How to Install Borland's 5.5 Compiler

This free command-line C++ compiler forms the core of Borland's C++ Builder 5 IDE. Here is how to install it on your own machine in a directory C:\Borland. You could also install it on your BU personal network drive – just change C: to P: and otherwise follow the same instructions.

  1. Download the installation software from our CS web page and run it.
  2. Add C:\Borland\Bcc55\Bin to the path.
  3. Use a text editor to create a file bcc32.cfg in C:\Borland\Bcc55\Bin with the following contents:

    -I"c:\Borland\Bcc55\include"

    -I"c:\Borland\Bcc55\lib"

  4. Create (in the same directory) a file called ilink32.cfg with the following contents:

    -L"c:\Borland\Bcc55\lib"

  5. Restart Windows.
Now you can compile C++ programs. You will want to make a new directory for your source code. You can use notepad or any other text editor to write the source. To compile a program called hello.cpp, you type

bcc32 hello.cpp

at the command line. Assuming there are no syntax errors, the executable is saved as hello.exe. To run it, just type hello.