Subj : Pascal vs C++ (LONG!!)
To : Scott Adams
From : Simon Woodland
Date : Mon Oct 21 2002 09:27 pm
Hello Scott!
On 18/10/2002, Scott Adams wrote to Simon Woodland:
-=>> Quoting Simon Woodland to Wayne Harms <=-
SW>> There is hack on the internet that will let you turn Borland C++
SW>> into
SW>> a Delphi complier.
SA> Not heard of that hack..hmmm
As taken from the PCPlus Issue 184 page 277/8
Delphi components with C++ Builder
This month Dave Jewell delves into the wealth of Delphi components that are
available for use within C++ Builder As promised last time, this month's
C++Workshop takes a somewhat different format to usual.
Rather than walking you through the development of a specific project,
we're going to provide some pointers to the best Delphi components that are
available for use with c++ Builder. If you're wondering why we're mentioning
Delphi in C++
Workshop, you're probably not aware of the intimate relationship
between these two development systems. Read on, and all will be revealed...
As you're probably aware, Delphi and C++ Builder have a great deal in
common; they are both Borland RAD development tools, and they both use
the same VCL application framework. However, the relationship is a lot tighter
than that. Delphi is based around the Pascal programming language and uses
a lightning-fast compiler. Delphi appeared before C++ Builder and almost
the entire Delphi development is itself written using Delphi. The only
significant
exceptions to this are the Pascal compiler (written in plain vanilla C), the
debugger and the guts of the text editor
- everything else is Delphi.
When Borland came to create C++ Builder, it just didn't make sense to go
to the huge effort of rewriting everything in C++. Instead, Borland
simply modified the IDE where appropriate, connected it up to a C++
compiler and - hey presto - C++ Builder was born. OK, we're over-
simplifying this somewhat, but hopefully you get the message: every
time you fire up C++ Builder, you're actually running a Delphi application.
When C++ Builder was first released, Borland was rather coy about this
aspect of the product. Perhaps it figured that C++ programmers wouldn't like to
know that it was using a development tool written in Pascal.
The truth is, no matter how ardent a C++ developer you are, the Pascal
under-the-hood nature of C++ Builder is great news. Why? Because it means
that C++ Builder is fully compatible with the huge number of Delphi
components that are available. We'll be looking at some of the better
ones in the remainder of this months C++ Workshop.
Incorporating Pascal code into a C++ project
Although we have focused on adding Delphi-authored components to a C++ Builder
project,
there's nothing to stop you from incorporating any Pascal code into your C++
code
To do this, simply click the Add File Project option on the IDE toolbar
and select the .PAS file that you wish to incorporate into your project.
This works because C++ Builder incorporates not only a full C++ compiler,
but also a full Pascal compiler too - the same one used in Delphi. If you go to
the Project Options dialog and select the Compiler tab, you'll be able to see a
set
of compiler options that are used to control the operation of the built-in
Pascal compiler. The fact that C++ Builder includes a Pascal compiler makes it
very
easy to include Pascal code in your project, and to transparently create
Pascal classes and invoke Pascal methods directory from a C++ program.
As we've already pointed out, this happens all the time because all the
out-of-the-box components on the C++ Builder component palette are Delphi-
authored controls. Sadly this only works one way; whereas C++ has a built-in
Pascal compiler, there isn't a C++ compiler built into the Delphi system. Oh
well... we can't have everything.
Regards,
Simon Woodland
--- APoint 1.25
* Origin: Simon's Little Corner of the world (2:250/501.5)
