On (22 Apr 97) Jay Moreau wrote to All...
 JM> Hi!  I'm a semi-experienced Turbo Pascal 7.0 programer...  But I found
 JM> Turbo too restricting in size of code/speed of execution, and a friend
 JM> told me to try out C++...
While C++ has advantages in some areas, I feel obliged to point out that
small code size often isn't one of them, at least compared to Turbo
Pascal.  With a lot of care, you can sometimes produce smaller programs,
but especially if you don't know what you're doing really well, your
final programs will often be considerably larger.
 JM> So I said, well...  can't be that hard (Later to find out different
 JM> ). Seems to compile alot slower, but it's a fair tradeoff for
 JM> the advantages...
This is true, though pre-compiled headers can help out a great deal in
this respect.
 JM> Anyways, my question is this : I've been told opposing stories about
 JM> which compiler to use...  Currently I'm using Turbo C++ v3.00. Is this
 JM> an Ok compiler to start with?
It depends.  It's reasonable for learing some of the basics, but is
quite dated in some areas.  In particular, it doesn't support STL, which
is a set of collection classes that's part of standard C++.  It's
possible to find some commercial versions of STL that work to some
degree with TC++ 3.0, but the last time I looked, they cost more than a
new compiler that includes a far more complete version of STL.
A great deal depends on the sorts of things you want to learn - if
you're a relatively straightforward application programmer, you'll
probably want to be able to use STL, which can make life a lot easier.
If you tend to get more into the "guts" of things, and implement your
own code for things even if lots of people have done it before, then
TC++ 3.0 will likely work quite well for you.
    Later,
    Jerry.
... The Universe is a figment of its own imagination.
--- PPoint 1.90
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