I know you (hey me also - at least I tell myself that) are pretty smart guys, but trying to grasp how you can get a handle on this as quick as you are with no background in it. Perhaps there is hope for all of us 40+ year old guys.

>>Charles, did you have any background in VC++ before you started to learn it as mentioned here?
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>As of July 3 I was extensively sort of aware that such a thing existed. <g> I decided I needed to focus on the specific way in which .NET projects used VC++ / CLI and so I after skimming Wrox beginner book to get syntax I am now about half way through Apress "Expert C++ CLI .NET for Visual C++ Programmers" (with it had been "for C# Programmers but you play the hand you're dealt)
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>Since I am also a firm proponent of spending money to make money I have also plunked down a healthy retainer with OCI, the company that wrote OpenFAST and released it into the wild, for professional consulting and mentoring.
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>My interaction with their guy so far indicates this was a very wise choice.
>
>>
>>>God I love this business. For the first time I am doing what they said you could do in .NET but I've never done or seen done before - two languages in the same solution.
>>>
>>>And one of them is C++. Really a new experience. I am studying VC++ as fast as I can and trying to catch on to the whole Linking/compiling universe it inhabits and just where everything goes if using the VS2010 IDE (using VS2012 is not an option for this particular project as it just complicates the C++ side)
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>>>Using Boost 1.54 and a whole lot of other stuff I'd never heard of as of July 4.
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>>>I am going to be using QuickFAST (an opensource C++ project with a dotnet wrapper that decodes and deserializes feeds from financial markets that use the FAST/FIX protocol) and it isan adventure.
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>>>Since I'm on the UT a lot I thought I check to see if we had any VC++ gurus in the house and if posting questions here was going to be useful. ( I also hang out on Stackoverflow, of course and QuickFAST has a very nice Google group)
>>>
>>>Now I think I should see if there is VC++ section of UT that I've just alwasy had turned off...
>>>
>>>(UPDATE - found the forum but it looks like no one is home)