According to an SDTimes report from TechEd in Barcelona, Microsoft will push native features (that is, C++) in the next version of Visual Studio. According to the article they'll add coding helpers, "facilities for developing applications that run on Windows Azure in the cloud; parallel development; and for enabling the support of large codebases". The article goes on reporting complaints by C++ developers who felt neglected by the focus for .NET.

This is interesting for Delphi developers as well. First, native development in not dead, nor Delphi Win32. Fur sure, .NET made inroads but didn't remove the need and usefulness of native applications. Second, there will be support for Windows Azure applications in the cloud for native solutions, not only managed ones. It would be nice to have a Delphi Azure...