Microsoft has released today the Windows 10 SDK Preview Build 17083, which can be used in conjunction with the latest Windows 10 Insider build. This new preview SDK brings a couple of bug fixes and API changes plus two new features which are described below :
C++/WinRT Now Available: The C++/WinRT headers and cppwinrt compiler (cppwinrt.exe) are now included in the Windows SDK. The compiler comes in handy if you need to consume a third-party WinRT component or if you need to author your own WinRT components with C++/WinRT. The easiest way to get working with it after installing the Windows Insider Preview SDK is to start the Visual Studio Developer Command Prompt and run the compiler in that environment. Authoring support is currently experimental and subject to change. Stay tuned as we will publish more detailed instructions on how to use the compiler in the coming week. The ModernCPP blog has a deeper dive into the CppWinRT compiler (ModernCPP blog has a deeper dive into the CppWinRT compiler). Please give us feedback by creating an issue at: https://github.com/microsoft/cppwinrt
New MIDL key words: As a part of the “modernizing IDL” effort, several new keywords are added to the midlrt tool. These new keywords will cause build breaks if they are encountered in IDL files. The new keywords are: event, set, get, partial, unsealed, overridable, protected, importwinmdIf any of these keywords is used as an identifier, it will generate a build failure indicating a syntax error.
The error will be similar to: 1 >d:\os\src\onecore\com\combase\unittest\astatestservers\testserver6\idl\remreleasetest.idl(12) : error MIDL2025 : [msg]syntax error [context]: expecting a declarator or * near “)
To fix this, modify the identifier in error to an “@” prefix in front of the identifier. That will cause MIDL to treat the offending element as an identifier instead of a keyword.
This latest Preview SDK is now available to download from Microsoft’s Windows Insider website, and it’s only supported by Visual Studio 2017. We’re still waiting to see if Microsoft is ready to release a new Windows 10 Insider build this week, and we’ll let you know as soon as new information drops.
