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
Related
Short version of question: How do I get started with C programming? Note that I am not asking for a tutorial on learning C language (I can learn that easy enough). I need to setup the environment (I hope I'm asking this question clearly). Here's what I mean:
For my math thesis, I need to write a program in C on Gentoo Linux, using a library called CVODE/SUNDIALS. There is nobody (it seems) in my department who can help me set this up - my professor has left the computer work 100% to me because I have some programming background and he's a math geek. But my experience is with scripting languages (think VBA) and not full, powerful programming languages where you have to link the compiler and libraries, etc. like C.
There is no development environment on the Linux cluster - or at least not that's friendly, and has a debugger - that I've found. So, what I need to figure out how to setup a C programming environment with CVODE library on my PC (Win 7 x64, at little to no cost.
I have found plenty of tutorials on programming in C. I looked up Eclipse, which I have a little bit of experience with, as a development environment, but it's instructions say you need to install a compiler, too.
What I would like is someone to tell me, in simple language that I can understand (which might be the most difficult part of this question) the big picture of what I need and what to do (and maybe even links to where I can find what I need) to set up a C environment with CVODE. If the information is Windows/Gentoo Linux cross platform, even better.
Thank you.
P.S. I did search the site and saw lots of "How do I setup" quesitons, but no C one. Because I know someone will yell at me for that. Also, I don't want to have a convo about whether to use C#, C++, Java, etc. That just complicates the issue - and I need to get this done.
Edit: I have learned a little more since this question and now realize that I left out a key part of the question. The CVODE library and Linux cluster at school use MPI - parallel programming - which is not available on your average, run-of-the-mill PC. So all development must be done directly on the cluster.
Linux: Simple way is to install gcc or g++.
You can write your code in your plain text editor (nano, vim, gedit, kwrite, etc)
Save your file in .c or .cpp extention and type in terminal
gcc filename.c
or
g++ filename.cpp
You said that you want to write c code on Gentoo Linux, as i understand you're not familiar with Linux? The best choice in this case is to:
Install virtualbox in your windows machine (https://www.virtualbox.org/), it's a free software that let you emulate in your desktop another systems like Linux...
Install Gentoo linux on virtualbox, there are a lot of tutorials on the net, for example this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DUf_1wAPeyA
When you install Gentoo Linux on virtualbox you have all you need to develop C (gcc compiler, gdb debugger...)
Now you can download your library, and decompress it
In general all (Good) Linux libraries come with a 'README' file that contain all instructions for installing the library.
I think you need to do this:
./configure --prefix=/DIRECTORY_YOU_WANT_TO_INSTALL_THE_LIBRARY
make
make install
You can now play with C and you new library, like this:
suppose you create a new file test_lib_ CVODE.c you can compile it like this:
gcc -Wall test_lib_ CVODE.c -o test_lib_ CVODE -lcvode
I assume that the installed library is named libcvode.so
If you have any questions, you can always get help here.
Regards.
I think you should use Code::Block in Linux, it is very similar to Window's Code::Block and it is very easy to debug and other things.
These were all useful answers. I tried pursuing each of them at least a little bit. However, the only reasonable solution seems to be to use emacs on a terminal window. This is because I'm using MPI - yes, I know I didn't mention that in the OP - which can only be done on a cluster.
I am new to this environment and was not aware of the MPI or the affect it would have on my attempt to develop.
I believe I can do better than this if I can figure out X/Windows using Cygwin. But I am a long way from that.
Thanks all for your effort and sorry I can't really award a best answer (I guess).
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.
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.
What might be a better choice?
I have my code (mostly C - as output from the GNU Eiffel compiler and some C++ for the GUI bindings) working with Sun Studio compiler and gcc.
But i now have to setup a new developer computer and wonder if i should use Solaris with DTrace, locklint or Linux with Valgrind etc for development.
It's just about introspecting and debugging and the development is done in GNU (SmallEiffel) and therefore there is no help in any way. But the output is plain C, so C tools help a lot.
I bought some books about the Solaris and printed the developer documentation. I have to say that it seems to be a much better development environment then all the undocumented Linux tools. But Sun Studio works also on Linux...
This is an opinion so I'm marking it Community Wiki.
Solaris' days are past. That's it, really, that's all I wanted to say, thanks for listening.
Oh, and by the way, so is AIX and HP-UX. Linux is the present and the future (at least for a while) - that's where you should be putting your effort. That's where you'll get the best bang per buck for your support dollars. That's where you'll get hordes of opinionated clowns like myself willing to give you help at the drop of a hat.
This depends totally on what you are aiming for. If you are developing primarily for Linux, create a Linux box. If your primary target is Solaris, use that. But if you plan to target both OS's, make sure that you have a box for each one. That way you will be able to test on both, and notice small bugs / issues that crop up on one platform but not the other.
Apart from that, it's up to you. If your tools are available on both platforms, and you have no other reason to pick one over the other, then just go by your personal preference. Without more information, there isn't much more advice to give.
To choose a machine as your main dev platform... It's simple: What suits you best?
"Linux with Valgrind etc"
or
"Solaris with DTrace, locklint"
The environment and toolset is markedly different, even if you can use Sun Studio in both. In fact, why are you doing this question, what is bothering you about Solaris? That should give you some ideas. If you've never used Linux as a main dev platform, you should to be able to compare and switch back if necessary. Because, as I said, the toolset is markedly different, even when GNUing Solaris.
Lastly, don't forget if you aim for cross platform code you should test it in all platforms where it is supposed to run on.
I recently said good-bye to my Sun workstation and have moved to x64 Linux. I miss the stability of Solaris on Sun hardware...nVIDIA driver issues are making me crazy.
Though I like developing on Solaris WITH Sun hardware, the following two things bothered me the most about the platform:
If you want to use the latest version of libraries, you'll have to build them yourself every time. Blastwave helps out in the Solaris world, but often the packages are several versions behind. Installing Boost was quite challenging on my Sparc hardware and required a lot of study and learning just to get Boost installed.
Availability of tools is quite limited, and often free or developer versions of commercial software are not available for the Solaris OS.
If DTrace is the "killer application" for you, take a look at STrace for Linux and see if it offers the same features you're looking for. The docs are somewhat lacking in Linux, but you can usually find what you're looking for in man pages, mailing lists and what not.
Neither, Mac is best.
Mostly because you can have the Xcode IDE.