This tip comes courtesy of a question asked on an internal discussion list. Deon from the C++ team provided the answer.
WinRT does not support constants. This means you cannot have code such as the following in C++ /CX:
public ref class FooClass sealed
{
public:
const int FooValue = 42;
}
How does one mimic constants with C++ /CX? Turns out using a static property is the solution.
namespace Foo
{
public ref class FooClass sealed
{
public:
static property int Value
{
int get()
{
return x;
}
void set(int _value)
{
x = _value;
}
}
private:
static int x;
};
}
Having static properties allows you to write code as follows:
Foo::FooClass::Value = 42;
int i = Foo::FooClass::Value;
Better, this code now works if you want to access such properties from other WinRT supported languages such as JS, C# etc.
Enjoy!
-Sridhar
