In a bid to help modernise languages and open up their application, Borland International Inc president, Philippe Kahn, used his slot at this week’s IBM PC User Group Conference to launch a new series of developer’s tools in the UK. The new range comprises enhanced versions of the company’s existing compilers – specifically Turbo C Version 2.0 and Turbo Pascal Version 5.0, the Turbo Assembler & Debugger, and new Runtime Library Source packages for both language products. Kahn also announced two packages combining the enhanced compilers with the assembler and debugger software – the Turbo Pascal Professional and the Turbo C Professional. At over 16,000 lines a minute, the Turbo C 2.0 is claimed to compile code 20% to 30% faster than its predecessor, and quotes 34,000 lines a minute on a PS/2 Model 60 for the bullet-fast Turbo Pascal 5.0. Turbo Pascal 5.0 also features new dynamic overlay support, allowing programmers to load overlay units in and out of memory as required, and write large programs to run in small amounts of memory. Claims for the Turbo C 2.0 include improved compilation and linking performance and new run-time library routines, prov-iding faster execution speeds for memory allocation, string manipulations, floating point emulation and file inputoutput. In addition, both compilers feature what Borland describes as a built-in source level debugger, enhanced Borland Graphic Interfaces, and offer support for the standalone Turbo Debugger for more sophisticated debugging requir-ements. The Turbo Debugger and Turbo Assembler come combined, in the words of their innovator, in a pretty cute package. The Assembler provides full compatibility with Microsoft Macro Assembler or MASM versions 4.0, 5.0 and 5.1, and offers improved command consistency and stronger type-checking rules. With the Debugger, claims Borland, virtually any program of any size can be debugged, including those based upon other manufacturers language products. For large program debugging, the product offers EMS support, remote debugging and 80386 capabilities. Key feature is the advanced conditional breakpoint technology, which allows users to stop, log an expression, or execute program code when a breakpoint is triggered. Overlapping SmallTalk-type windows provide multiple program views, while a session logging feature provides activity tracking and recording facilities. MS-DOS versions for all six products will ship in November, with the compilers, the Professional packages, the Runtime Library Source and the Assembler & Debugger priced at UKP100, UKP200, UKP200 and UKP130 respectively. Plans for OS/2 versions of the new Borland products will be revealed in the first quarter of next year.
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