How does C++ builder stack up against other RAD IDEs?

Question

It has been a few years since I did any development for PCs (I usually do embedded software).

At that time I was highly proficient with (Borland, now CodeGear) C++ Builder. Time has moved on, C++ Builder has become extremely expensive and there are alternatives (MSVC studio, NetBeans, QtCreator, maybe even Eclipse with the right plugins). Others?

Three things concern me (in no particular order), ease of use, additional GUI components and cross-platformness.

Ease of use - I want an IDE which helps, not hinders me. Good debugger, refactoring, jump to variable declaration, usage, that sort of thing ..

GUI components - when using C++ Builder I was impressed by how easy it was to develop additional VCL components and how many were available, often for free. Thus if I wanted a standard string grid where the cells also could contain pictures, checkboxes, etc, I could probably find one, or roll my own.

I am not sure what the current state of play is with respect to add-on components. Do other systems have anything like http://www.tmssoftware.com/site/ ?

Cross-platform - I personally use Linux for everything, but realistically, the majority of my users have Windows installations. So, cross-platform is "nice to have", "all other things being equal".

Now I have to pick a solution and stick with it for the next few years. Which one, given my points above (cost plays a role, but is not make/break)?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Answer 1

I have used both C++ Builder and Visual Studio. Over the years I have always preferred C++ Builder over V.S. Builder and VCL just feels much better designed than Microsoft's products. (Even the Borland library source code just looks cleaner than anything that comes out of Microsoft).

The integrated debugger in Builder is truely integrated and quite intuitive to use.

I find Builder compiles much faster than Visual Studio. Builder 5 had a problem that made it unnecessarily slow, but at the time it was still faster than VC++ and the latest Builder versions have faster compile times. Accellerators such as TwineCompile make Builder even faster.

I've never tried to create custom C++ controls for Visual Studio, but it is fairly easy to do in Builder.

Last year, CodeGear released a free version of TurboExplorer (I haven't used it myself) which includes the IDE and RAD (although limited) http://www.turboexplorer.com/ TurboExplorer can be used for commercial apps.

I have not been happy with Java based IDE's where are always slow. I.e. SunStudio12 which is good (and free) but the UI is slow response. I use Code:Blocks on Linux which has reasonable usability, but haven't done any RAD work with it.