wtl for the poor

I've always liked WTL. I learned programming by exploring Windows programming and C++ -- For me, just using the "Win32 API" was a good exercise (was it really though?). As I got better, I was constantly using C++ in weird ways, but when WTL came out, I knew that that it was actually good C++ for the Windows programming


WTL project circa 2006 - http://zxcvbn.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/wtltrip/

Recently though, Microsoft made WTL not so free, by taking rid of the MFC/ATL in the "Platform SDK" (which is now called the "Microsoft SDK").

The SDK does not have ATL base classes anymore, and it does not come with the Visual Studio Express Editions either. Free open source web browser Google Chrome uses WTL on Windows, and has some extensive workarounds for the issues


I found that I could get the ATL base classes if I register with MSDN and download the WDK here ...wait what? the device driver development kit? Microsoft acknowledges this in the WDK release notes : Windows Driver Kit (WDK) Version 7.0.0 Release Notes

[August 2009] ATL Best Practice - Use the Visual Studio release

ATL is included in the WDK as a convenience for driver developers who need to create Windows applets for their drivers. ATL should not be used for software development beyond this scope. The ATL that is available through Visual Studio provides a more complete and current set of libraries and should be used for development of software and web applications. Visual C++ Express Edition is available for free from MSDN.

So there aren't any good free sources for the MFC/ATL base, so the WTL is no longer a free software platform like it should be.

sources:
http://www.caloni.com.br/blog/archives/como-usar-wtl-com-o-atl-do-ddk

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