Borland fills C++ void

Recognising the huge continuing demand for C++ programming support, Borland has advanced its C++ rapid application development (RAD) environment to incorporate web services support.

The C++Builder 6 visual RAD lets C++ developers build applications ready for deployment on multiple operating systems including Windows and Linux.

It already offers web services for Java and its Delphi 6 Pascal on Windows.

"C++Builder 6 enables C++ developers to build cross-platform-ready web services without having to learn a new hybrid language," said Kathleen Quirk, senior analyst at Hurwitz Group.

"Web services is especially important for applications in the business supply chain in which C++ has been the dominant language for years," she added.

Borland's aim is to be the first company to produce C++ applications to run on both Linux and Windows without code changes supporting graphical user interface (GUI), databases, web servers and web services.

Immediately, C++ programs can only be deployed on Windows. But the cross-platform CLX C++ component library means applications will be source code-compatible with Linux C++ products to be released during the second quarter.

"The source will be fully compatible including all the graphical components," said Jon Harrison, senior technology architect with Borland in the UK.

"For the GUI we put an abstract on top of the native components, then invoke the [operating system's] graphical software. So on Linux this means KDE or Gnome."

The new products are:

• BizSnap Web Services RAD to create XML and SOAP services and connections
• WebSnap component-based web application development framework to support web application servers (including Apache, Netscape, Microsoft IIS)
• DataSnap to connect web services middleware with databases (Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB2, Informix, Sybase, Borland InterBase) using XML, Corba or DCOM (Windows).

Borland estimates there are 2.6 million developers worldwide using C++ - the object-oriented programming language developed from C - and says this makes it the most widely used programming language in the world.

While many would dispute this, there is still great support for C/C++ in many industry sectors such as financial services, telecommunications and logistics.

Reasons include the availability of skilled programming staff and high application runtime performance when compared with, for instance, Java.