Borland C++ upgrade will ease OLE headaches

WASHINGTON -- Borland International Inc. is hoping its upgraded C++ compiler will spell relief for users frustrated with implementing OLE 2.0.

At Software World here, Borland publicly previewed for the first time its C++ 4.5, which lets developers quickly turn Borland C++, Microsoft C++, and other C++ applications into OLE 2.0 servers or containers via its AppExpert facility, said Michael Hyman, languages business unit manager at Borland.

Borland hopes to distinguish its new C++ 4.5 offering, due to ship this fall, in several ways from market leader Microsoft Corp.'s Visual C++ 2.0, which ships next month.

For example, Borland C++ 4.5 will support development for Windows NT 3.5 and Windows 95 as well as Windows 3.1. Borland hopes this capability will provide an additional trump card against Microsoft's Visual C++ 2.0, which will not write to Windows 3.1 as a target platform. Some developers have complained that this incompatibility is an attempt to force them to move to Windows 95 before they are ready. (See "Some developers balk at Microsoft's 32bit push," Sept. 19, page 5.)

But in last week's preview, Borland concentrated on the simplification of OLE 2.0 development, which has long been a sore point for Microsoft's OLE evangelists.

"Microsoft has broadened its support for OLE 2.0 in their C++, but you need to use the Microsoft Foundation Classes in the first place,'' Hyman said. "We have a set of OLE 2.0 classes which does not assume you use MFC or our own Object Windows Library [OWL].''

The current Microsoft Visual C++ makes it difficult to embed multiple OLE 2.0 objects in one window to create truly compound documents, according to Hyman.

During last week's preview, Borland representatives demonstrated Borland C++ 4.5's AppWizard, embedding OLE 2.0 objects from both Microsoft Excel and Word into a custom application created with Borland's C++ application without doing any programming.

But Borland's C++ may come too late to get an edge on Microsoft.

"The old version of Microsoft C++ was difficult to use [to create OLE applications]," said Bill Cornfield, president of The Windows Support Group, a New York consulting firm. "But from everything we can tell, [Microsoft's] Visual C++ 2.0 is a substantial improvement that will let us easily create OLE 2.0 applications."

The preview may have helped salve Borland's wounds from Novell Inc.'s recent decision to scrap its AppWare Foundation.

Borland had planned to use Novell's AppWare to let Borland C++ applications run on Macintosh and Unix platforms. But now that AppWare is dead, Borland plans to turn to Microsoft's Win32 API for Mac and Unix to accomplish that goal, Hyman said.

Borland is still keeping its eyes open for other solutions, however.

Borland is also working on an upgrade of its C++ for OS/2, codenamed Outrigger, which will include OWL class libraries.