuff.

Answer 4

Yes, I have mixed them before without problems. However, after using MFC for over a decade, I would never consider using it for a new project.

Answer 5

For collections in the data layer. I have no data to support this, but my suspicion is that the templated STL collections are more performant than their MFC counterparts.

Answer 6

Yes, if both of the following conditions hold:

1) The language chosen for the project is C++ (which, of course, includes the STL - the S in the STL is for "Standard").

2) After a careful analysis, no better alternative is found or considered appropriate for the GUI support than MFC, and my development team goes for it.

Answer 7

It was a very bad idea before Visual Studio 2003's (nearly) full support for the C++ Standard. Now it's not a bad idea at all. Whether it's a good idea depends on the context and what the skillset of your team is.

Answer 8

Use STL whenever you can, use MFC when no alternative