How to use YACL with Borland C++

This file provides directions on how to build YACL and its demo programs using the Borland C++ compiler.

Building YACL

0. Create and change into the directory you want to install YACL in. For example:

md c:\yacl c: cd \yacl

1. Unzip the file YACL0160.ZIP, preserving directories. For example:

unzip yacl0160.zip

or, if you use pkunzip under DOS:

pkunzip -d yacl0160.zip

2. Set the environment variable YACLPATH to point to the directory in which yacl was unzipped, e.g.,

set YACLPATH=c:\yacl

3. Modify the file control\borlandc.ctl. In that file, set the variable BCPATH to point to the root directory of your Borland C++ system, e.g.,

set BCPATH=c:\bc4

4. If you are building the library under MS-Windows, you need to do these additional steps:

4a. Copy the file ctl3d.h from the lib\windows directory into the Borland include directory, e.g.,

copy c:\yacl\lib\windows\ctl3d.h c:\bc4\include

or copy it to the directory $(YACLPATH)\ui.

4b. Run implib to create ctl3d.lib, e.g.:

cd c:\yacl\lib\windows implib ctl3d.lib ctl3d.dll

5. Build the libraries. CD into the directory you chose in step 0 and issue the make command as below:

(a) MS-Windows: Type

make -f borlandc.mak -DDOS

to build the DOS version, or

make -f borlandc.mak

to build the Windows version. The UI library is available under Windows, Windows NT, Windows 95 and OS/2 PM but not plain DOS.

(b) OS/2: In an OS/2 command window, type

make -f borlandc.mak

(c) Windows NT or Windows 95: In a Windows NT command window (using CMD.EXE, not COMMAND.COM), type

make -f borlandc.mak -DWIN32

6. Poke around in the directory structures under basedemo and uidemo; build and try out the programs there using the makefiles provided. Each demo program is in a separate directory with a Borland-specific makefile called borlandc.mak. I have provided makefiles for most of the base demos but not all because most, if not all, the base classes are heavily used in the UI classes.

You can also build a debug version of the library via the command

make -f borlandc.mak -DDEBUG

If you wish to build a DLL version, type the command

make -f borlandc.mak -DBUILD_DLL

This will build the files base.dll and io.dll as well as the import libraries base.lib and io.lib in the library directory. To build any of the demo programs in the uidemo directory so as to use these DLLs, type the command

make -f borlandc.mak -DUSE_YACL_DLL

Note that DLLs only work under Win32 and OS/2. They don't yet work under 16-bit Windows. Note also that, if you're using DLLs, you MUST build the application with the USE_YACL_DLL symbol defined. Otherwise you might get undefined symbols, or the app might crash.

Known problems

Borland C++ 5.0. BC5 seems to issue some spurious warnings about variables being assigned values that are never used. Also, BC5 instantiates a lot more templates than does BC4, so the library utility (TLIB) issues warnings about duplicate symbols.

Borland C++ 1.5 under OS/2 and the String class. It seems as if expressions involving Strings with concatenation, such as

return s1 + s2 + s3 + s4;

as the arm of a switch statement cause the program to crash; for example the CL_Date::PrintString method. The exact same code works fine under BC++ for DOS/Windows and GNU C++. I'd guess that BCOS2 is generating bad code for this one case. The straightforward workaround is to use String's AssignWithFormat method.

Shared libraries (DLLs). The UI classes don't seem to work reliably when built as a DLL under Windows NT. I'm still investigating why this happens.