Customer Rating: 
Summary: World-Class IDE / Almost ANSI Standard
Comment: I presently use Borland 4.5, Builder 4 Enterprise, Builder 5 Professional, and Visual C++ 6.0 Enterprise SP4 in my work. Of the 4, Visual C++ has (hands down) the most intuitive and "prettiest" IDE.While Builder does a better job when it comes to Rapid Application Development, its windowing system is "clunky" at best. Also, Microsoft's class explorer and intelli-sense features are worlds better than the equivalent provided by Inprise.
Another feature I like that is in the Enterprise edition of Visual C++ is function profiling. This feature is fully integrated and can inform the developer of time "bottle-necks" in the code. Also, one can use the feature to compare algorithm speed.
The major gripe I have with Visual C++ is that it is not as ANSI standard as Builder 4 (and especially Builder 5). On several occasions, I have attempted to compile ANSI/ISO Standard code involving templates that compiles under Borland but not under Visual C++ 6.0. In all fairness, I must mention that Borland 4 doesn't always successfully compile some template constructs either.
If one simply must have ANSI Standard compliance, I would use Inprise Builder 5. However, Visual C++ brings a higher level of polish to the table, and is much more widely used. I eagerly await version 7 of Visual C++, which should merge ANSI/ISO standardization and a world-beating IDE.
