Well, after many years of C++ programming, personally i prefer visual studio 2003. However, if you are running linux, g++ is my prefered compiler along with just the good old xemacs text editor. They work great together. I havent really used Borland but i have heard many good things about it. Finally, if you are adventurous, try out the eclipse platform C++ IDE cause eclipse definitely is the best Java IDE out there so anything by them should be good