Sort of curious as to how many people actually use C++/CLI? So how many people are using it? Are there specific jobs that people are only looking for programmers under a managed environment? How big is the community around c++/cli? From what I've seen thus far there are quite a few syntax changes, is this something I should learn, as a c++ programmer? Also, is c++/cli, c++.net? I'm pretty ignorant to anything microsoft.
Just about nobody makes a living programming in C++/CLI every day. Plenty of programmers know how to write a wrapper class, that's what the language is great at. But these are one-off projects, bridging the gap between a legacy codebase and a managed front-end. Much like it is used in the .NET framework, C++/CLI is used in System.Data and PresentationManager to interop with respectively dbase providers and DirectX.
When you know native C++ programming well and have at least been exposed to something like C# and know the fundamentals of the CLR then you'll have little trouble diving in when necessary. Figure about three weeks to get up to speed on the syntax. Mastering it takes longer of course, but not always necessary to get the job done.