From: Tom Wheeley <tw104 AT york DOT ac DOT uk>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: need advice on djgpp vs. Turbo C
Date: Thu, 17 Oct 1996 20:51:18 +0100
Organization: The University of York, UK
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To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com
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T.W. Seddon wrote:

> I'd advise Turbo C if you're learning C/C++. I've got Turbo C++ 3.0 myself
> and it's excellent for a beginner, especially the on-line help, colouring
> of different program elements (helps a lot if you're not used to /* */!),
> the quick compilation time and the handy debugger. After programming in
> BASIC for several years, I installed Turbo C++ and was writing a program
> within minutes, thanks to the online help. The debugger is great, and the
> huge pointer facility means you can ignore the 64K segment limit (640K of
> (effectively) flat-mode memory -- pretty handy).

I remember being told about a year ago that DJGPP was impossible for a beginner, etc, and that I should get 
Turbo C and all that.  In the end, I learned C with gcc under Linux, which is effectively the same as DJGPP at 
that level.  When I got the DOS half of my computer working again, I decided to download DJGPP and was 
pleasantly surprised.

It's very easy to just compile something, and see _what is happening_.

I get on-line help -- I edit in a DOS box from 'doze95, and Alt-Tab to another dos box running info in.

A month or so ago I started porting a program I had written in djgpp to Turbo C (a friend has a dodgy RM laptop 
which crashes half the time when running DJGPP compiled programs).  It was a _nightmare!_.  My data structures 
were too large, I couldn't compile everything in one go from the command line.  I didn't even like the IDE (it 
was Turbo C 2 I was using, the newer Borland IDEs are better, eg TP7)

Also, I could write programs which can be used on Unix with no modification :)

> Well, after that eulogy I will say that the code it produces isn't
> particularly quick and the IDE is no good for debugging Mode-X or
> graphics programs, but if you're learning C then the whole thing is a
> godsend. It took me about two weeks to get used to the lack of online
> help and syntax highlighting under djgpp. (And no, my family doesn't work
> for Borland :-)

There is on-line help.  Syntax highlighting is good for finding unbalanced comments, I found.

I suppose Makefiles are a bit tricky to start with, but I started by copying someone elses and substituting my 
own source files in it :)

:sb)