Author Topic: Turbo C and Turbo Pascal are back!! (Read 21,777 times)

mouser · « **on:** August 09, 2006, 10:20 AM »

This is big news for those of us who grew up learning to program using Turbo C or Turbo Pascal (or Turbo Assembler).

Borland announced a while ago that they were spinning off their programming development division to an independent company (unnamed as of yet).

Yesterday they announced that they are gong to release more individual-oriented versions of their top-of-the-line compilers/development tools Delphi and C++ Builder, under the old "Turbo" moniker, including free versions and highly discounted educational versions.

I use C++ Builder for most of my big projects and I am a real fan, so I think this is kind of cool news for new coders. Definitely worth a try if you haven't tried them yet..

http://www.turboexplorer.com/TurbosPressRelease.htm

Quote

David Intersimone, vice president of developer relations and chief evangelist at Borland, said the Turbo product set includes Turbo Delphi for Win32, Turbo Delphi for .Net, Turbo C++ and Turbo C#. Each version will be available in two editions: Turbo Explorer, a free downloadable version; and Turbo Professional, a version priced at less than $500, he said.

"And with the Explorer Edition we're going to blanket the earth for beginners, students, hobbyists, nontraditional programmers who still need to do some programming [and] people who need to learn additional languages to ramp up their skill set," Intersimone said.

Turbo Delphi, Turbo Delphi for .Net, Turbo C++ and Turbo C# will be generally available in the third quarter of this year, said Michael Swindell, senior director of product management for the Borland Developer Tools Group. Borland is offering student academic pricing for the Turbo Professional editions of these products that will be under $100. More information can be found at www.turboexplorer.com.

The new tools will be released in early september. See also:
http://www.turboexplorer.com
http://www.devsource.com/article2/0,1895,2000764,00.asp

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #1 on:** August 09, 2006, 11:16 AM »

Wow good news ... I always loved Turbo Pascal (one of the reasons I fancy learning Delphi)

Rover · « **Reply #2 on:** August 09, 2006, 01:09 PM »

Yippie! Once again Turbo Pascal (Delphi) will rule the world!

housetier · « **Reply #3 on:** August 09, 2006, 01:11 PM »

In school I learned programming with Turbo Pasal. I was very productive with it but never really got the hang of object orientation in Turbo *.

Their IDEs were state of the art imho, very clean interface without nick-nacks. I don't know the state of their current IDEs but if they come close to Together (which they acquired some time ago) they must be supertop.

Anyway, I will watch with mild curiosity what's gonna happen to Turbo...

app103 · « **Reply #4 on:** August 09, 2006, 01:16 PM »

Looking at what they are offering with Turbo Delphi Explorer and comparing it to Delphi 6/7 Personal, here are the major similarities and differences that I can see, so far:

	Available as a free download	Write Database Applications	Install 3rd Party VCL Into IDE
Delphi 6/7 Personal	Yes	No	Yes
Turbo Delphi Explorer	Yes	Yes	No

So in one way you get more with the new Turbo Delphi Explorer (database programming) and in one way you get less (can't install 3rd party VCL).

The comparison is the same between C++ Builder 6 Personal and the new Turbo C++ Explorer.

I also found this:

Quote from: http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/ZDM/story?id=2283717

Note, though, that you can only install one of the four product types on a given machine; if you need to use multiple languages, Borland figures you're a candidate for the higher-end Borland Developer Studio product.

So you can't install Turbo Delphi and Turbo Delphi for .NET...only one or the other. You will have to choose.

If you don't plan on doing any database programming, or if you want both Delphi & C++, I would go get the free download of the older personal editions now, while you still can.

C++ Builder 6 Personal (as part of a free Symbian SDK) - Just click "I agree" and it's yours...no registering needed, comes with the update. You CAN just install C++ Builder without installing the Nokia SDK.

Delphi 6 Personal - You will have to register on the Borland site for a free key, and you CAN get updates for it.
Delphi 7 Personal - You will have to register on the Borland site for a free key, and you are NOT entitled to any updates.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** August 09, 2006, 01:18 PM »

cant install 3rd party components, that sucks - i wonder if they will experience some pushback from component developers..

i notice the PRO version of explorer, which is still only $100 for students, CAN install 3rd party components, which in my mind would be worth it. the use of 3rd party components is one of the best features.

Gerome · « **Reply #6 on:** August 09, 2006, 02:27 PM »

Hi,

Definately hate those products...

f0dder · « **Reply #7 on:** August 09, 2006, 06:40 PM »

I started programming with Turbo Pascal 6.0 (and later on, Borlan Pascal 7.0). Nothing got even close to it back then, in terms of IDE or integrated help system. Having a decent and crosslinked and topic'ized help system was an extreme advantage when learning programming.

It was also very nifty that TP6 could compile+link directly to memory, so the build/test/debug/rebuild cycle got a lot faster - harddrives were EXTREMELY slow back then

Definitely a lot better than having started off with crap like BASIC.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #8 on:** August 09, 2006, 11:23 PM »

Quote from: f0dder on August 09, 2006, 06:40 PM

Definitely a lot better than having started off with crap like BASIC.

