Borland C++

Borland C++ is a C and C++ programming environment (used to be called an Integrated Development Environment) for DOS, Windows, and Windows NT. As a successor of Turbo C++. Its better debugger, the Turbo Debugger, was written in protected mode DOS.

Libraries

Object Windows Library (OWL) : A set of C++ classes to make it easier to develop professional graphical Windows applications.

Turbo Vision : A set of C++ classes to create professional applications in DOS. Those classes mimics some of the aspects of a Windows application like: dialog boxes, messages pumps, menus, accelerators, etc.

Add-ons

Borland Power Pack for DOS : It allows you to create 16- and 32-bit DOS applications using protected mode. Those applications can access a limited scope of the Windows API and call functions in any Windows DLL.

Borland CodeGuard : Once installed and integrated within the IDE, CodeGuard can insert instrumentalization code in the final executables that can be used to monitor: pointer usage, API calls, how many times some function is called, among other features. If some error is found, a pop-up window appears, the debugger can stop or a log is written to disk. Delivered for 16- and 32-bit applications.

Version History

• Turbo C++ 1.0 - (1990, MS-DOS) Next Version was 2.0
• Turbo C++ 2.0 - (1991, MS-DOS)
• Turbo C++ 3.0 - (1991) New compiler support to build Microsoft Windows applications.
• Turbo C++ 3.1 - (1992) Introduction of Windows-based IDE and application frameworks (OWL 1.0, Turbovision 1.0)
• Turbo C++ 4.0 - (1993, Windows 3.x) MS-DOS IDE supported no longer, included OWL 2.0.
• Borland C++ 1.0 - (1992, OS/2)
• Borland C++ 1.5 - (?, OS/2)
• Borland C++ 2.0 - (1993, OS/2) Support for 2.1 and Warp 3. OWL 2.0. Included IBM SMART Toolset for automatically migrating Windows applications to OS2. Last version.
• Borland C++ 4.01
• Borland C++ 4.02 - (1994)
• Borland C++ 4.5
• Borland C++ 4.51
• Borland C++ 4.52 - (1995) Official support for Windows 95, OWL 2.5
• Borland C++ 4.53
• Borland C++ 5.0 - (1996, Windows 95) Released in March 1996. Works on Windows 95 and Windows NT 3.51. It does not (officially) work on Windows NT 4.0 (which was still in development at that time). 3rd party tests exhibited some problems on NT 4.0. It does not work in Windows 3.x or DOS. Despite that, it can produce either Win32, Win16 or DOS programs.
• Borland C++ 5.01
• Borland C++ 5.02 - (1997) Final release of the Borland C++ IDE (subsequently replaced up by the C++Builder series), final release to support compilation to (real-mode) MS-DOS target. Windows NT 4.0 officially supported.
• Borland C++ 5.5 - Command-line compiler only (not with IDE). It is still (freely) available from Borland at CodeGear.

Evolution of Borland C++

This is the evolution of Borland C++:

Turbo C++ -> Borland C++ -> Borland C++Builder -> CodeGear C++Builder -> Embarcadero C++Builder