Turbo C
Encyclopedia
Turbo C is an Integrated Development Environment
and compiler
for the C programming language
from Borland
. First introduced in 1987, it was noted for its integrated development environment, small size, extremely fast compile speed, comprehensive manuals and low price.
In May 1990, Borland replaced Turbo C with Turbo C++
. In 2006, Borland reintroduced the Turbo moniker.
product and it became a popular choice when developing applications for the PC. Borland followed up that success by releasing Turbo Basic, Turbo Prolog and Turbo C.
Turbo C had the same properties as Turbo Pascal: an integrated development environment (IDE
), a fast compiler, a good editor and all that for a cheap price. Nevertheless, Turbo C was not as successful as the Pascal-sister product. First, C was not a school language such as Pascal, but rather a language for professional programming and systems development. Turbo C was therefore competing with a full field of professional programming tools (Microsoft C, Lattice C
, Watcom C, etc.). Turbo C did, however, have advantages in speed of compiled code, the ability for large projects to be implemented, and compared to competing compilers a very low price.
Note on later releases: The name "Turbo C" was not used after version 2.0, because with the release of Turbo C++
1.0 with 1990, the two products were folded into a single product. That first C++ compiler was developed under contract by a company in San Diego and was one of the first true compilers for C++ (until then, most C++ work was done with pre-compilers that generated C code). The next version was named Borland C++
to emphasize its flagship status and completely rewritten in-house, with Peter Kukol as the lead engineer. The Turbo C++
name was briefly dropped, eventually reappearing as Turbo C++ 3.0. There was never a 2.0 of the Turbo C++ product series.
From the start, split the product (and later in Pascal) in two lines, one for beginners and one for the professional. At first they were called "Turbo and Turbo Professional, later simply have "Turbo" and "Borland".
They developed C++ to 1996 in these two lines next to the version of Turbo C++ 3.0 and Borland C++ 5.0.
As with Turbo Pascal, there is also a Turbo C++ for Microsoft windows, which reached version 4.5.
Turbo C for the Atari ST, were only made for the versions 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0. The program was not being maintained by Borland, but the sources were sold and then the product under the name PureC developed some time yet.
From 1996, which is Delphi principle in C++ toolkit adapted. The Delphi based on C++ is C++ Builder.
, re-released the Turbo C compiler and the MS-DOS versions of the Turbo C++ compilers as freeware
.
DOSBox
.
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
and compiler
Compiler
A compiler is a computer program that transforms source code written in a programming language into another computer language...
for the C programming language
C (programming language)
C is a general-purpose computer programming language developed between 1969 and 1973 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system....
from Borland
Borland
Borland Software Corporation is a software company first headquartered in Scotts Valley, California, Cupertino, California and finally Austin, Texas. It is now a Micro Focus subsidiary. It was founded in 1983 by Niels Jensen, Ole Henriksen, Mogens Glad and Philippe Kahn.-The 1980s:...
. First introduced in 1987, it was noted for its integrated development environment, small size, extremely fast compile speed, comprehensive manuals and low price.
In May 1990, Borland replaced Turbo C with Turbo C++
Turbo C++
Turbo C++ was a C++ compiler and integrated development environment and computer language originally from Borland. Most recently it was distributed by Embarcadero Technologies, which acquired all of Borland's compiler tools with the purchase of its CodeGear division in 2008...
. In 2006, Borland reintroduced the Turbo moniker.
The beginnings
In the early 1980s, Borland enjoyed considerable success with their Turbo PascalTurbo Pascal
Turbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment for the Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS, developed by Borland under Philippe Kahn's leadership...
product and it became a popular choice when developing applications for the PC. Borland followed up that success by releasing Turbo Basic, Turbo Prolog and Turbo C.
Turbo C had the same properties as Turbo Pascal: an integrated development environment (IDE
Integrated development environment
An integrated development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development...
), a fast compiler, a good editor and all that for a cheap price. Nevertheless, Turbo C was not as successful as the Pascal-sister product. First, C was not a school language such as Pascal, but rather a language for professional programming and systems development. Turbo C was therefore competing with a full field of professional programming tools (Microsoft C, Lattice C
Lattice C
Lattice C was the first C compiler for MS-DOS on the IBM PC, in 1982. It was ported to many other platforms, such as mainframes , minicomputers , workstations , OS/2, the Commodore Amiga, Atari ST and the Sinclair QL.The compiler was subsequently repackaged by Microsoft under a distribution...
, Watcom C, etc.). Turbo C did, however, have advantages in speed of compiled code, the ability for large projects to be implemented, and compared to competing compilers a very low price.
Version history
- Version 1.0, on May 13, 1987 - It offered the first integrated edit-compile-run development environment for C on IBM PCs. The software was, like many Borland products of the time, bought from another company and branded with the "Turbo" name, in this case Wizard C by Bob Jervis (The flagship Borland product at that time, Turbo PascalTurbo PascalTurbo Pascal is a software development system that includes a compiler and an integrated development environment for the Pascal programming language running on CP/M, CP/M-86, and DOS, developed by Borland under Philippe Kahn's leadership...
, which at this time did not have pull-down menus, would be given a facelift with version 4 released late in 1987 to make it look more like Turbo C.) It ran in of memory. It allowed inline assembly with full access to C symbolic names and structures, supported all memory models, and offered optimizations for speed, size, constant folding, and jump elimination.
