Microsoft development honcho Soma Somasegar reports that a Visual C++ 2008 Feature pack has shipped. In January the pack came out in beta.

MFC components included in the pack allow developers to create applications with the look and feel of Microsoft Office, Visual Studio and Internet Explorer. The VC++ 2008 pack can be downloaded from Microsoft’s Download Center.

That’s the good news. The bad news is VB6 has reached end-of-life status in terms of Microsoft formal support. The company has recently created a webcast explaining what that means, and what avenues are open for application migration.

A recent downloadable Visual C++ 2008 feature pack beta has power tools covering both the client and server sides of things.

The VC++ 2008 MFC libraries have been extended to help developers work with the Office Ribbon style interface. An updated set of GUI controls has been included and Visual Studio-style docking toolbars and panes are supported.

Meanwhile, the release pack includes an implementation of the TR1 (Technical Report 1) additions to the ISO 2003 standard C++ library. Included are new containers - including tuple, array and unordered sets - polymorphic function wrappers and much more.