C++Builder 4 is pretty good. The editor in VC is what give it the primary advantage (in my opinion) in BCB3, but 4 is better. In a few cases you might have to use the ImpLib utility to generate new *lib files, but headers should work find for the most part. I would probably stick with what you have, if I were you, but then again, that's just my opinion.

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The editor in MSVC is awsome and since i got MSVC i have been VERY happy with it. I do not however know how great Borland is, though.

Builder is as good as MSVC, if not better. Why? It's actually visual. Yes, the SDK's are convertible, but heck, search the web and you'll find that people have already done this for you or have provided steps on how to do this. I found it, so can you. Although, the compiled program won't be as fast or efficient if you don't go through the code yourself and tweak it, you can go from zero to something in a small amount of time.

However, if you plan to be making games, I would suggest MSVC in the end, but for anything else, Builder is great if not superior (but only by a little).

Just my opinion. (I got both as I know an academic )

I would recommend having both, I currently find many uses for each them. Builder is superior for writing your custom game development 'tools'. However, I recommend using VC for the actual coding of your game. Builder is more Windows app friendly, where VC is more DirectX friendly.

Borland C++ Builder is an excellent tool for developing standard Win32 GUI applications. *Much* better than Visual C++. I personally have had no problem using Visual C++ sample code in C++ Builder, for any API choice that you might imagine. I personally haven't found Visual C++ any more friendly than C Builder for DirectX, and I've used both. The only real advantage to Visual C++ I've found, is that many people distribute sample code in MSVC project files, but again it's not a big problem.

But, and it's a big but, MSVC looks better on the resume.

Hello,
For my birthday I recieved C++ Builder 4 Standard. I asked for MSVC Standard, but this was all they had. I was just wondering if it'd be worth the trouble of returning it and getting MSVC. Do most Microsoft SDKs and other libraries work okay on this with little or no tweaking (I can handle editing a few headers). Any advice that you could give me would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. Please don't suggest that I get the Pro version of either one. I'm not a college student and thus can't get an academic license.

Of course, you can say that Builder is Delphi's little brother. And Delphi is quite popular.