OWL is outdated and kind of crappy. Borland''s new OO wrapper for the Win32 API is VCL. Borland is a decent compiler, and decent IDE, and is the most standards complient compiler I''ve used, even at the expense of efficiency.

MSVC has a crappy optimizer (comparitively), is decently standards complient, and a nice IDE. And you can use other compilers with its IDE.

Code Warrior optimizes very well (better than MSVC or Borland, but not normally as well as GCC in tests I''ve seen, I''m not sure for which CPU type though), but the IDE is way different than any other commercial one I''ve seen. It also is available on 3 platforms.

[Resist Windows XP''s Invasive Production Activation Technology!]

This is off-topic till you read between the lines. I''m reminded of a ex-employer telling me about things young into my career. When somebody says "XYZ is some worthless crap" is because if everything were layed out on the table, that same person doesn''t really know anything about XYZ to know any better or be in a position to make the statement anyway. With all blanket statements there are going to be exceptions, but since we are in a beginners forum I''m betting there are far fewer exceptions.

Regardless, let''s play nice...

YAP-YFIO

-deadlinegrunt