Learning Turbo C++

Turbo C ++ 3.0 is the most famous and easy to use IDE for learning C++. It has all you need for C++ development. It is still used in many institutes, colleges & universities even if it is out of date. There are very few articles documented on internet for Turbo C++ IDE. I’m is trying to make this post be the definitive guide for helping beginners and amateurs out. A lot of the things covered requested by the many readers of onecore.net. I’ll update this post if I found some worthy to post for this IDE, so do check this page once in month. If you’re curious in exploring more resources in TC++ then scroll down for resources section.

History
It’s quite interesting to know the history of the most famous IDE. The history of this famous IDE began in February 28, 1991.The version 1.0 of TC++ runs on DOS only,with support for AT&T 2.0 release of C++. This version is still available as free of cost in the Borland museum. If you’re interested in this old release, go and download it. TC++ 3.0 released in 1991,an updated version with the latest release of AT&T C++, it was targeted for windows 3.0 and support for both dos and protected mode executables. After the version 3.0 Borland started to distinguish between TC and BC as low end and high end compiler, with inclusion of more features in BC++. The version 3.0 was quickly become famous for its high compilation & linkage speed. Many DOS based games were written on Turbo C++ and still it is used for the same purpose.

Recently Borland resurrected the Turbo C++ series with brand name “Turbo Explorer”. With this IDE you can almost do anything that you can do with their commercial IDE’s with few minor restrictions. Under Turbo Explorer you’ve flavors such as Delphi, C++ etc.

Installation
The installation of this IDE is the easiest part. All you’ve to do is run the command line installer and set the path for the directories then it will install on its own. If everything sets up properly you don’t even need to reconfigure it. The version 3.0 also gives you command line access so that you run program from command line or do other operations within the IDE. With this IDE you also get assembler, profiler and debugger. These features are helpful when you dig yourself deeply in the C++.

 

Check this installation video.

 

Setting up directories
If your program gives error for cout and cin operators while programming then it means that compiler is unable to find the include directories. In this case you’ve to manually set the directories. To set up directories manually, follow the steps: In the IDE menu bar > Options > Directories. You have to enter the path of the include directory & library directory. The output directory can be any directory of your choice. The source directory path is optional; you don’t need to set it up in order to run your programs.

Working with Turbo C++
In order to see how your program works you need to compile the file first.You can compile the file using steps : in the IDE menu > Compile > Compile ( ALT+F9) or you can use the shortcut ALT+F9.If it shows no warning and errors then you’re ready to run the program using instructions : in the IDE menu >Run>Run( Ctrl+F9).

Similarly to link the file you can do the following step: in the IDE menu > Compile > Link. Then the object file will link with the one or more library file, and you can get the exe file. You can build all the sources if you want to before creating exe file of your program.

If you want to access to any DOS function then you can use listing, copying or deleting files without exiting from the TC, just go the File> Dos Shell.

Help
Turbo C++ has excellent documentation for all the standard functions, header files, routines and I/O operations. If you’ve any background in programming then you can proceed on your own to get most of this IDE. You can read help file: In the IDE menu bar > Help > Contents or Index. If you want fast-help then put the cursor on the first letter of the function or term and press CTRL+F1,it will point you to the help file of that term/function.

There are lot of non-standard i.e. Borland’s own functions & libraries available which will make your life easier in this IDE. But don’t get addicted to it as it’ll have trouble while learning other IDE’s. I’ve received comments about why i can’t use conio.h in xxx IDE. Etc. So try to learn which header files & functions are standard.

Resources
There are very few resources available but I’ve tried to cover the most useful feature sets in the IDE like graphics, sound etc. Here is the list of other articles on onecore for Turbo C++.

Turbo C++ graphics programming
Turbo C++ graphics functions
Turbo C++ Sound programming
Turbo C++ standalone graphics programs
Turbo explorer Review

If you’re looking for official Borland resources then here is the list of resources.
Turbo Explorer

I hope the information above helped. If you have any questions or comments, please don’t hesitate to post them.
Note: Please note that I’ll not entertain any comments regarding homework stuff, custom projects etc. Such comment will be banned, deleted & treated as spam.