Why the option to use attributes in new ATL projects was removed from Visual Studio 2008?

Question

This is the text from MSDN comment: "According to the book ATL Internals (2ed) the use of attributes is deprecated and should not be used in new ATL projects."

But WHY?!!

Answer 1

In ATL these attributes were a compiler trick. They were not a core part of the platform like attributes in C#. They were also more confusing to debug than macros's and the method of dumping generated attribute code was a hassle.

I suspect another issue is likely to have been C++ compiler compatibility and standards-adherence. Attributes didn't make for more beautiful C++ code, and perhaps this syntax may be used in a future version of a real C++ standard.

Answer 2

Appendix D of the book goes into this.

Attributed ATL requires compiler extensions, and the problems encountered include

• debugging either code generated by the attribute or the interaction between the attribute and your code
• no control over the code generated
• bugs, especially around connection points