Introduction

C++Builder is a visual integrated development tool launched by Borland Company. C++Builder has a fast visual development environment: simply drag a component onto a form, define its properties, and set its appearance to quickly establish an application interface; C++Builder has over 100 built-in reusable controls that fully encapsulate Windows common features and have full scalability (including full support for ActiveX controls); C++Builder has all the functions that a professional C++development environment can provide: fast, efficient, and flexible compiler optimization, step-by-step connection, CPU perspective, command-line tools, and more. It achieves a perfect combination of a visual programming environment and a powerful programming language (C++).

Functional characteristics

The 32-bit Native Code compiler optimized by C++Builder is built on Borland's proven compilation technology, providing highly secure, reliable, and fast compilation optimization methods. It completely compiles the original machine code instead of intermediate code, greatly improving software execution speed. During the compilation and linking process, C++Builder automatically ignores unmodified original code and unused functions, greatly improving compilation and linking speed. The CPU perspective tool of C++Builder includes five independent small panels, which can provide a deeper understanding of the running program from the inside. In addition, C++Builder provides a professional development environment with necessary command-line tools to help establish C++programs or prepare compiled and connected programs for finer control.

C++Builder can compile all ANSI/ISO compliant source code, supporting the latest ANSI C++/C language features such as templates, exceptions, runtime type information, namespaces, etc. In addition, it can also use the standard C++library and support the standard template library (STL). All previous C++/C source code can be unmodified, Directly migrate to the C++Builder environment. C++Builder fully supports 32-bit long file names, multithreaded programming, and allows programmers to directly call any Win95 and NT API functions.

The integrated development environment (IDE) of C++Builder provides a series of visual rapid application development (RAD) tools, including visual form designers, object viewers, control boards, project managers, integrated editors, and debuggers, allowing programmers to easily establish and manage their own programs and resources.

Frame structure

Compare from their application framework (sometimes also known as object framework). The framework adopted by Visual C++is MFC. MFC is not just a class library that people usually understand. (Similarly, the concept of VCL used by Delphi and C++Builder is not just a control library.) If you choose MFC, you also choose a program structure and a programming style. MFC emerged as early as the era of Windows 3. x, when Visual C++was still 16 bit.

After years of continuous supplementation and improvement, MFC has become very mature. However, due to the early emergence of prototypes, MFC lags behind VCL by an era. Although Microsoft's updates to MFC have not stopped, and I often read articles holding the view that "as long as Windows is not outdated, MFC will not be outdated", just like the fading out of Inprice's OWL framework, the fading out of MFC is also a matter of time. If MFC's youth lasts forever, Microsoft developers will not "privately" develop WTL based on ATL. Of course, the status of WTL cannot be compared to that of MFC. It is not an officially supported framework by Microsoft, and the encapsulated functions are also quite limited. But at least it also highlights the shortcomings of MFC.