i want to write code use notepad and compile the c code use cmd on windows (like java),
what software should i use ,
gcc for windows
cygwin
Turbo C
gvim
thanks
An excellent option for Windows is the Visual C++ Express Edition (which is free). This is a full IDE, compiler, and debugger and is a great way to get started.
GCC is also a good option if for some reason you wish to avoid an IDE. I wouldn't recommend this for a beginner, though.
Please don't use Turbo C, it's very old and you will have problems with it.
Cygwin is a popular linux environment for Windows.
Gvim is an editor and (in my opinion) has a very high learning curve. You could use Notepad++ or Code::Blocks to develop your code in.
mingw is also a good option to start with.
IMO you should avoid IDEs: a beginner needs to actually see and feel the whole process of compiling by invoking the compiler from a terminal, not by simply pressing some keys and bang! Also most of the IDEs have code completion facilities which is not good for beginners (especially for C). So I would go with vim (or gvim) and cygwin.
PS: Give Linux a try, you might actually like it; then vim and gcc.
Use cygwin. It's just about the only way to get a C environment on Windows that's both modern (i.e. not 16-bit, DOS-based) and conformant to the standards, and with it you get a fairly-complete POSIX environment, which allows you to actually do interesting things with C.
The classics would be Cygwin and MSYS/MinGW.
Cygwin provides a Linux API compatibility layer and includes a package manager which provides access to many well-known Linux applications (ie batteries included).
MSYS/MinGW only provides a minimal userland to get the GNU build system working.
Both come with their own shell environment, but can be used from Windows' command line as well.
Binaries created with Cygwin-gcc won't work without cygwin1.dll, but you get all the benefits of a mostly-POSIX environment. You can also use Cygwin's MinGW package for cross-compilation and thus create stand-alone binaries.
Other solutions are possible: Currently, I'm using the MinGW compiler together with the Cygwin userland from the Windows command line...
I think cygwin itself named as gcc for windows.
also gvim is not a compiler , It is a very nice and powerful tool for code editing.Also you can try emacs and kwrite
Some suggestions from my side:
In windows, you need to install a third party software to try all programming stuffs(c,c++ etc) ,Most of the times it is having GUI implementations and you didn't get any exact idea behind the code execution flow.also the command prompt of windows not at all efficient as linux shell.
But if you install a good linux distro (ubuntu/fedora/cent os/debian/pardus/suse/arch linux),all default compilers,debuggers and editors are installed within the OS and you can try the basic and all advanced programs by just opening the terminal(shell).Also the shell is a more powerful tool and you can enjoy all kind of automation comamnds(I mean scripting).
Also: for your added information, most of the embedded programmers in the industry prefer command line execution unlike GUI implementation because it is too fast than GUI.
Related
I'm studying computer engineering and we have a class called operating systems where they lecture us about how OSes handle stuff etc. This week we were given a homework which requests us to code a shell that works on Linux. The problem is, they tought us literally nothing on how to code a shell so we are supposed to do some research and figure it out.
I found this guide online and it seemed perfect to me: link
Code, with explanations, what else could I ask for.
Now, I'm using a Windows PC and I use Dev-C++ IDE with GCC compiler. Can I code a shell that works on Linux with my current setup or do I have to install Linux? Are there any major differences between how shells run on these OSes?
If you want to write a shell for Linux, you want to target GNU/Linux which is basically POSIX with some extensions.
Dev-C++ by default uses MinGW GCC as its compiler, providing a Win32 API.
Win32 and POSIX are completely and fundamentally different. A shell written for one will not even slightly resemble the other.
Instead, you have several options:
Dev-C++ can optionally use Cygwin GCC, providing a more GNU/Linux-like experience on Windows. You need to take great care not to rely on any Cygwin-specific functionality like how it automatically translates pathnames and line terminators. You'll still need access to a Linux install to verify that it works.
Windows 10 lets you install WSL, a more modern Linux compatibility layer for Windows. Dev-C++ doesn't explicitly states it support it, so you may need to edit and compile separately, and may lose debugging functionality. You'll still need access to a Linux install to verify that it works.
Just run Linux in a VM. The only thing to care about is getting your shell working.
I would suggest saving yourself a ton of trouble right now and just download/install an Ubuntu image in VirtualBox.
I have C program which I wrote in Linux that runs very well. Now I want to run it on Windows.
How do I easily run it on Windows?
Elaborating a bit on the answers from caf and jartieda...
