Hi all!
I need to re-develop a fairly big Windows application made with Borland's C++ Builder. The existing app is tight to the VCL framework and as a consequence it lacks certain features like Unicode, 64bit, scripting and portability.
Deciding to leave C++ Builder (after 9 years) was relatively easy, but finding the proper toolset for the job was not. The obvious solution would be to just jump on the Visual Studio bandwagon, using NET and all that stuff, but then I (presume) could have trouble with the portability issue.
I was very much appealed by CB's philosophy of plugged in compilers and I thought I should give it a try. To tell you the truth, I had evaluated twice in the past (as Dev-C++ also) but was rather disappointed. Nevertheless, I kept my eye here and now - since the past few weeks - I am using it daily and all I can say is that it is an impressive product. Apart from a few glitches, I think CB is the way to go.
So, I would like to put a couple of questions here hoping that you will find some time to respond:
1) Setup of Development environment
I develop on a Windows box. I would like to have the ability to work under Linux also, especially now, since I have started coding my framework. I am looking for some kind of a virtual machine to install CB on it and work in parallel. I do not have any serious Linux experience (just some installations of various distributions in the past), so any 1-2-3 guide for setting up a complete Linux/CB environment accessible via a desktop icon (if that is possible) would be highly appreciated.
2) Scripting engine
I need an portable engine, having support for Unicode (wchar_t) and 64bit builts. I don't mind the grammar neither its features. The only feature I want is to be able to automate my objects from a script. It doesn't have to be an OO engine. I can provide simple function wrappers to do the stuff.
I have spent quite a few weeks and the choices out there are vast. I know that CB uses Squirrel but before that it used AngelScript. I remember that the development team decided to abandon AngelScript due to its lack for supporting 64bit or Unicode?. Lua is also a nice choice.
I have downloaded and inspected a few engines and - frankly - I have something negative to say for all of them. For example, AngelScript package layout is clean and straight-forward (something I value a lot) but just looking on their String implementation I saw char instead of TCHAR plus exception-unsafe code, which I didn't like.
Squirrel has a bit more complicated layout but - nevertheless - I opened its CB workspace (feeling that I could built it easily) but most of its projects failed to compile. Didn't look further...
Anyway, since CB uses it, is Squirrel the only way to go or are there any other solutions that you have tested and found to be ok?
Well, that's all for know...
Thank you very much for reading so far!