I think I'm in the same boat as you Russ. Now and then creating programs for end-users running on WinTel. I've been using Borland C++ Builder 5 forever (and some Delphi and some Visual C++ 6). I really like the RAD aspect of the Borland tools, though by now the various "components" are looking very long in the tooth and are less feature filled. For example the TTrackBar is horrible but I hate installing a bunch of 3rd party components. Too much librarian work for me. Have a look at any current commercial windows app and it sure doesn't look like a Borland "form+component" thing to me. So I've wondered where to now?

At this point I do a lot of Win32 API stuff and wonder if I should get into MS and MFC or skip right over to MS and .NET? I've seem some beautiful .NET apps (Wi-Spy comes to mind) that are horribly slow. So I need to balance cute vs resource hog. What's a good MS tool package to get? There are so many variations! I still need COM port access and USB app level access* (I'm now using Win32 API for both up until now, having to do my own threads and such). Would like to have RAD, cute controls, and maybe the option to do some driver work.* What's the best toolchain?

GB

* - A couple of points here to contradict/contrast others I guess. From my experience, if you use an (old) MS tool, your Win32 API code on a PC will port very easily to WinCE (or whatever it's called these days). And about writing drivers, the API level USB has limitations as near as I can tell -- in that the app has to be running to work! Sounds funny but we need some USB devices to talk to the PC's while the user is logged out. Near as I can tell you can't run a vanilla app in this "mode".