What you want: straightforward, short, succinct methods to achieve real-world use cases with the least risk of accidentally making a mistake. C++ does not provide this. We do.

Common use case

Take std::string for example. Strings are 'C++'s big embarrassment'.

Have you ever tried splitting a string? Really common when parsing text-form data. Here's Stack Overflow's top-rated, last-updated-2023, answer:

    #include <string>
    #include <sstream>
    #include <vector>
    #include <iterator>

    template <typename Out>
    void split(const std::string &s, char delim, Out result) {
        std::istringstream iss(s);
        std::string item;
        while (std::getline(iss, item, delim)) {
            *result++ = item;
        }
    }
                    

Ouch. Long, complex, has to be custom-written.

Why can't there be an inbuilt method to split by a delimiter?

Well, here's C++Builder:

    TArray<String> parts = str.Split(delimiter);
                    

Yep. That's it. We build for actual use.

The Nightmare Scenario

Take converting locales. This one's famous. On Windows, it's common to have text formats in CP-1252, or other encodings. It's reality. Or if you're lucky enough to have UTF8, Windows is not UTF8-native! So how do you convert?

If you ask Stack Overflow, you get a two-page answer with a diagram. Two pages of explanation! A diagram! Just to convert a string between well-known encodings.

C++Builder? You strongly type your string and then assignment converts.

    AnsiStringT<1252> My1252String = "Encoded.";
    UTF8String s = My1252String; // That's it, it's UTF8 now!
    // Or by constructor.
    // String is Unicode, Windows native (UTF16)
    String win(My1252String); // suitable for all Windows APIs
                    

If you're a dev reading that, you saw 'strongly typed' and thought, yes, that's how you should do it.

Yes. That really is how you should do it. So use C++Builder.

You need solid, full-featured refactorings to control your codebase; you need solid navigations to move around. Other C++ IDEs (you know who) don't provide enough and it's common to pay extra to buy extra tooling, just to do what you need to do!

Well, we own the top-rated C++ productivity tool in the world, Visual Assist.

So we added it to C++Builder.

Refactorings

It's got all the ones you need — and a few you didn't realise you needed.

Sure there's Rename and Extract Method (very useful, and if you've ever renamed by search-replace you'll know why) but what about Create From Usage? That one lets you type the code you want to work, then go backwards and make sure the types and methods exist.

Navigations

It takes a lot of memory or find-in-files searching to navigate around code. VA lets you navigate to ancestor and descendant classes — or the virtual method inheritance tree! — or find any symbol in your code or your code's headers' headers, and more.

It has the basics like Find References, but it shines at the extra touches like a shortcut to toggle between a method's implementation and declaration, or ctrl-clicking an include and showing a menu jumping to what else includes it — or what it includes.

It's useful. And very fast.

This is so good it's hard to write some text without sounding a bit over the top.

We invented visual designers for C++ UI. None of that MFC stuff: genuine, full-featured, custom controls, anything. Our teams tend to skip Figma and use the actual designer, because why not? It both shows you how it will look and builds it at the same time.

More: we have a real focus on the quality of the user experience that your apps end up with. If that matters to you, use C++Builder.

We have two UI frameworks:

• VCL is Windows-native UI. It's real Windows controls, so it always behaves and feels the way you intuitively expect. But it is super modern. Want themes? Use them. Want to render with Skia, have shaders? Do so. Makes you wonder why Microsoft ever started building other UI frameworks — guess they didn't have the developers we do.
• FMX is GPU-powered, fully custom controls, and you use it when you want to rotate a control, or have an on-device shader or shadow or blur. Think WPF, but for C++.

Not sure? Use the VCL.