Comment by bmm6o
10 hours ago
It probably still sucks in C, but the C++ DX got a lot better. Importing the idl would generate wrapper functions that made calling code look much more like a normal function. It would check the hresult and return an out param from the function. They also introduced types like _variant_t that help boxing and unboxing native types. It still wasn't fun but it greatly reduced line count.
Nah, unless talking about C++ Builder extensions for COM, in Visual C++ land it still sucks big time.
For some reason, there are vocal teams at Microsoft that resist anything in C++ that is comparable to VB, Delphi, .NET, C++ Builder ease of use regarding COM.
Hence why we got MFC COM, ATL COM, WRL, WinRT (as COM evolution), C++/CX, C++/WinRT, WIL, and eventually all of them lose traction with that vocal group that aparently rather use COM with bare bones IDL files, using the command line and VI on Windows most likely.