It seems the Turbo compilers are back, and there's even a free version of them. When I read the announcement, and saw the photos of the boxes so similar to the ones of the beginning of the 90s, I was about to drop a tear on the keyboard for the comeback of the products that inspired my first efforts at coding, as well as those of almost all my generation.
It's maybe too late for Turbos to gain momentum again, but they could appeal to younger coders especially in the free Explorer version (the Professional is not that expensive, anyway). I would find Turbo C# useful for the applications I write, but unfortunately it's Windows-only, as Borland decided to drop the Linux versions of their compilers and to stay on the Windows side.
When the first generation of Turbos came out, Borland was innovative, while now it seems it's following the steps of others (i.e. Microsoft, which also features free IDEs) with some delay. Making their products available to non-Windows users as well would probably mean innovation again, let's see if the new Borland has the guts to walk that way...
Leave a comment