Sun 2003-06-29 11:41, Bob Lawrence (3:712/610.12) wrote to Andrew Clarke:

 AC>> Actually, just a slight correction, the C++ string class isn't
 AC>> part of the STL (it's not a template class) but is part of the
 AC>> C++ spec itself. :-) 

Actually I lied, it is a template class, but it isn't a template class
designed for generic programming (ie. working with any data type)
because it's specifically designed to work with the char type (and
wstring with the wchar_t type).  So it's not part of the STL.

 BL>  Fascinating... I wasn't even aware that C++ had a basic_string
 BL> class. It's as if Borland goes out of its way to hide it, in their
 BL> Help files.

It is still a relatively new feature of C++.

 BL>  I've never used C++. I've been writing in Pascal Objects and Delphi.
 BL> It's only when I had a look at Linux that I decided to do a bit of C++
 BL> and CBuilder was my introduction. Bad choice, by the look of it.

C++ Builder is a very good C++ compiler, but don't expect to learn the
language from the help files.  If you're going to learn it, do it
properly - from a good C++ book.  Preferably a new book, ie. one
released after C++ was standardised (1999?).  In particular C++ has
changed enormously since the early 1990's, so avoid books from that era
unless you want to learn a lot of useless and/or superceded information.

Alternatively, avoid C++ altogether and get the free version of Borland
Kylix and write Linux programs with that using Object Pascal.  Or if you
don't want to write GUI apps with a RAD "builder" IDE you could use Free
Pascal (which is supposedly language-compatible with Delphi 1 or
something, and it provides many of the basic Delphi classes, eg. TList).

 BL>  CBuilder is nearly straight Delphi, and the online Help keeps
 BL> pushing that way. I might have to take a couple of steps back, and
 BL> start writing in BC++5.

If you mean "go back to Borland C++ 5.0", I don't know why you'd bother.
That's getting on to be 7 years old so it'll probably be missing support
for a lot of really important and useful C++ features, notably the STL.

In any case, C++ Builder 3 uses the C++ 5.3 compiler, C++ Builder 6 uses
the 5.6 compiler, etc.  The newer versions are essentially backward
compatible with earlier ones.

But by all means, use the BC++ 5.0 help files while using C++ Builder if
you think that's worthwhile, but that's a really bad way of learning the
language!

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