Anybody here ever used all three of these? Which of the three worked the best for you? I am more interested in playing with the code than the platform, i.e. it doesn't matter to me if I'm going to be using Linux or Windows, I would like to not spend a lot of my time on compiler bugs and OS crashes, if you know what I mean, Verne? ...

I haven't done C in years, but, I have an old C++ Builder 3 RAD Pro thing I bought in college. I was wondering if I really need anything new, or just maybe an expanded tLibrary and minor add-ons for the C++ builder I already have? I've done mostly assembly language in the past, and I actually prefer low level languages, but, more and more controllers are using embedded C++ and other high level crap now.:shakefist

Anybody here ever used all three of these? Which of the three worked the best for you? I am more interested in playing with the code than the platform, i.e. it doesn't matter to me if I'm going to be using Linux or Windows, I would like to not spend a lot of my time on compiler bugs and OS crashes, if you know what I mean, Verne?
Well, it depends a lot on what kind of project you're doing. I've never used Borland, but I used Visual C++ professionally for a couple of years and gcc/g++ for many years before and since. In a way it's like comparing apples and oranges, since Visual C++ is an entire environment - editor, debugger, doc set, a bunch of other tools - while g++ is just a compiler. To make them comparable you'd have to add a bunch of other stuff to g++. Eclipse can supposedly be used for C/C++ as well as Java, but last time I tried it still felt like using a chisel to drive nails and I got tired of Eclipse's bloated system-resource-hogging ways too. Most of the things I do tend to be OS-specific and the OS in question is Linux, but I'd still have to say that for projects where it's an option Visual C++ is actually a damn nice environment.

Well, it depends a lot on what kind of project you're doing.

TCp/IP apps, device drivers, playing around with microcontrollers, and maybe database stuff; mainly just learning to use it; did Ansi C some years back, but no 'Object Oriented' stuff. I'm not even clear on what 'OOP' actually is, yet.

I've never used Borland, but I used Visual C++ professionally for a couple of years and gcc/g++ for many years before and since. In a way it's like comparing apples and oranges, since Visual C++ is an entire environment - editor, debugger, doc set, a bunch of other tools - while g++ is just a compiler. To make them comparable you'd have to add a bunch of other stuff to g++.

Yes, indeed. I fooled around with it some years ago, trying to get the various GUI's to work but it was real blow ware crap, and too time consuming to be practical.

Most of the things I do tend to be OS-specific and the OS in question is Linux, but I'd still have to say that for projects where it's an option Visual C++ is actually a damn nice environment.

Borland's C++ Builder is also a GUI environment, with a lot of precoded stuff, drag and drop, etc., too. I have an old version, though, and don't really know if I need to care or not, since I don't keep up with software development advances, or reverses, whatever the case may be. Maybe I can figure out how to link the 5.5 compiler to the old RAD environment, or just do the code in the RAD and just compile it with the 5.5, but then I would lose the convenience of the RAD's debugger, probably.

I agree that Visual C++ is a much better app; I have Visual Basic and it's great time-saving stuff. I would have thought Linux open source would have had something close to that quality by now; no doubt there is, but I don't want to pay for it, as I don't get and academic discount any more for that stuff.

Or, I could just forget it and worry about it later.

I used Visual C++ for a number of years. I spent more time learning the IDE then I did on the language, which is a big part of why I didn't like it. But, if you intend to do a lot of windows development it is essential.
I am personally a big fan of Gnu C++, vi, and the command line. But the latest version of Eclipse is a lot better than previous versions too, so using it in a Linux environment might be preferable these days.