A few months ago, we wrote about the brouhaha in the C++ community over Microsoft's use of the word "deprecated." Microsoft swiftly backed down, and said it intended to come up with new nomenclature. But Microsoft's troubles with the standards committee may not be over. At issue may be the name of the language, and whether Microsoft's extensions make it something other than C++.

In early February, UK representatives of the ISO committee raised objections to the fast track ISO standardization of the C++/CLI standard. In particular, they said that the "[d]ocumentation for Microsoft's Visual C++ product contains many code examples identified as 'C++' — not 'C++/CLI' or even 'C++.Net' — which will fail to compile in a Standard C++ environment."

Some feel that this Microsoft is using suggestive marketing, and that C++/CLI should be treated as a distinct new language. The proposed name is misleading, objectors believe, and it implys that C++/CLI is an integral part of ISO C++, or that the C++ language is a subset of the .Net framework.

Unsurprisingly, Microsoft doesn't see it that way. Herb Sutter — who is both on the standards committee and an employee of Microsoft — explained how he sees the issue:

Since 2003, Microsoft has been working with C++ community experts on the recently approved standard for C++/CLI (ECMA 372). C++/CLI is a set of conforming extensions to ISO standard C++ that enables C++ and ISO standard CLI (Common Language Infrastructure) to work well together. C++/CLI preserves full compatibility with C++ and adds support for CLI programming too, so that C++ programs can easily use the rich functionality of CLI (the leading commercial implementation of which is Microsoft's .NET Framework).

Ecma ratified the C++/CLI standard in December 2005, and then submitted it to ISO for fast-track processing. The UK national body have objected to the proposed ISO standard asking that the name be changed to something other than "C++/CLI." Microsoft and Ecma have always been open to using a different name and are committed to resolving this, and so Ecma is now asking the ISO C++ committee for its direction on this at their next meeting in April. The C++/CLI work has always been closely coordinated with the ISO C++ committee.

Presumably, it would be possible to make a big, hairy deal over this. But the short answer is that Microsoft and Ecma are talking, and it'll be discussed at the next meeting. We'll all have to wait and see. In the meantime, we recommend that you don't put "Standard C++/CLI" as a permanent tattoo on any of your body parts.