C++/CLI candidate base document now available

Today the C++/CLI candidate base document was posted, and it's freely
available for download.

This is the spec that Microsoft is contributing to the newly-formed ECMA
TC39/TG5 standards committee for consideration for the C++/CLI standards process.
It covers all the main proposed features, and it gives a pretty thorough look at the
scope and shape of what's being contemplated. There are still places that need to
be filled in, though, as well as some technical decisions that TG5 will need to decide
(in addition to any existing decisions that they may decide to review or change).

Note that this is the last version of the document that will bear a Microsoft copyright,
so we've taken this opportunity to make it publicly available while we still own it.
If ECMA TC39/TG5 adopts this as their base document, it will henceforth be an ECMA
document maintained by that ECMA group. That means it will be up to TG5 to decide
what changes to make and when to make future drafts publicly available. (From my informal
conversations, I wouldn't be surprised if interim drafts were published every three
months or so, but that's just my personal best guess right now. We'll have to wait
and see when the whole group feels the spec is in shape for TG5 to feel ready to distribute
its own first updated snapshot.)

Whew! It's been a long year, a long month, and a long week. Enjoy! And please let
us know what you think of this. Comments are welcome, and those of us on the team
who are blogging (see my Links) will be answering as many as we can get to while
we spend our days continuing to work on the Whidbey product.

I'll probably blog fairly lightly over the next two weeks. Next week is a short week
of course, with the U.S. Thanksgiving holidays closing most offices on Thursday and
Friday. The following week, on Dec 4-5, is the first ECMA TC39/TG5 meeting already,
down in College Station, Texas -- it sure has come up fast. I'll have more to
report after that.