What is C Language?

What is C Language?

C is a computer Programming language. That means that you can use c to create lists of instructions for a computer to follow. C is one of thousands of programming languages currently in use. C has been around for several decades and has won widespread acceptance because it gives programmers maximum control and efficiency. C is an easy language to learn. It is a bit more  cryptic in its style than some other languages, but you get beyond that fairly quickly.

c is what is called a compiled language.

This means that once you write your c program, you must run it through a C compiler to turn your program into an executable that the computer can run (execute). The C program is the human-readable form, while the executable that comes out of the compiler is the machine-readable and executable form. What this means is that to write and run a c program, you must have access to a C compiler. If you are using a UNIX machine (for example, if you are writing CGI scripts in c on your host's UNIX computer, or if you are a student working on a lab's UNIX machine), the c compiler is availabe for free. IT is called either "cc" or "gcc" and is available on the commane line. If you are a student, then the school will out what the school is using and learn about it. If you are working at home on a windows machine, you are going to need to download a free c compiler is Microsoft's Visual c++ environment (it compiles both c and C++ Programs).. Unfortunately, this program costs several hundred dollars. If you do not have hundreds of dollars to spend on a commerical compiler, then you can use one of the free compiler available on the web. see http://delorie.com/djgpp/ as a starting point in your searc.

We will start at the beginning with an extremely simple C program and build up from there. I will assume that you are using the UNI command line and gcc as you are not, all of the code will still work fine -- you will simply need to understand and use whatever compiler you have available.