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Comment by tdicola | Hacker News Reader

One thing I don't see mentioned, do universal apps support C++11? I can understand why it's not as easy to support native code across platforms (i.e. need to do some kind of fat binary thing), but think it's a little sad to see all the work done to support modern C++ app development kind of abandoned. Really annoying if you have to choose between an app being universal or written in modern C++.

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Microsoft is one of the biggest supporters of C++11, and C++14 for that matter.

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh567368.aspx

Well, they're certainly catching up, but they have a bit to go to before they match clang or gcc: http://cpprocks.com/c1114-compiler-and-library-shootout/

> (i.e. need to do some kind of fat binary thing)

Fat binaries aren't needed to support pointer arithmetic or any other C++11 features in a cross-platform binary. LLVM bitcode supports pointer arithmetic. I also believe .NET bytecode supports pointer arithmetic. I'm not sure what other features you thought would require some kind of fat binary.

WinRT lets you write native Win 8 apps in C++, however it doesn't use LLVM or .NET bytecode. If universal binaries are supposed to be supported across different architectures (like x86, ARM, etc.) I don't know of any other way to support it than fat binaries.

AFAIK they do. WinRT apps can be written in many languages including C++. And this is pure native C++ and not "managed" C++.

Yes I'm aware of that, but can universal apps be written in native code? I don't see any mention of it in their announcement.

I am 100% sure they can be written in native code but don't have any reference to give you for now.

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