Cygwin is an attempt to emulate a (nearly) complete POSIX execution environment in a native Windows process. It is complete enough that a surprising amount of Unix application code simply compiles and runs using the familiar ./configure && make && make install idiom. This trick was done by supplying a DLL that emulates POSIX system calls using the Windows API. Based on that, you get a complete GCC toolchain, bash, and all the usual command line utilities you are used to. One downside is that the compiled program is dependent on the Cygwin DLL, which makes it tricky to deliver the result to a system that does not already have Cygwin installed and whose user doesn't want to use a Unix shell.
MinGW is a port of the GCC toolchain that generates native Windows applications that depend on the well known (and distributed with Windows itself) MSVCRT.DLL C runtime library. It makes no attempt to emulate a POSIX operating system, but applications that are mostly based on the standard C libraries, will often build essentially unchanged.
MSYS is a compile-time environment that provides enough Unix utilities (including bash) to often allow ./configure to run, and if the project supports the results, finish the build with MinGW's GCC. The result is a native Windows executable that does not depend on any DLLs you don't deliberately use aside from MSVCRT.DLL. Although the MSYS environment itself was a fork of an early version of the Cygwin project, it is primarily intended to be used to provide a unix-like place to compile native Windows applications: one would generally not build new applications based on its runtime environment.
Another approach to compiling for Windows is to use the MinGW cross compiler on linux. A number of MinGW's core developers work that way, testing they product either under Wine, or under Windows running in a VM or a separate PC.
If the program has a GUI component, then you may have additional difficulties. Some GUI frameworks are available for both Linux and Windows. Qt, wxWidgets, and IUP all leap to mind, but there are others out there.
Edit: I've improved the paragraph above about MSYS to emphasize that it is intended to be a compile-time environment for building programs that run as native Windows applications, and not a full POSIX environment like Cygwin.
Note, also, that there is always the option of porting the project to one of the more traditional compilers for Windows development. Open Watcom, the Borland compilers, and Microsoft all have free or inexpensive versions, although often enough not under licenses that make the opens source community entirely happy.
This approach probably requires more effort because the differences between a Linux environment and the Windows environment become more visible when you also switch from one toolchain to another. This is especially true of the Microsoft compilers which are historically not as fully standards compliant as GCC.
The easiest way is to install the Cygwin environment, and compile it under that.
best way recompile it all using mingw compiler.
easy way recompile it under cygwin environment.
The answers you got so far, focus on installing the GNU operating system on the Windows kernel; but you could also use freeware tools from Microsoft. This solution is probably most attractive if you want to continue to develop on Linux, and only do a little work for porting on Windows:
Microsoft offers a simplified version of their development environment as freeware: Visual Studio Express (download). If your program does only file IO it will probably compile unmodified, because Microsoft supplies the C standard library too.
For GUI I also wholeheartedly recommend the Qt framework. It is very well written and documented; it is now licensed under the LGPL, so you can link it to proprietary applications without any cost. However it is written in C++ so you would need to change the programing language. For integration of QT with Visual Studio Express: I believe it works, but you need to try it out. About five years ago I tested the integration of (proprietary) QT and (professional) Visual Studio for my employer, and it worked perfectly.
I would like to port a few applications that I use on Linux to Windows. In particular I have been working on wdiff. A program that compares the differences word by word of two files.
Currently I have been able to successfully compile the program on windows through Cygwin. However, I would like to run the program natively on Windows similar to the Project: UnixUtils.
How would I go about porting unix utilities on a windows environment?
My possible guess it to manually create the ./configure file so that I can create a proper makefile. Am I on the right track? Has anyone had experience porting GNU software to windows?
Update:
I've compiled it on Code::Blocks and I get two errors:
wdiff.c|226|error: `SIGPIPE'
undeclared (first use in this
function)
readpipe.c:71: undefined reference to `_pipe'
readpipe.c:74: undefined reference to `_fork
This is a linux signal that is not supported by windows... equvilancy?
wdiff.c|1198|error: `PRODUCT'
undeclared (first use in this
function)|
this is in the configure.in file... hardcode would probably be the fastest solution...
Outcome:
MSYS took care of the configure problems, however MinGW couldnt solve the posix issues. I attempt to utilize pthreads as recommended by mrjoltcola. However, after several hours I couldnt get it to compile nor link using the provided libraries. I think if this had worked it would have been the solution I was after.
Special mention to Michael Madsen for MSYS.
Yes. If you stick to the standard C library, and POSIX functions, most is available on Windows. You may just have to find the implementations. There are implementations of things that do not require Cywgin or MinGW (such as a pthreads package, etc.)
