I've posted this before and I'll post it again. What I would absolutely love to see is a version of Visual C++ that incorporates VB's event driven programming environment while keeping all of C++ syntax and language structures, including pointers and all of those other really nasty things you can do to generate BLUE SCREENS OF DEATH.

This to me would be an optimal programming environment; one which would allow you to get as close to the "bare metal" as you desired, without kludgy VB type language constructs getting in the way, while also letting you take advantage of the really fast prototyping that VB objects allow you to achieve with Windows interfaces.

I can see no technical reasons at all for not doing this. I'm quite sure the reasons for not doing it are purely financial. The two markets seem to be, "idiot proof" and "not idiot proof", which seem to translate into "make it as easy as possible", and "make it as hard as possible". Of course, I'm only familiar with Visual C++ 4.0, and I think VC++ is on about 7.0 now. Perhaps others can answer whether or not VC++ has moved more in the VB direction.

Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished.