Of course, one way to minimize coding errors is to write as little code as possible, and C#Builder aided us toward that end with its Code Snippets palette, which allowed us to drag a frequently used code fragment (such as a try ... catch block) directly into our editor. We prefer this to more opaque and error-prone devices such as editor macros.

We were pleased to find that C#Builder was fully as responsive as Visual Studio, even while maintaining a higher level of immediate feedback while we worked. During our tests on an Intel Corp. 700MHz Pentium III machine with only 256MB of RAM, we never had the feeling that hardware resources were being pushed anywhere near their limits.

As it turns out, this is actually the recommended memory complement for the product, as opposed to JBuilder's considerably greater recommended memory (which our tests suggested was good advice, although not actually essential).

As previously noted, part of the C#Builder Enterprise bundle—comparable to the high-end version of JBuilder—is an integrated set of Starbase Corp. technologies for requirements definition, configuration management and team collaboration technologies. These are also integrated with design tools acquired by Borland with its purchase of TogetherSoft Corp. The C#Builder package seems to be aimed not just at collaborating teams but also at IT shops that may still be in the adoption phase of .Net technologies in general and C# in particular. It includes integrated tutorial materials and tools that are clearly intended to let developers get under the hood of .Net.

Borland has indicated that future releases will broaden the environment's support for other .Net languages in addition to C#, making the product potentially a viable second-source tool kit for development on future Microsoft platforms or even on third-party implementations of.Net Framework on other operating systems.

Technology Editor Peter Coffee can be reached at peter_coffee@ziffdavis.com.