Also, there is a great book that is written in the style of W. Richard Steven's Advanced Proramming in the UNIX Environment, and the book is Windows System Programming, author Johnson Hart. He has a 4th edition. It focuses on System Programming, there is no GUI treatment whatsoever.
http://www.amazon.com/Windows-Programming-Addison-Wesley-Microsoft-Technology/dp/0321657748
It is the best book I know of for a UNIX programming moving to Windows.
You can have a look at MinGW (and MSYS), which are similar to cygwin, but gcc produce native Windows executables. However, since the Unix emulation is not as good as cygwin, you may have to adjust your code.
Always try to following standarts even when porting applications. POSIX compliant compilers exist on windows/Linux. You can try mingw. It has full toolchain required to build standart POSIX application (GNU Linux as well). Check out Dev-Cpp it eases the work.
MinGW is about the easiest way to get gcc and associated binary utilities (including gdb) on a Windows PC. It includes header files and import libraries so that you can call native Windows APIs. If you want more of an integrated IDE development environment you could download Microsoft's free Visual Studio Express C++.
Either way you'll likely have to convert some of the function calls to use Windows specific APIs (if you want a book I'd also recommend the Hart book mentioned in mrjoltcola's answer). For simple command line tools this conversion is usually not a huge deal, the big porting nightmares tend to involve tools with GUIs which have deep embedded dependencies on the GUI framework provided by the OS.
I want to learn C language (is this something good ?) and i didn't know from where i can download the language to my PC ?
and are this FREE or must pay for ?
Is C a good language? Definitely. Is it the best first language? Depends.
If you are using Windows, you can download Visual C++ 2008 Express Edition SP1 from Microsoft for free.
On Ubuntu, just run
sudo apt-get install build-essential
On Mac OS X, install Xcode from Snow Leopard/Leopard DVD (or download the latest version from Apple developer Web site)
There are quite a few free C compilers for the PC.
As seen above, MS Visual Studio comes in a free version.
However, most introductory C programming materials will work best in a unix-like environment. Two options for such an environment are:
Cygwin, which provides a unix-like environment that can be installed over a windows system.
MinGW32/MSYS, which natively ports GCC and some unix-like development tooling onto Windows, allowing you to use GCC to build native Win32 apps.
For learning you might be better off running a native unix/linux environment. If you already have Windows and don't want to uninstall or dual-boot you can run this under a VM. Several free hypervisors are available that will let you do this.
If you want to use a different development environment you could try Eclipse.
Just go to this link and look for Eclipse IDE for C/C++ Developers (79 MB).
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
There is a free compiler called gcc that will compile C code. On Mac OS X and Linux you probably already have it, try typing gcc at a command prompt.
On Windows, you can still use gcc, but you need to use either Cygwin or Mingw.
Or if you want to use an IDE and Microsoft's C compiler you can get a free version of Visual Studio here.
You can use Dev C++ . Very decent tool for beginners and intermediates.
OK (all free):
For Windows
- there is Visual C++ Express
- MinGW (and is command-line based)
You will need the MS Platform SDK as well.
Linux/Sun
- GCC (there are a number of ways to get this distro depending)
OS X
- Apple's Developer Tools (Xcode and others)
It is definitely free to learn and program C, but the answer to your first question "is this something good ?" depends on what your goals are. C is a very good language for some things, but not everything.
System programming is almost always done in C, along with network programs and some applications. C is also the basis for most modern programming languages you will work with, so learning the C syntax can be applied as you go about learning other things. However, if you are looking to make a interactive webpage, you might want to learn PHP. If you are looking to make a desktop application with a GUI, you might want to learn Java.
If you want to just get a start learning about programming, C can help you with that. If that's what you want to do, and dont care much about application right now, I suggest you go to the bookstore and just find a book on learning C for beginners. It should have a CD in the back with a compiler (probably visual studio), and should get you on your way.
This is a an excellent reference of free compilers for many systems.
http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/cpp.shtml
Intel provides free non-commercial compilers for Linux. The download includes the excellent Intel debugger & profiler. The free license can be summed up in two points:
My use of software products is for personal non-commercial purposes.
I understand that technical support will be provided by community self-help and user forums (via the Software Support link above), but cannot get committed support with a non-commercial license.
For the projects I work on, I personally prefer Intel Compilers over GNU... Intel seems to do a better job of optimization.
