title: C++ snippet support in visual studio?
body: <p>I'm writing code in native C++ (not C++/CLR). I know that there is no built-in support for C++ with regards to the snippet manager and snipper picker interfaces, however I found a utility called "snippy" which supposedly can generate C++ snippets. Here is a c++ snippet that the program generated:</p>
  
  <pre><code>&lt;?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?&gt;
  &lt;CodeSnippets xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/VisualStudio/2005/CodeSnippet"&gt;
    &lt;CodeSnippet Format="1.0.0"&gt;
      &lt;Header&gt;
        &lt;Title&gt;MySnippet&lt;/Title&gt;
        &lt;Shortcut&gt;MySnippet&lt;/Shortcut&gt;
        &lt;Description&gt;Just a test snippet&lt;/Description&gt;
        &lt;Author&gt;Me&lt;/Author&gt;
        &lt;SnippetTypes&gt;
          &lt;SnippetType&gt;Expansion&lt;/SnippetType&gt;
        &lt;/SnippetTypes&gt;
      &lt;/Header&gt;
      &lt;Snippet&gt;
        &lt;Declarations&gt;
          &lt;Literal Editable="true"&gt;
            &lt;ID&gt;literal1&lt;/ID&gt;
            &lt;ToolTip&gt;just a placeholder&lt;/ToolTip&gt;
            &lt;Default&gt;
            &lt;/Default&gt;
            &lt;Function&gt;
            &lt;/Function&gt;
          &lt;/Literal&gt;
        &lt;/Declarations&gt;
        &lt;Code Language="cpp"&gt;&lt;![CDATA[cout &lt;&lt; "$literal1$" &lt;&lt; std::endl;]]&gt;&lt;/Code&gt;
      &lt;/Snippet&gt;
    &lt;/CodeSnippet&gt;
  &lt;/CodeSnippets&gt;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>If there is support in visual C++, even in a limited capacity, for C++ snippets, how do I add them to my environment, and what are the limitations? All I need is support for basic expansion snippets that I can invoke by typing a shortcut and hitting tab, and which supports basic literals that I can tab through (basically, if it supports the above snippet, I'm good). If this can't be done, are there any free add-ons or extensions to visual studio that support snippets for C++? I'm using both visual studio 2010 and 2008, but I mostly write code in 2010 right now.</p>