Customer Reviews

Borland C++ Builder 6 Personal

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

Be careful if you are buying this least expensive version of Builder 6.0 to develop simple applications to SELL (or as Borland seems to indicate even to USE for a business purpose). This was NOT a stipulation in earlier versions (Standard level), as far as I can tell. You can only use the 6.0 version as a 'learning version'. This may not be a problem for many programmers, and granted at this price this may be fine, but things have changed from earlier 'Standard' versions and before purchasing you should be aware of this. Go to Borland's website and check the license agreement in detail if you have concerns. You might want to snap up 5.0 Standard before it is gone (although you can't read the license agreement for 5.0 at Borland's website, I have seen discussions that this restriction on compensation is new only for 6.0). So, just be careful and be aware of the 6.0 restriction.
I have quoted part of the 6.0 license below:
Sect 4.3 SPECIAL TERMS THAT APPLY TO C++BUILDER 6.0 PERSONAL ONLY
...rights under this license to use the Product and to create Works solely for personal use. You may not use the Product or any Work for any commercial, business, governmental or institutional purpose of any kind ('Commercial Purpose'). [it seems that even charitable use is prohibited? - my comment].
... you may not receive any direct or indirect compensation for the distribution or use of your Works...

Gregory S.M. wrote he had some problems sharing his applications with his friends because of the necessity to distribute some .dll and .blp files.
In fact there is a way to create stand alone applications by following this procedure :

- Go to the options panel in the Project menu.
- Switch to the "Linker" Tab and unselect "Use Dynamic RTL"
- Switch to the "Packages" Tab and unselect "Build with runtime packages".

Now you can compile your project and you have a stand alone executable, so no need to distribute it with any .blp or .dll file !

This software is okay, alot of the help files are only available in Profesional and Enterprise editions though. There is no C++ in 5 Days tutorial, but it says there is one on the box... The help files say it comes with InstallShield so you can create setup programs, but nope not this edition. To get other people to use your programs you have to send them certain .blp(?) files and some .dll's. The docs do not say which ones though, I am still trying to figure that out. It is good for learning, but if you can afford it, get the profesional edition, or get a different compiler.

I am stunned that there isn't more demand for Borland C++ Builder developers. I am a software developer/software engineer and have worked in the industry for over 15 years now. I use Microsoft Visual Studio (only because this is what todays market demands), but will ALWAYS use Borland C++ Builder if I have the choice. I find that the same thing can be accomplished much more quickly using Borland C++ Builder than with Visual Studio. My clients are very impressed with the systems I produce (and pay me accordingly) and awe at how quickly I get large systems implemented. At the end of the day though, I'm ashamed, embarrassed, and I feel like a fraud because really it's Borland C++ Builder that makes me look good. Thanks Borland - you have a loyal supporter here.

Borland's C++ products have always been execellent. I use both C++Builder and Microsoft's Visual C++ 6.0 professionally, and C++Builder is a much better IDE for creating windows applications, especially database apps.

C++Builder is simple to use with all objects easily accessed through its properties and methods window. GUI construction is very simple with drag and drop objects, all callback functions are automatically constructed unlike MSVC++, and deleting an object from a GUI removes removes all IDE generated code, unlike MSVC++.

I highly recommend Borland C++Builder

Snittselfritz
PCLFOO NINJA

This was my first C++ compiler. It was good to learn on, however once you get into advanced features this compiler is not worth the money. Supposedly this version supports partial specialization, however it doesn't work at all (Or maybe just mine doesn't. HUGE problem, for me anyway. It somehow handles std::iterator_traits however. Odd.) There is an option to use ANSI rules for compilation, however none of the provided standard headers will compile in this mode (or any mode other than 'Borland'), therefore its only use is to check small snippets. By default, your exe will depend on several dlls (even console apps), and it is ambiguous as to where you can disable this dependency. You cannot create DOS applications; all console apps are 32 bit and dependent on Windows. The VCL (used to make GUIs) is very simple to use, however the public interfaces are somewhat ugly in a lot of classes (for example, a particular list class has an 'operator []' which is the only way to access a member, but you can only access VCL components thru a pointer, therefore you need '(*list)[]' to access a member.) The VCL is proprietary and is not standard-compliant. Sometimes with complex recursive functions the compiler will fail with recursion errors, but then recompiling will generate no errors. The value vs. price is excellent for people who are just learning OOP and are not sure if C++ is for them, but anyone with experience and/or going into business should look elsewhere. Based on all of the above (and I'm sure I've forgotten some) I would not upgrade to professional or even to the next release (just on principle.)

I am an experienced c++ programmer but was a little rusty after several years away from c++. So first I tried MS Studio. I found it so frusterating to get started I gave up. The next day I tried again and gave up again. Third day same thing. So then I ordered Builder. I was up and productive in about a half hour. What a difference. Admitedly I had Delphi experience which helped but still it seems clear to me that the environment is much easier, simpler and faster. There are some negative reviews - maybe those problems show up later but not so far for me.

I was excited to come back to Borland. I remember that day's under Turbo C++. They truly had a superior product then first of it was fast. If you had to debug with in the class libraries you could step into them and find out where the problem was. What I have found with Borland today that scares me is it's based around Pascal. That is just not smart! It adds additional complexity to debugging. Try to step into it. I also could not understand why CBuilder violates some OOP OOD concepts through public member variables except when absolutely nessecary. I understand why now. This is a dangerous path...take it at your own risk. Pray that you never have to resolve a serious low level soft ware problem with this. It looks like it will have some serious teeth to bite with. I would have give this zero but the option wasn't available.


Microsoft truly has a better product than this. And I was truly excited to see what new ideas Borland had come up with when I came back to this tool set. Now I'm doing everything in my power to get this out of here.

I have used versions 3, 4, & 5 over time. I just updated to 6 and what a mess. I can not get complex numbers to work at all. It is a simple thing to do - include <complex.h> and declare the variable complex<double> a. Just adding these two lines to a new application fails to compile under version 6.

If you want support, it is $225 per case/question unless you pay for a support contract (didn't ask what that cost). Your other options include checking the FAQ database or posting to the newsgroup. If you post to the newsgroup, someone else (not from borland) must feel like replying with an answer - good luck on that happening.

I bought this to update an old engineering program I'd written a decade ago. It came with minimal documentation, nothing that a beginner programmer can understand - not even on the CD. I checked their web site, which was not helpful, and after three attempts at installing the program (the installation program politely asked me if I wanted it to mangle Office 97 or Office 2000, neither of which I had on that computer), finally got it installed. I asked their customer support about the Office thing, and they send me a correct but not helpful email. I did manage to figure it out myself.

Sure 'nuff, it was a pain to use.

They did agree to take it back.

I downloaded a free copy of Lcc-Win32, a free C compiler, that includes decent documentation and seems plenty powerful. It's at http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/.