8 replies to this topic

[Omkar™]

I've been looking back into ol' days lately, and doing some (primitive) coding in C++, using some of those famous Borland Library Functions. So, I hooked up that blue editor (they call it the IDE ) And it wasn't a nice ride in Windows XP environment...

Whenever I run that DOS-Based Turbo C++ IDE (tc.exe), my processor usage jumps to a 100% constant, and the IDE runs real slow (Nice way to prove my typin' speed is kewl! ) - I'm currently using:

• Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2
• Intel® Pentium 4, 1.7 GHz Processor
• 256k L2 cache
• 256MB RAM
• ~768MB VM

Earlier, the same IDE used to run great on -

• Windows® 98 SE
• Intel® Celeron 700 MHz Processor
• 128k L2 cache
• 128MB RAM
• ~512MB VM

Of course, you'd expect DOS-Based programs to run real good on Windows® 98 rather than NT, but there's got to be a solution! I've tried almost everything - experimented with MS-DOS Program settings, advanced memory settings, compatibility mode for Windows® 95/98 SE, run in windowed/full-screen mode, everything I thought would remotely be responsible. And this is hard luck! I mean all nifty programs run smoothly on my Windows® XP configuration, and I'm messed up with a damn age-old Turbo C++ IDE! So much for those Borland Library Functions, but I'd still like to have a solution!

Please help me out if you can, since I only got until February end to wind-up my work in there!

[livingston]

The DOS based programs run well in Windows 98, because Windows 98 is loaded on top of MS DOS i.e. you have 2 OS MS DOS and Windows 98.

But in Windows XP Microsoft has stopped using DOS as a separate OS and added it as an Terminal Application.
So it has to load in the memory and run from there and all the operations are done through the Windows XP core.

Whereas in Windows 98/95, the moment you stat the command prompt, you exit Windows and load DOS. There the DOS has the direct access to the Hardware and other resources.And the Windows is loaded again when you exit DOS.

In Windows XP and later versions DOS is available as Command Prompt application, it runs inside the Windows XP Kernel.

In Turbo C++ all the functions called by the compiler interact directly with the processor, in Windows XP this has to be pass through several Kernel process so it consumes a lot of CPU cycles and hence the heavy CPU usage.

This is not a Bug in Windows XP or incompatibility issue.

You can try alternative free window based C++ IDE's like

* Bloodshed Dev C++ - http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
* lcc-win32 - http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/
* Borland C++ - http://www.borland.c...r/freecompiler/
* Eclipse CDT - http://www.eclipse.org/cdt/
* GNU C++/C Compiler - http://gcc.gnu.org/
* Microsoft Visual C++ Express - http://lab.msdn.micr...xpress/visualc/

Edited by livingston, 21 February 2007 - 10:59 PM.

[DAC1138]

I can speak from experience that Borland's (free) compiler is really good. I think it's version 5.5 that's free. they go up to 6.5 last i used. But it is a really nice interface to code in. I started on the DOS turbo C compiler as well, and then moved up to borland's 5.5 on windows.

[Omkar™]

Thanks, livingston - that was really helpful. Now I know why this happens, but I need a solution! coming to the bottom-line, we can always blame Microsoft for it ! In the meanwhile, I'm glad to use the Bloodshed Dev-C++ IDE which works really good as an editor, but the Mingw compiler doesn't support most of the Borland Library Functions! So, I'm doing a juggling between Dev-C++ Editing, and Turbo C++ Compilation!

Another reason for cursing Microsoft would be - now that I already have Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2 installed on my first partition, I can't dual-boo ton Windows 98 SE anymore! In either case, is there any way I can get the Borland Turbo C++ IDE to work good?

[livingston]

There is no solution for this problem with Turbo C++ IDE in Windows XP. You can get the latest version Turbo C++ 2006, for this link http://trial.borland...ey.aspx?sid=626 . It comes in Two packages one contains the prerequiesties (228MB) and the other contains the Program Files (398MB). I think that this is a trial version.

Regarding you second problem view the Microsoft KB Article titled How to create a multiple-boot system in Windows XP

or the following article http://antionline.co...p/t-253383.html

[mastercomputers]

You can run it through DosBox, and it works fine though some people experienced problems, I didn't encounter any, I just can't remember which version of TC I was running.

Cheers,

MC