There are times when your Microsoft C or C++ programs need to call programs written in other languages or when programs written in other languages need to call your C or C++ functions. This is called mixed-language programming. For example, when a particular subprogram is available commercially in a language other than C or C++ or when algorithms are described more naturally in a different language, you need to use more than one language.
This chapter describes the elements of mixed-language programming—how to make calls from programs written in one language to routines written in another.