From: Mavi Gozler Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp,comp.os.ms-windows.programmer.win32,borland.public.cppbuilder.non-technical Subject: Getting the application built without the hassle Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 17:44:52 GMT Organization: Deja.com - Share what you know. Learn what you don't. Lines: 64 Message-ID: <7ml6mg$mcd$1@nnrp1.deja.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: 195.112.128.222 X-Article-Creation-Date: Thu Jul 15 17:44:52 1999 GMT X-Http-User-Agent: Mozilla/4.61 [en] (Win98; I) X-Http-Proxy: 1.0 proxy02.ada.net.tr:8080 (Squid/2.2.STABLE4), 1.0 x40.deja.com:80 (Squid/1.1.22) for client 195.112.142.143, 195.112.128.222 X-MyDeja-Info: XMYDJUIDbuyuk_yarak To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com DJ-Gateway: from newsgroup comp.os.msdos.djgpp Reply-To: djgpp AT delorie DOT com This message belongs in the 'advocacy' category, so if you're looking for messages that don't express an opinion about one development system being better than another, stop reading right now. -------------- I have been programming a long time (in C) on systems like Unix and MS-DOS, but I don't earn my income doing it. Until now, I have resisted learning to write Windows programs for quite a few reasons. But now I find that I have been asked to do something that involves writing some Windows programs (namely console programs exec'd as CGI apps by a web server) and I told the people I'd "check into it," meaning that if the time to get the system configured and working were long, forget it. I looked into the freely obtainable tools off the Internet for making Win apps from C programs. One system was installed to the letter of its instructions. It seemed to build a runnable console .exe with just some printf() statements sending out an HTML page. But then I gave it the program I wanted to run, and that was the end of the easy times. It came with its own debugger, and one could see processor exceptions being generated even before main() was called. Of course, I don't think it ever claimed to be bug-free (at the price, it's hard to complain, right?), but the point is to get something working. I downloaded another popular freely obtainable system, and after a bit of time, also got the one simple program with the printf() statements to run, but the real program didn't run at all. Learning gdb requires an investment of time, just to piece through the online help, and so I figured trying the next system. The next system was given by a friend who has an unlicensed (yes, pirate) version of Borland C++ Builder. He told me I would be very unproductive/inefficient as a programmer trying to learn and configure and mess with the freely obtainable tools I was using...namely that one gets what one (is supposed to) pay(s) for, such as a commercial development system like the popular ones. So the C++ Builder was set up, and within 30 minutes of running through the online help and figure out how to build a console app, I had tested the simple cgi program with the printf() statements and the real app I wanted to run. And guess what, both apps worked. The web server didn't even groan. I was beginning to think there was something wrong with my code in the real application. But then when the one ran built by the Borland system , I figured the fault wasn't the programmer's. At any rate, I had tested the program on DOS (the only thing it can't do is IPC with the webserver, so stdin and stdout were dealt with differently) and it worked as well. Now this probably, for some of you, belongs in the as-if-that's-news set of statements, but I figure I lost an incredible amount of time trying to configure and get things running (which they never did) with these "free" tools for making Win32 programs. I am now a firm believer that if you want to get something done and are wondering about the trade-off between time spent getting tools off the Internet for free vs. the time and money spent for tools from the commerical suppliers of devel. systems, pay the license fees ($800 in the US, I believe for the Borland system I was using), even if you're just a hobbyist. The amount you save in frustration and exasperation is worth it. Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ Share what you know. Learn what you don't.