- Version 1.5, in January 1988 - This was an incremental improvement over version 1.0. It included more sample programs, improved manuals and other bug fixes. It was shipped on five 360 KB diskettes of uncompressed files, and came with sample C programs, including a stripped down spreadsheet called mcalc. This version introduced the
header file (which provided fast, PC-specific console I/O routines). (Note: The copyright date in the startup screen is 1987, but the files in the system distribution were created in January 1988.)
- Version 2.0, in 1989 - The American release was in late 1988, and featured the first "blue screen" version, which would be typical of all future Borland releases for MS-DOS. The American release did not have Turbo Assembler or a separate debugger. (These were being sold separately as the product Turbo Assembler.) See this ad for details: Turbo C, Asm, and Debugger were sold together as a professional suite of tools. This seems to describe another release: Featured Turbo DebuggerTurbo DebuggerTurbo Debugger was a machine-level debugger for MS-DOS executables, intended mainly for debugging Borland Turbo Pascal , and later Turbo C programs, sold by Borland...
, Turbo AssemblerTurbo AssemblerTurbo Assembler is an assembler package developed by Borland which runs on and produces code for 16- or 32-bit x86 MS-DOS or Microsoft Windows. It can be used with Borland's high-level language compilers, such as Turbo Pascal, Turbo Basic and Turbo C. The Turbo Assembler package is bundled with...
, and an extensive graphics library. This version of Turbo C was also released for the Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
, but distributed in GermanyGermanyGermany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
only.
Note on later releases: The name "Turbo C" was not used after version 2.0, because with the release of Turbo C++
Turbo C++
Turbo C++ was a C++ compiler and integrated development environment and computer language originally from Borland. Most recently it was distributed by Embarcadero Technologies, which acquired all of Borland's compiler tools with the purchase of its CodeGear division in 2008...
1.0 with 1990, the two products were folded into a single product. That first C++ compiler was developed under contract by a company in San Diego and was one of the first true compilers for C++ (until then, most C++ work was done with pre-compilers that generated C code). The next version was named Borland C++
Borland C++
Borland C++ is a C and C++ programming environment for MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows. It was the successor to Turbo C++, and included a better debugger, the Turbo Debugger, which was written in protected mode DOS....
to emphasize its flagship status and completely rewritten in-house, with Peter Kukol as the lead engineer. The Turbo C++
Turbo C++
Turbo C++ was a C++ compiler and integrated development environment and computer language originally from Borland. Most recently it was distributed by Embarcadero Technologies, which acquired all of Borland's compiler tools with the purchase of its CodeGear division in 2008...
name was briefly dropped, eventually reappearing as Turbo C++ 3.0. There was never a 2.0 of the Turbo C++ product series.
- 1987: Turbo C 1.0
- 1987: Turbo C 1.1
- 1988: Turbo C 1.5
- 1989: Turbo C 2.0 (now with integrated debugger, also for the Atari STAtari STThe Atari ST is a home/personal computer that was released by Atari Corporation in 1985 and commercially available from that summer into the early 1990s. The "ST" officially stands for "Sixteen/Thirty-two", which referred to the Motorola 68000's 16-bit external bus and 32-bit internals...
) - 1990: Turbo C++ 1.0
- 1991: Turbo C++ 1.01
- 1991: Turbo C++ 2.0
- 1992: Turbo C++ 3.0
From the start, split the product (and later in Pascal) in two lines, one for beginners and one for the professional. At first they were called "Turbo and Turbo Professional, later simply have "Turbo" and "Borland".
They developed C++ to 1996 in these two lines next to the version of Turbo C++ 3.0 and Borland C++ 5.0.
As with Turbo Pascal, there is also a Turbo C++ for Microsoft windows, which reached version 4.5.
Turbo C for the Atari ST, were only made for the versions 1.0, 1.1 and 2.0. The program was not being maintained by Borland, but the sources were sold and then the product under the name PureC developed some time yet.
From 1996, which is Delphi principle in C++ toolkit adapted. The Delphi based on C++ is C++ Builder.
Bugs
- delay in dos.h delays for a shorter time than specified.
- v2.x settextjustify HORIZ_DIR, then LEFT_TEXT is treated as RIGHT_TEXT.
- v2.0 printf("%1.1f",99.99); produce 00.0 fixed in v2.01.
- v2.01 Output (.EXE) files larger than 32 kB may cause variable assignments to fail.
Freeware Release
In 2006, Borland's successor, Embarcadero TechnologiesEmbarcadero Technologies
Embarcadero Technologies is an American computer software company that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services related to software through its various dynamic product divisions...
, re-released the Turbo C compiler and the MS-DOS versions of the Turbo C++ compilers as freeware
Freeware
Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...
.
Running In 64-bit Windows
TurboC may require an emulator to run in 64-bit. Latest Version may or may not run as per compatibility. Known x86 EmulatorDOSBox
DOSBox
DOSBox is emulator software that emulates an IBM PC compatible computer running MS-DOS. It is intended especially for use with old PC games. DOSBox is free software....
.
External links
- borland.com - Borland Developer Network Museum
- turboexplorer.com - Turbo Explorer Homepage — New downloadable versions of Turbo brand tools
- codegear.com - Turbo C++ version 1.01
- codegear.com - Turbo C 2.01
- borland.com - Turbo C 2.01 Free download
- borland.com - Turbo C++ 1.01 available for download by registered users of other products
- computermuseum-muenchen.de - Computer Museum in Munich with a large collection of software, including Turbo C 1.0 ff
- sandroid.org - TurboC libraries for unix porting
- gnu.de - GRX graphics library compatible with "graphics.lib" for X11 output