I'm a programming noob, how can I practice C?

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Posted by Quintox, 09-04-2008, 01:28 PM
I am confused. Let me explain: I'm a programming noob. The only programming I've ever done was Basic back in early high school. That was easy, and whenever you got done writing anything and wanted to test it out you simply push F5 or whatever, and the program would run. Is there not a way I can do this for C? I have some programs to write that are due on Tuesday, and I want to be able to do them on my laptop just like I did w/ Basic, where I can test them out and see if they work. How do I do something like this?
Posted by ThatScriptGuy, 09-04-2008, 01:49 PM
In your case, I would recommend installing a programming interface that also takes care of installing the C compiler - Perhaps Dev-CPP from http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html Just install the IDE, write your program, and run... Kevin
Posted by vibrokatana, 09-04-2008, 02:55 PM
I think visual studio has a compiler option to force it to compile as C. I am not particular though. But that would probably give you the environment you are somewhat used to.
Posted by isurus, 09-04-2008, 04:05 PM
Hello, You can compile your C program using a C++ compiler. Assuming that you are running windows, you could always download and install Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition: http://www.microsoft.com/express/vc/ There will no doubt be tutorials out there to guide you through using it. Let me know if you are using Linux and I'll give you instructions for using gcc. HTH, Simon
Posted by larwilliams, 09-04-2008, 04:37 PM
gcc is simple where out_file is the resulting compiled binary program.
Posted by zinga, 09-04-2008, 07:32 PM
C/C++ is a little more complex than using VB, since it's a compiled language (and not interpreted). Basically, setting up a project is a little more tricky, (at least for VC++), but running things is basically the same concept (F5).
Posted by vibrokatana, 09-04-2008, 07:33 PM
VB.NET is compiled to MSIL just like C# is.
Posted by nsr81, 09-04-2008, 08:11 PM
I would suggest starting using GCC. You can either do it in full fledged *nix environment OR install Cygwin on your windows machine. You can also google "free windows c compilers" and see a lot of them floating out there.
Posted by folsom, 09-05-2008, 05:49 AM
http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/ LCC win32 is an easy way to get started with C on windows.
Posted by Maxo, 09-05-2008, 02:48 PM
Some people might laugh, but I used to love TurboC with its dos interface
Posted by yuniar, 09-06-2008, 06:44 AM
Nope. Not laughing. I used to learn using Turbo Pascal and Turbo C too