Teach Yourself Borland C++ in 14 Days - portal

474 Day 13
The Basics
Because C++Builder’s underlying language is C++, and C++ is such a popular programming
language, you can do almost anything you’d like in C++Builder, including build Internet
applications. The specifications have been published and the necessary interfaces established
to build Internet applications from scratch using C++Builder, if that’s your pleasure. Like any
other natively compiled C++ environment, you could include the appropriate header files
and code whole Internet applications in C++ if you really wanted to.
But that would remove the biggest and best reason for using a tool like C++Builder in the first
place—its expediency. You use RAD (rapid application development) tools like C++Builder
because they’re fast. At the same time, you don’t want something that’s just thrown
together—you want a tool that generates efficient executables efficiently.
C++Builder really shines in its capability to construct natively compiled executables through
dragging and dropping components. Like its elder sister Delphi, C++Builder combines the
best of the object-oriented and component-based development models to provide a development
platform that is easy to use and extremely powerful.
What does this have to do with Internet development? Well, for starters, it means that, thanks
to C++Builder’s Internet component set, you can build Internet-related applications as easily
as any other type of application—by dropping components on a form. It also means that you
can extend these components to enhance them, while still being able to manipulate low-level
API details, if you need to, because C++Builder is natively compiled and C++ based.
To work directly with the low-level APIs (for example, ISAPI) that are required to build
Internet client and server applications, your tool of choice must be able to use and construct
DLLs and to utilize the published interfaces to these DLLs. C++Builder is natively compiled
and can both use and create DLLs. Also, because it’s C++ based, interfaces to all the major
Internet-related APIs are readily available for it. What you have in C++Builder is the Swiss
Army Knife of Win32 development. Whether it’s a game, a database program, or an Internet
application, you’ll find that C++Builder takes you where you want to go and even makes the
trip somewhat enjoyable.
A Tour of the Internet Component
Palette Page
Before we get started building your Web browser, let’s take a brief tour of the components
on the Internet page of the C++Builder Component Palette. Although you’ll only use one
of these components in today’s sample project, it’s helpful to know what’s available to you.
Table 13.1 lists each component and describes its function.