Turbo C
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Software development |
| Founded | 1987 |
| Founder | Borland |
| Defunct | 1990 |
| Fate | Discontinued and replaced by Turbo C++ |
| Products | Integrated development environment, C compiler |
| Owner | Borland (now Embarcadero Technologies) |
Turbo C was an integrated development environment (IDE) and compiler for the C language created by Borland, now discontinued. Released in 1987, it gained recognition for its compact design, rapid compilation times, user-friendly integrated environment, extensive documentation, and attractive pricing.
Borland phased out Turbo C in May 1990, replacing it with Turbo C++. The Turbo brand experienced a revival from Borland in 2006.
Early history
Building on the success of Turbo Pascal during the early 1980s, Borland expanded its software portfolio by introducing Turbo Prolog in 1986, followed by Turbo Basic and Turbo C in 1987. Turbo C incorporated several features similar to Turbo Pascal, including a unified development interface, swift compilation (albeit slower than Turbo Pascal), a robust editor, and an economical price.
While Turbo Pascal remained popular among hobbyists, educational institutions, and developers, Turbo C competed directly with professional-grade tools such as Microsoft C, Watcom C, and Lattice C.
Version history
The initial release, Version 1.0 (May 13, 1987), marked the first integrated development environment for C on IBM PC platforms. Its compiler was derived from Bob Jervis's Wizard C compiler and rebranded under the "Turbo" label. Operating within of memory, it supported inline assembly with comprehensive access to C symbols and structures across all memory models. Additionally, it featured optimizations targeting speed, size reduction, constant folding, and jump elimination.
Version 1.5 (January 1988) enhanced the original with additional sample code, improved manuals, bug corrections, and introduced the <conio.h> header to facilitate fast console input/output specific to PCs. Distributed on five 360 KB floppy disks, it included example programs like a simple spreadsheet named mcalc.
Released in late 1988, Version 2.0 presented the "blue screen" interface that became standard in subsequent Borland MS-DOS products. It was packaged alongside Turbo Assembler and Turbo Debugger. A special edition for the Atari ST was issued exclusively in Germany under the name PureC but was not officially supported by Borland. This update also added the <graphics.h> header that provided access to the Borland Graphics Interface, previously available in Turbo Pascal.
With the debut of Turbo C++ 1.0 in 1990, Borland unified its offerings for both C and C++ into a single product line and discontinued the "Turbo C" brand. The Turbo C++ compiler was among the earliest genuine C++ compilers developed under contract by a company based in San Diego, surpassing earlier pre-compilers like Cfront that translated C++ into C code.
Freeware release
In 2006, Embarcadero Technologies—Borland's successor—reissued Turbo C along with the MS-DOS versions of Turbo C++ compilers as freeware.
Reception
In January 1989, BYTE awarded both Turbo C and Turbo Pascal with "Distinction" honors for their user-friendly interfaces and rapid prototyping capabilities. The February 1989 issue of BYTE commended Turbo C Professional 2.0 for its quick compilation process and inclusion of Turbo Debugger, describing it as "the best source debugger." Although it did not generate the fastest or most compact executables available at the time, Turbo C was widely regarded as one of the most enjoyable development tools to use.