Visual C++ - technical definition

A C and C++ development system for DOS/Windows applications from Microsoft. It includes Visual Workbench, an integrated Windows-based development environment and the Microsoft Foundation Class Library (MFC), the latter providing a basic framework of object-oriented code to build an application upon.

Introduced in 1993, the Standard Edition of Visual C++ replaced QuickC for Windows and the Professional Edition included the Windows SDK and replaced Microsoft C/C++ 7.0.