On Windows, I'll suggest Dev CPP. This is free an a very good product. It is also easier for the newbies to learn. I used it a lot. You can download the latest from
http://www.bloodshed.net/devcpp.html
If in Linux, there should be gcc. Use any editor of your choice( In my case vim). Just type vim filename.c in the terminal. This should bring the editor. press 'i' and write in the code. then press 'Esc' followed by ':' and x (This will save the file and exit the editor.
Now type gcc filename.c at the terminal. this should compile it. Now enter ./a.out to execute it.
If you wanted a "portable" compiler, Tiny C Compiler is a decent compiler that you can take with you on a USB stick - it's only a single .exe file or a single folder IIRC. It is cross platform as well, but the biggest downsides are that the warnings are lacking and that it's optimization isn't as good as the bigger compilers out there.
Nonetheless, it's a decent compiler to "play around with" if you don't want to install Visual Studio or Cygwin on Windows.
I think you need to be clear about the distinction between C and C++ before you decide what to do.
On Windows, try either Digital Mars C and C++ compilers or Open Watcom C and C++ products
About.com maintains a large list of c compilers for windows at http://cplus.about.com/od/glossary/a/compilers.htm
I am in a big problem ..i have compiled my c files using linux make file in Linux OS.
I want to compile the same files in Windows using the same make file by command prompt. For that i have nmake utility and Cygwin utility too.
I have done that successfully with simple programs with simple make file ..
But it is not possible to compile when i was using the complex C files with complex make file.
I have changed the '/' in linux make file to '\' in windows? Anyother changes?
I want to know 'Is there any special make file formats in windows?'
also the difference between them..
I am really in need of that...
Unfortunately, nmake was only loosly inspired by make, and they didn't get many important things right. By far the easiest thing to do is to start by having the same flavor of make on both platforms.
On linux, Gnu make is the default and best option.
On Windows, there are several sources for Gnu make, with some quirks to choose among. Personally, I mostly use the native win32 build of Gnu make from the GnuWin32 project. You might want to poke around at the rest of the project's packages because some of the others will be useful to have as well.
Alternative sources are Cygwin and MinGW32/MSYS.
Cygwin is a credible attempt at providing a *nix compatibility environment on top of the Windows kernel. It consists of a DLL that exports a huge percentage of *nix (especially POSIX) system calls implemented via the Windows API. That DLL also has its own idea about disk mounts and prefers *nix-style path names. The DLL itself is licensed GPL (although a commercial-use license is available for a fee), and programs built in the Cygwin environment require it by default, so that can be a factor to consider. Another factor is that Cygwin is not friendly to normal Windows users, so development projects based on it usually end up difficult for non-unix users to deal with. For a cross-platform developer, however, Cygwin can be really useful as it gets you all of the usual suspect utility programs required by your Makefile, and it includes the MinGW32 native Windows targeted GCC as well as a GCC targeting the Cygwin environment.
MinGW32 is a porting project that did a really good job of porting the GCC compilers to run as native Windows executables. If used along with the header files they supply, it is possible to use nearly all of the Windows API via a C runtime DLL that ships with modern Windows installations.
MSYS is a lightweight fork of Cygwin that contains a minimal set of utilities (starting with a *nix shell) that are usually assumed to exist by a typical *nix Makefile. Unlike Cygwin, MSYS is configured such that the default target is the native Windows API.
What I'm trying to hint at here, and probably should just state flat out, is that your compatibility issues don't end with the dialect of make you use.
The Makefile language itself is highly dependent on the command shell available, and most serious project Makefiles end up using many of the *nix the core utilities such as cp and rm.
I would strongly recommend starting with the GnuWin32 build of make, and also installing MinGW32 and MSYS. It is then relatively easy to write a Makefile that works under both MSYS and linux, and needs only a small amount of platform-specific logic.
You should consider CMake for cross-platform make but your real problem is you shouldn't have to change the '/' to '\'. If you run under cygwin or msys (recommended) this should be handled for you.
NMake is a windows tool and will parse only windows-style paths, i.e. paths with drive letters and backslashes. Therefore you should use GNU Make installed with cygwin.
nmake should read your makefiles okay, the differences are generally between versions of make rather than OSs.
The big question is what your target platform actually is, are you trying to make this code operate in Windows natively or are you looking to run it under Cygwin?
Use gnumake on both platforms. I do. I haven't touched Visual C in years.
nmake got it's own format rather than windows itself, so makefile format is related to make tool rather than os. For simple things format is similar for g(nu)make and nmake, as people suggested before consider using gmake only.