Borland C++ 5.0 Programming Starter Kit

Rating:
Summary: Great buy!
Review: Compared to Visual C++, I'd take this anyday. I can't comment on the book that's included, as I never looked at it, but the software is the best you'll find at a price that won't kill your wallet. It doesn't have quite as many features as other programs, but these features are usually minor things, like the ability to see all DLLs which your program requires, or to package your program with an installer, and there is freeware/shareware that is available to do both of these.

The weakest feature of the software is a poorly-done help file system. On the other hand, it comes with something like 50-75 fully working example programs (almost all are windows programs), which are great ways to see the tricks of the trade.

I use this compiler exclusively. I've published several programs as freeware on the web, and I've found this more than meets my needs in every way.

For those that are interested in the book, it ships with "Sams' Teach Yourself C in 24 hours", so you can look at the reviews of that book for comments. IMO, it's worth the buy just for the compiler, and the book is an afterthought.

Rating:
Summary: This Software Has Bugs.
Review: This Borland C++ 5.0 Starter Kit (actually C++ 5.02) contains modules which were first written in 1988 to run under DOS. I tried to get it to run under NT 4.0 (which it is supposed to do) and it took my system down.
After trying everything I could think of -- I do systems programming for a living - I finally resorted to the Sam's textbook which accompanied the kit. I was much gratified to find an entry in the index for "Borland C++ Development Suite 5.0" which pointed me to page 444. Unfortunately this textbook ends on page 427 -- there is no page 444... Somewhere "out there" is a page 444 which might contain helpful information but it isn't in this book. Nevertheless a small voice inside my head did supply the appropriate information: "Send it back!" said the small voice and so that is what I am doing.
My advice? Don't buy this kit. It is nothing but trouble.

Rating:
Summary: See about C
Review: This c I do not recommend, I recommend Microsoft Visual C ++, the book Windows game programming for dummies. These are good things, to get. I look up on web sites and found a site and he is a video game designer and programmer. He recommended these. so, get the advanced one and not this one. Borland is not a good company to by from. Microsoft is the leading company so this is good but spend a little bit more money, about 20 dollers is. So in conclusion, i recommend some other software to use if you want a good solid software, altough this is a 1980 software.

Rating:
Summary: Well-suited for teaching beginning C/C++
Review: While this product is dated and does not contain all of the modern bells and whistles of more sophisticated packages, I still find it of value. In terms of cost, ease of use and simplicity, I would much rather use it to teach introductory C++ than Microsoft Visual C++. I have used both packages to teach C++ at the college level and it is so much easier to use the Borland package. It uses fewer resources and the cost is nominal to non-existent. The faster loads and compiles also save a surprising amount of time. That is never more prominent than when you are lecturing to a class and demonstrating how a code change affects the output. This requires that you wait for the compile and link sequence to complete and the Borland package is much faster.
The coverage is also more than adequate for all aspects of C and C++ that one normally covers in the introductory courses. When teaching C++, I avoid the introduction of GUI development as long as possible, preferring to concentrate on how to program rather than how to lay objects on a form. Since there is no visual component to this package, there is the added advantage that the student cannot be distracted by it. In my experience in teaching Visual Basic, students seem to be so enthralled by the visual aspects that they consider the more important coding to be secondary. That is of course false, but it is a very hard point to get across.
I have used this package to teach C/C++ and also use it to write most of the programs I use in my mathematical research. You can get students up and running in a matter of minutes and keeping them using it is very low maintenance.

Published in Mathematics and Computer Education, reprinted with permission.