Editing Cross compiler (section)

=== Early 1990s ===
Throughout the 1990s and beginning with MSC 6 (their first [[ANSI C]] compliant compiler) Microsoft re-focused their C compilers on the emerging Windows market, and also on [[OS/2]] and in the development of [[GUI]] programs. Mixed language compatibility remained through MSC 6 on the MS-DOS side, but the [[API]] for Microsoft Windows 3.0 and 3.1 was written in MSC 6. MSC 6 was also extended to provide support for 32-bit assemblies and support for the emerging [[Windows for Workgroups]] and [[Windows NT]] which would form the foundation for [[Windows XP]]. A programming practice called a [[thunk]] was introduced to allow passing between 16- and 32-bit programs that took advantage of runtime binding ([[dynamic linking]]) rather than the [[static binding]] that was favoured in [[Monolithic system|monolithic]] 16-bit MS-DOS applications. Static binding is still favoured by some native code developers but does not generally provide the degree of [[code reuse]] required by newer best practices like the [[Capability Maturity Model]] (CMM).

MS-DOS support was still provided with the release of Microsoft's first C++ Compiler, MSC 7, which was backwardly compatible with the C programming language and MS-DOS and supported both 16- and 32-bit code generation.

MSC took over where [[Aztec C|Aztec C86]] left off. The market share for C compilers had turned to cross compilers which took advantage of the latest and greatest Windows features, offered C and C++ in a single bundle, and still supported MS-DOS systems that were already a decade old, and the smaller companies that produced compilers like Aztec C could no longer compete and either turned to niche markets like [[embedded system]]s or disappeared.

MS-DOS and 16-bit code generation support continued until MSC 8.00c which was bundled with Microsoft C++ and Microsoft Application Studio 1.5, the forerunner of [[Microsoft Visual Studio]] which is the cross development environment that Microsoft provide today.