Visual C++
Ranked 3 of 18 c compilers by recommenders
Praised as a fast, well-integrated C++ IDE and debugger, especially the VC6 era. Critics say it lags behind ISO C++ standards and sometimes hits compiler bugs.
Praised as a fast, well-integrated C++ IDE and debugger, especially the VC6 era. Critics say it lags behind ISO C++ standards and sometimes hits compiler bugs.
46 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 29
- criticize it
- 17
- approval share
- 63%
Recommended in 12 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: recommended
- May 2026: recommended
- June 2026: recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 29 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 1.7 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 12 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Fast, capable debugger
“MSVC in the 90s had edit and continue, where you could stop in a debugger, change the source code and move the current breakpoint back and run it again”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “We Lost Something: 1970s REPLs Were Better Than Modern Development Environments” “the debugger ran faster on hardware from the era than modern versions run on today's hardware”
Comment from 8 Feb 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997” “My favourite of all time, with the debugger being one of the highlights.”
Comment from 31 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]” - Comment from 30 Aug 2026 in “Casey Muratori – The Root of the Root of All Evil – BSC 2026 [video]”
- Comment from 1 Jun 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997”
Tightly integrated, usable IDE
“Right about VC6 was the sweet spot imo, C/C++ with lightning fast UI for docs and more. Tools got out of the way.”
Comment from 6 Apr 2026 in “Microsoft Hasn't Had a Coherent GUI Strategy Since Petzold” “way more tightly integrated, performant and usable than anything we have today”
Comment from 13 Dec 2025 in “We Lost Something: 1970s REPLs Were Better Than Modern Development Environments” “I maintain VC++ was a better experience than vscode; whoever is working on it.”
Comment from 16 Feb 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997” - Comment from 12 Aug 2026 in “Delphi 13 Community Edition Is Now Available”
- Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997”
- Comment from 10 Feb 2026 in “Eight More Months of Agents”
Best modules support among compilers
“VC++ has the only actually usable header units implementation across C++ compilers.”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Linux Kills Strncpy” “which has the best modules support, but it is still trailing behind in C++23”
Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Cost of enum-to-string: C++26 reflection vs. the old ways” “VC++ and clang with MSBuild, CMake/ninja already have good modules support”
Comment from 16 Oct 2026 in “C++26 Contracts: Introduction to Preconditions and Postconditions” Long-lived, widely used for decades
“I used VS6 professionally and for private business around 2000-2004, and it was still going strong then. VC++ was great.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997” “Visual C++ did not have many fans, but it had a lot of users.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “Programming peaked” “What a great tool to have for the time.”
Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997” - Comment from 29 May 2026 in “Let's compile Quake like it's 1997”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Lags behind ISO C++ standards
“VC++ now lagging behind ISO, after being the first to achieve C++20”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “"Warn about PyPy being unmaintained"” “where MSVC was very late to the C99 party”
Comment from 14 Oct 2026 in “Arena Allocators in C” “Microsoft outright strangled C by wasting many years refusing to support any standard beyond C89”
Comment from 6 Jan 2026 in “C Is Best” - Comment from 27 Sep 2026 in “C's Flexible Integer Sizes Were Not a Design Mistake”
- Comment from 14 May 2026 in “Cost of enum-to-string: C++26 reflection vs. the old ways”
- Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Everyone in Seattle hates AI”
Occasional compiler bugs and ICEs
“It has worked perfectly fine while using VC++, minus the usual ICE that still come up.”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “C++ Modules Are Here to Stay” “ran into a compiler bug where it didn't know how to compile and asked me to”
Comment from 29 Jan 2026 in “C++ Modules Are Here to Stay” “it is just a compiler bug that got fixed once I reported it”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Advent of Compiler Optimisations 2025” Bloated, larger output binaries
“c++ produced binaries are either having more dll dependencies, or are more bloated (in size)”
Comment from 1 Jul 2026 in “Pystd, similar-ish functionality with a fraction of the compile time” “Visual C++ 6, for instance, would emit code that was 2/3rds register-to-register moves”
Comment from 16 Aug 2026 in “SIMD in the 90s: Programming Intel's Pentium MMX”
Other c compilers people recommend
The four most recommended other c compilers, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fil-C | 160 | 60 | 73% | 13 | — | Approved |
| Claude's C Compiler | 39 | 83 | 32% | 5 | — | — |
| Visual C++This page | 29 | 17 | 63% | 12 | — | — |
| Tiny C Compiler (TCC) | 22 | 3 | 88% | 9 | — | Approved |
| Microsoft Visual C++ compiler (MSVC) | 20 | 29 | 41% | 9 | — | — |
What people said
40 of the 70 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“VC++ and clang with MSBuild, CMake/ninja already have good modules support”
“where MSVC was very late to the C99 party”
“after C++20, they don't seem to be in a hurry to keep up with ISO either for C or C++”
“My favourite of all time, with the debugger being one of the highlights.”
“He compared Visual C++ 6's debugger on hardware from the time”
“Visual C++ 6, for instance, would emit code that was 2/3rds register-to-register moves”
“it still manages to be better than Visual C++, in the Visual part”
“I chose VC++ on purpose, because it is what I know better”
“it was useful compiling with Visual C++ and gcc to shake out any iffy syntax that worked in one but not the other”
“VC++ has the only actually usable header units implementation across C++ compilers.”
“c++ produced binaries are either having more dll dependencies, or are more bloated (in size)”
“The serial cable debugger feature was a godsend.”
“If you made a list of Microsoft bangers it's in the top 5”
“I would bet you can load a VC6 project faster in OP's environment”
“What a great tool to have for the time.”
“easily the better IDE out of the crop of options at the time”
“I used VS6 professionally and for private business around 2000-2004, and it was still going strong then. VC++ was great.”
“VC++6 is remarkably powerful for 1996.”
“which has the best modules support, but it is still trailing behind in C++23”
“One nice feature of MSVC is that you can describe the linker dependencies in the source files”
“Right about VC6 was the sweet spot imo, C/C++ with lightning fast UI for docs and more. Tools got out of the way.”
“VC++ now lagging behind ISO, after being the first to achieve C++20”
“See Visual C++ (with hot code reloading, incremental linking, AI integration, on the fly analysis)”
“VC++ 6.0 would load, build the project, and have it ready to run”
“I maintain VC++ was a better experience than vscode; whoever is working on it.”
“By far the greatest IDE I have ever used”
“It was a cross-platform project and worked equally well with GCC, Clang and MS Visual C++.”
“the debugger ran faster on hardware from the era than modern versions run on today's hardware”
“It has worked perfectly fine while using VC++, minus the usual ICE that still come up.”
“ran into a compiler bug where it didn't know how to compile and asked me to”
“Microsoft outright strangled C by wasting many years refusing to support any standard beyond C89”
“way more tightly integrated, performant and usable than anything we have today”
“MSVC in the 90s had edit and continue, where you could stop in a debugger, change the source code and move the current breakpoint back and run it again”
“VC++ losing steam to ISO compliance after bosting about C++20 and C11/17”
“Visual C++ did not have many fans, but it had a lot of users.”
“it is just a compiler bug that got fixed once I reported it”
“IDE based compilation workflows from C++ Builder and Visual C++”
“VS IDE tooling is stil kind of broken because they rely on EDG instead of VC++”
“the only place I have been able to fully enjoy the improvements they bring to the table”
“a guy who solely depends on Windows for Visual C++, .NET SDK etc etc”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.