Combining the Bcc55 free command-line-tools from Borland, the free JFE editor, and a couple of small public-domain development tools from this site, you can put together a simple and flexible integrated development environment (IDE) for C or C++ under Windows .

If you require extra facilities, like RAD tools (Rapid Application Development), database integration, multi-language integration, and other integration tools at the level of your enterprise, purchase one of the versions of Borland C++ Builder. This page is not for you.

If on the other hand you are looking for an excellent free tool to write programs in C or C++ for DOS or Windows, or if you are a teacher trying to assemble a simple-to-use C/C++ development tool for your classes, you have come to the right place.

 

Click to see screen dump of JFE editor and programming tools buttons.

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Bcc55 Installation

This page does not cover the downloading, installation, and use of the Borland free C/C++ compiler Bcc55. This is adequately covered by the following sites:

Bruce Wampler's VIDE Borland Help: http://www.objectcentral.com/vide/help/videdoc/bcc32.html

Helmut Pharo's "Get started with Borland's free C/C++ commandline tools":
http://www.pharo.onlinehome.de/Bcc55.html

Pascal Coudert's Borland C++ 55 tutorial:
http://www.webnotes.org/bcc55eng.htm

Or other sites with links on http://www.mulroy.org/borland.htm

Whatever you do, install the compiler and tools, the complete set of help files, and the TD32 debugger. These have to be downloaded separately from the Inprise site.

You may install the package anywhere on your system, provided that the path to the compiler does not contain a space in any of the directory names. In the rest of this document we'll assume that you have installed the compiler into directory C:\Apps\Bcc55JFE\. If you install it elsewhere, make the necessary adjustments as you go.

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Jens File Editor (JFE) Installation

JFE is a very nice, full-featured and small programmer's editor. It has a German and an English version. It can be downloaded for free from the author's web site (Jens Altmann) at http://home.t-online.de/home/Jens.Altmann/jfe.htm.

JFE supports Bcc55 amongst many other compilers.

It is composed of a single executable file (JFE.EXE) within a compress (zip) file. Extract JFE.EXE and place it into the compiler BIN directory (e.g. C:\Apps\Bcc55JFE\Bin).

Download the zipped JFE English help, unpack it and install it in compiler subdirectory C:\Apps\Bcc55JFE\Help\JFE\. (If you want the German help instead, download it from the JFE site).

Download the zipped file "jfe.ini", unpack it and place it into the compiler "bin" directory (e.g. C:\Apps\Bcc55JFE\Bin).. "jfe.ini" will customise JFE and enable it as an IDE working with Bcc55 and the "BlueScreen" tools below.

JFE Setup

You may want to place an icon to JFE onto the desktop or into your "Start->Programs" directory. Simply drag a shortcut there.

The JFE buttons may need to be adjusted for your particular setup:
Start the editor. Open a new file. The IDE buttons should appear to the right of the screen.

Right-click onto each button and modify the paths of applications there to refer to your actual compiler directory. Be careful that there may be more than one path for each button, in particular for "Compile1" and "Link1". The path to the main Borland help file in the "Help" button may also have to be changed to reflect your local installation.

In the "Help", "Run", and "DOS" dialogs, you may have to change the name of the application depending on the operating system that you are using:

WinHelp under Windows 9x is called WinHlp32 under Windows NT or 2000.
The shell is called "command.com" under Windows 9x, and "cmd.exe" under Windows NT or 1000.

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Makegen and Bclean Installation

Makegen and  Bclean are two small interactive executables (BlueScreen programs) that will help you control the development of Bcc55 projects.

Makegen automatically generates Borland makefiles.
Download Makegen.exe and place it into your compiler "Bin" directory.
Further information on Makegen can be obtained by following this link

Bclean helps you clean your development directories of unwanted files.
Download Bclean.exe and place it into your compiler "Bin" directory.
Further information on Bclean may be obtained by following this link

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Using the Bcc55-JFE IDE

For C Programmers:
Click here for a tutorial exercise using the compiler and development environment.

For C++ Programmers:
Click here for a tutorial exercise using the compiler and development environment.

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Modified: August 2001   Maintained by: cutter@codecutter.net