C++ Builder 1.0 didn't do OWL (which is much better than MFC), the current C++ Builder supports VCL, MFC, and OWL. Unfortunately the OWL support has problems and OWL development has stopped, even though there are a few outstanding bugs.

Inprise made a nice extension of C++ to add support for the get and set functions for properties (like the new access and assign in VFP6).

I agree about the IDE keyboard shortcuts and menu layouts, the search placement is the most irritating.

The J-Builder is great and is much better than J++. It is as visual as VFP and C++ Builder, yet the output is 100% standard Java.

Have you used Supercede? The compiler produces both Intel binaries and Java Bytecode and compiles both Java and C++. I haven's seen it in action, but it sounds interesting. The company is owned by Paul Allen. I wonder if there is any relationship with Microsoft.