Herb Sutter on C++/CLI (also from the April 2004 C/C++ Users Journal) [emphasis mine]:

“C++ and C++/CLI are actively collaborating to respect C++ evolution and craft high-quality C++ language extensions that will help to ensure C++'s continued relevance, nay supremacy, on important platforms.” And earlier in the article: “They [the C++/CLI revised extensions] make developing for the CLI/.NET platform in C++ a first-class experience, just as easy as in Those Other Languages you may have heard about that might sometimes claim to be the Last Word on that platform.”

I can't wait.