Turbo C++ Compiler

Turbo C++ is a Borland C++ compiler and Integrated Development Environment (IDE), famous for its high compilation & linkage speed - hence the term "Turbo". It was a part of Borland's highly popular family of compilers including Turbo Pascal, Turbo Basic, Turbo Prolog and Turbo C. Turbo C++ was a successor of Turbo C, expanding the compiler similarly to how Turbo Pascal 5.5 added object functionality to the earlier Turbo Pascal versions. Unlike Turbo Pascal, however, Turbo C++ always adhered to C++ language standards of its time. The MS-DOS product was never capable of compiling ISO-standard C++, however, because development on it was discontinued before the standard was completed.

Borland has recently brought back the "Turbo" product line with all-new versions of Turbo C++, Turbo Delphi (including a special .Net compatible version), and Turbo C# for Win32 and .NET programming.

Version History

The first release of Turbo C++ was made available during the MS-DOS reign on personal computers. It came up in versions 1.0, running on OS/2 and version 1.01, released on February 28, 1991 , running on MS-DOS. The latter was able to generate both COM and EXE programs, and was shipped with Borland's Turbo Assembler compiler for Intel x86 processors. The initial version of the Turbo C++ compiler was based on a front end developed by TauMetric (TauMetric was later acquired by Sun Microsystems and their front end was incorporated in Sun C++ 4.0, which shipped in 1994). This compiler supported the AT&T 2.0 release of C++.

Turbo C++ 3.0 was released in 1991 (shipping on November 20), and came in amidst expectations of the coming release of Turbo C++ for Microsoft Windows. Turbo C++ v3.0 first came as an MS-DOS compiler, supporting C++ templates, generation of DOS & protected mode executables, as well as generation of code targeting specific legacy CPUs, such as Intel 80186. The language implementation was updated to the latest AT&T release of C++.

After Windows 3.0 became available, Turbo C++ was sold with MS-Windows support. First Windows-based IDE was Turbo C++ 3.0 for Windows, followed by Turbo C++ 3.1 and Turbo C++ 4.5. It's possible that the jump from version 1.x to version 3.x was in part an attempt to link Turbo C++ release numbers with Microsoft Windows versions; however, it seems more likely that this jump was simply to synchronize Turbo C and Turbo C++, since Turbo C 2.0 (1989) and Turbo C++ 1.0 (1990) had come out roughly at the same time, and the next generation 3.0 was a merger of both the C and C++ compiler.

With version 3.0, Borland introduced a distinction between "Turbo C++" and "Borland C++". The former was marketed as a somewhat low-end product, while the latter was geared toward professional applications (it included additional tools and a stronger optimizer).

Version 4.0 was released in November 1993 and was notable (among other things) for its robust support of templates. In particular, it was instrumental in the development of the Standard Template Library, expression templates, and the first advanced applications of template metaprogramming. With the success of Delphi, Borland ceased work on their Borland C++ suite and concentrated on C++ Builder for Windows, which used the same rapid application framework as Delphi but largely the same back-end compiler technology, and that change in emphasis led to the end of active development on Borland C++/Turbo C++ (until 2006, see below).

Turbo C++ v1.01 for DOS is currently freely distributed by Borland, and can be downloaded from their Antique Software web site.
Currently, Borland also offers Borland Turbo C++ 4.5 in a package called Borland Turbo C++ Suite in their shop. This suite categorized in their Classic Products.

Turbo C++ 2006, a subset version of Borland C++ Builder, was released on September 5, 2006 and is available in 'Explorer' and 'Professional' editions. The Explorer edition is free to download and distribute while the Professional edition is a commercial product.