I have had the opportunity now to look at the source code for three substantial packages developed using the Windows visual studio CPP environment. People who work in this environment enjoy the fully integrated IDE. I am somewhat dismayed upon looking at the source code to see Windows API calls scattered seemingly everywhere. The jury is still out, and I am new to this environment, but even ignoring the Orwellian implications of the .NET environment, I don't like what I see.
The following links include a couple of articles on the IBM developer site that discuss the issues involved in porting software from windows the linux, and there is a link to the Microsoft Developer Network site, which documents their library function call API.
Uncle Tom's Mineralogy Info / tom@mmto.org