Sizers are half way between the Windows style of explicitly positioning child widgets on a top-level window and the Unix style of using nested container widgets. Sizers behave like containers in terms of layout but don't add additional widgets or windows to the hierarchy.
The Windows approach requires you to manually adapt the layout for different languages. It also relies upon a single "system font" with specific metrics (in theory, Windows gives you a choice between small (96dpi) and large (120dpi) fonts, but a lot of applications have their layout screwed up if you choose large fonts). And if you want to be able to resize dialogs, you have to write code to manage the layout.
It's not so much the choice of C++ over Pascal that I think is odd (each language has its pros and cons). But Delphi was very much built around Object Pascal (and Object Pascal was built around Delphi), so C++ was always an alien language for it. C++ Builder was a slightly idiosyncratic C++ compiler combined with a library written in Pascal. The result was things like three different incompatible string types (C++ strings, C strings, and Delphi strings) - never mind unicode variants - and programs needed all three, with messy conversions (and the accompanying risk of leaks). People bought C++ because they thought Delphi was good, C++ is good, therefore C++ Builder is probably great.
Well, I'm sure it gave them a short-term boost. And I think a C++ based RAD tool would have been a good idea, if they had taken the time and investment to do it properly. But tying C++ onto Delphi with gaffa tape and chewing gum was a bad choice - it spoiled their potential for any later C++ tools, and it detracted Borland from working on their core product. Delphi had a huge and loyal fan base, and I think Borland would have been better concentrating on that.
I've avoided VS - like much of MS' software, it brings a risk of messing up the rest of your system in unpleasant ways. I have a huge amount of software installed, and some programs can be a bit "delicate". I don't like to install software that is likely to stomp around in the core of the OS, replacing essential libraries, etc. MS makes some of the worst software from this viewpoint - the rules for designing good system-friendly windows applications don't see to apply for MS.
I did once install an embedded toolchain that used VS as an IDE, running on NT 4.0. It managed to mess things up so that running task manager (i.e., ctrl+alt+esc) would BSOD the system. Maybe it's unfair of me not to give VS a second chance, but it has never attracted me anyway.
No, this is very much like the way tk and limbo deal with controls/widgets. But, there are always details regarding how those controls behave *as* they are resized, repositioned, etc.
Instead, I've been using a grid-packer that I wrote as it makes it a lot easier to know what things will look like from an inspection of the *code* instead of actually seeing it on a screen (especially when the dimensions of the screen/window can change -- dynamically)
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