C++ Builder or Visual Studio for native C++ development?

Coming from Delphi, you'll find the VCL straightforward to use with C++ Builder. There are a few oddities, like C++ doesn't hide the fact that TObjects are all really pointers (which Delphi hides from you), and some things like array properties are accessed differently.

Two or three years back, I was looking for any way out of C++Builder, but now, with recent releases (and Embarcadero's purchase of Codegear), I'm happy with the product and the direction.

You'll find the number of string types and the assorted potential incompatibilities quite painful with C++Builder, but you'll get used to it! (std::string, char[], wchar_t[], TCHAR, AnsiString, WideString, UnicodeString and String to name a few)

Personally I'd vote for C++ Builder - because of two-way RAD and the VCL, although it may not be the best way of learning modern C++ idioms.

C++ Builder is far superior than MS-VS when it comes to UI based development and Database oriented application. MFC sucks!! However VS has better debugging capabilities.

I loved C++ Builder a couple of years ago. It was fantastic. It was a way better with its VCL than VS with its crappy MFC. Then things have been changing with every year.

Builder has been going down; 1. Builder hasn't been updated with any real functionality. 2. Borland abandoned the idea of rewriting VCL in C++ for use with Kylix and Builder 3. CodeGear mess and uncertain future of Builder put many people off the product.

VS has been getting better; 1. IDE has been improved a lot 2. Compiler from the least standard-compliant one on windows platform became the most standard-compliant (not counting GCC on MinGW of course) 3. .NET emerged and there was Managed C++ and then C++/CLI to make it possible to use this framework from within C++

We got new, strong players 1. Eclipse 2. Qt Creator

and new GUI toolkits

1. wxWidgets
2. Qt4 now has also open source license

To summarize; Builder is dead because Borland

1. was thinking Delphi is so wonderful they don't really need anything else to earn money
2. has fallen into Java hype and invested too much resources in it
3. didn't understand great power of C++ and instead stack to pascal, which has always been academic language with no real products created with it

2012 is Almost ending. I was a Borland C++ user and then swithced to VC++ 6.0. Recently there was a requirement ffrom a client who wanted a GUI end for their product and didnt want the dependency on .NET framework. so I explored the Embarcadero RAD Studio XE2.

When it comes to C++ RAD development, I think not even MSVC++ comes close to it. It was like a breeze. although I found problems when compiling templates. for instance if you define a functor and want to combine the constructor with the functor call you cant do it in C++B, you have to create an object and then call the functor seperately. There were other issues also as I could not fully compile Poco library.

I found the solution by creating the DLLs in VC++ and calling them from the C++B frontend. that gives the best of both.

I hope that Embarcadero catches up with the standards soon.