Unless you used variants like BBC Basic which was a brilliant procedural and function based language in its day.

Rover · « **Reply #9 on:** August 10, 2006, 03:29 AM »

Quote from: Gerome on August 09, 2006, 02:27 PM

Definately hate those products...

Hmm... ya know, I never did like Gerome. Now I know why.

It's a joke.

mouser · « **Reply #10 on:** September 02, 2006, 10:19 AM »

They will be releasing the Turbo versions in a few days and posted a nice faq. looks pretty good - like the Turbo Pro is all most people will need:
http://bdn.borland.com/article/33659

Jibz · « **Reply #11 on:** September 05, 2006, 07:06 PM »

I watched the countdown timer the last minute, now it says "Download now! The Turbos are here!", but there are no download links .. it's been 2 whole minutes ZOMG!

.

mouser · « **Reply #12 on:** September 05, 2006, 07:14 PM »

Damn you Jibz you stole my thunder, i was just about to post this. $:-\$

Jibz · « **Reply #13 on:** September 05, 2006, 07:36 PM »

http://www.turboexplorer.com/downloads

Download page is up now

.

Edit: Register this, download that, licence key here and there .. never thought I'd say this, but they could learn something from Microsoft and their Express editions

.

mouser · « **Reply #14 on:** September 05, 2006, 07:40 PM »

well this is a bit new and scary for them i'm guessing

so perhaps they will improve in time.

app103 · « **Reply #15 on:** September 05, 2006, 09:39 PM »

new? scary?

They have been giving away IDE's longer than Microsoft...and always making you jump through hoops by making you get an account, answer survey questions, wait for an email, confirm this, confirm that...then you get your key...and if you are lucky you might be able to find the software to use it with somewhere...maybe in Poland?

f0dder · « **Reply #16 on:** September 05, 2006, 09:53 PM »

I'm not jumping on this...

but WHOA, Jibz made an appearance

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #17 on:** September 05, 2006, 10:19 PM »

Actually I was impressed with the speed of their servers (given the hammering they are likely to be taking at the moment). They are huge files and my downloads took on average about 12-15 minutes per file. The only one that caused problems was C++ - the HTTP version seemed to collapse after about 14Mb but the FTP version worked fine.

I already have a Borland Registration (having gone through the hoops previously) so all I did was enter my email address and password and then it was simplicity - click on the product, confirm the email address (click), and a reg. file was sent (just save it in your user profile folder C:\Documents and Settings\username) and click on the two downloads.

Note if you want to download more than one product the prerequisite zip file is the same for all Turbos.

I am not quite sure why you need to install .Net for the non-.Net products though.

housetier · « **Reply #18 on:** September 05, 2006, 10:58 PM »

Quote from: app103 on September 05, 2006, 09:39 PM

They have been giving away IDE's longer than Microsoft...and always making you jump through hoops by making you get an account, answer survey questions, wait for an email, confirm this, confirm that...then you get your key...and if you are lucky you might be able to find the software to use it with somewhere...maybe in Poland?

HAHAHAHA well put!

It sometimes is strange how much you have to go through to get a product. One would think they are more interested in spreading their product than keeping visitors on their multiple websites and ftp servers. But then, I don't really know what software distribution on this scale is like...

mouser · « **Reply #19 on:** September 05, 2006, 11:03 PM »

ok app you might have a point

but the turbo thing is new to them and this is their first day of it being live.

Review at PC Magazine:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2011448,00.asp

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** September 05, 2006, 11:55 PM »

Ahem - actually the process for getting a license and the software is pretty similar to DC !

By the way - if anyone is installing a Turbo Express product there is an error in on of the prerequisite filenames !!

You have to install MSXML 4 SP2 before a Turbo product. The file in the prequ ZIP file is called MSXML.msi. You need to rename it to MSXML4.msi for it to work properly (otherwise the installation bombs with an error). Id guess this is an MS issue rather than Borland but you'd think they would check!

app103 · « **Reply #21 on:** September 06, 2006, 05:47 AM »

Quote from: Carol Haynes on September 05, 2006, 10:19 PM

I am not quite sure why you need to install .Net for the non-.Net products though.

I think it might be that the IDE's themselves are written in either Delphi.net or C#, and that .net would be required to run the IDE, even though the software you create with it won't.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #22 on:** September 06, 2006, 08:56 AM »

Yes - having tried a number of them they all come with the standard Borland 2006 IDE which was presumably written using the .NET framework etc. and the docoumentation is the standard Borland documentation - I can't find any reference to Turbo editions in it any where which is going to make it a bit difficult to use (I'd guess anyway).

mouser · « **Reply #23 on:** September 10, 2006, 01:39 PM »

nice page giving a bit of an intro and walkthrough:
http://www.duntemann.com/delphisq1part1.htm