Questions Regarding C

[Banished_Outlaw]

It seems that waterloo will be teaching C this year. So just to see whats in store for me, I would like to try out and see what C is like. From previous posts, I have seen that i need a compiler, do i also need a library...somewhat like what we had for java? and can someone summarize C in a few lines? Also what would be an easy and good compiler to use for C? This forum has helped me so much throughout the years in answering my programming inquiries. any help would be appreciated. Thanks a lot.

[[Gandalf]]

Use GCC as your compiler. If you're on Windows, I believe I posted a tutorial on how to set up MinGW so you can use GCC. Some links and such might be a bit outdated, but the steps haven't changed.

As for summarizing C in a few lines, well, erm, Wikipedia can probably do that better than me. Briefly, it allows for pretty low level coding in a high level language. It's a completely different language from C++, so don't mix the two up. It can (and has been) used to create just about everything.

Make sure to read wtd's Whirlwind Tour of C, too!

[btiffin]

Second vote for the GNU Compiler Collection.

But, I'm also a fan of Ch. Ch is a true C shell; a nice interactive learning tool.

Ch is freely distributed from http://www.softintegration.com/products/chstandard/ And under Windows provides the basic Unix commands as well.

There is a Student version as well. Comes with a stats and graphing layer.

But if you only go with one, make GCC the primary tool.

Cheers