Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!bonnie.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!usc!elroy.jpl.nasa.gov!swrinde!ucsd!ucbvax!ucdavis!csus.edu!borland!sidney From: sidney@borland.com (Sidney Markowitz) Newsgroups: comp.lang.c++ Subject: Re: Whats in Borland C++ upgrade? Message-ID: <1991Feb27.055411.145@borland.com> Date: 27 Feb 91 05:54:11 GMT References: <9545.27c51e45@ohstpy.mps.ohio-state.edu> <2760001@hpnmdla.HP.COM> Organization: Borland International Lines: 77 In article <2760001@hpnmdla.HP.COM> john@hpnmdla.HP.COM (John McLaughlin) writes: >In comp.lang.c++, David_Dave_Tamashiro@cup.portal.com writes: >> [ ... stuff about lack of doc ... ] >Is this true? [...] >Can anyone confirm or deny this?? P.S. can anyone give a capsule review? >am especially interested in how the precompiled headers work (how much >faster?) also the speed increases seen with the turbo drive... Well, the newsfeed to our new Internet node was turned on for the first time today, so excuse me if I repeat anything that has gone by on this thread already. And please let me know via e-mail if I stray too far from what are considered proper topics in this newsgroup. (And see disclaimer at my signature!) The short answers first: If you have a lot of code in headers, which is typical in C++ and in Windows programming, a recompile when headers haven't changed can get up to 5 times faster, though your mileage will vary greatly up or down depending on your code. "Turbo drive" is marketing's term for a protected mode DOS extender. It's major advantage is increased capacity, and greater speed when compared to real mode compiles and links that would have to swap to run. It may be a little slower than a real mode compile/link that doesn't have to swap, especially on a 286, because of the time it take to switch the processor back and forth between protected and real modes. That's less of a factor on 386 and 486 machines. The following is a compilation of two messages that appeared on the Borland tech support forum on Compuserve, followed by some additions from me: [begin forwarded message] Borland C++ comes with nine (9) manuals including a library reference manual for the RTL. The manuals included are: Borland C++ Getting Started User's Guide Programmer's Guide Library Reference Whitewater Resource Toolkit User's Guides for Turbo Debugger, Profiler and Assembler. It also comes with a spiral about Quick Refence for the Assembler and a six page quick reference for the command line switches. Plenty of online doc too. If you buy Borland C++ through the retail channel, Petzold's "Programming Windows" is available free with a coupon in the box. If you are upgrading, you can get the book for $20 (33% off the list price). Paul Gross Sr. Product Mgr Borland C++ [end forwarded message] Later, Borland announced that the Windows Help Compiler had been licensed from Microsoft. The contract had not been concluded in time for the product announcement, so initial shipments did not include it. A free disk and manual will automatically be sent to anyone who received an upgrade or who registers a retail copy of BC++ that didn't include the help compiler. The coupon for the discount on Petzold's book was missing from the first boxes of upgrades and will be sent with the help compiler. I have seen no mention of a TASM manual being included in the product and not the upgrade. After the big uproar about that with the TC++ 1.0 upgrades that led to Borland FedExing free TASM manuals to people who requested them, I doubt that they would do that again, but I'll check on it. -- sidney markowitz (Note: the way, Tech Support and Customer Service are not yet hooked in to this node, just a few R&D people, so please everyone, don't deluge me with questions and requests best handled by them through normal channels).