C language is a procedure/structural programming language, and it was a very important invention. But the capabilities and features offered by modern object oriented programming languages like JAVA, Python, and so forth, may help a developer to solve his problems easily than he could using C language. Infact, most of the real world problems can be solved easily with object oriented programming languages. Then why do you need to learn C?
There's no specific 'NEED' of learning C language. The choice is yours, you can go with an easy to learn programming language like Python, or choose JAVA and jump into Android Programming. But these languages impose restrictions on the developer, in some or the other way. C gives the developer a flexible access over the Operating System. It provides low-level access to memory, and it's program structure maps very efficiently to machine instructions. But at the same time, programming in C can be dangerous, as it has unrestricted access over the OS to some extent. So, learning the right practices of C programming is important, and this is what this blog is for!
Setting up the Environment
To get started with C programming, you just need a compiler and a text editor, no fuss, no mess!
We're not talking about IDEs, they are for lazy people(However, we've specified how to install some of the popular IDEs down below).
The problem with IDEs is that, they offer you too many luxuries, like code completion, automatic indentation and so forth. These are obviously not problems, but one can become lazy by not typing the whole thing and depending on auto code completion so much that you feel annoyed when you don't happen to code in an IDE in future. IDEs are useful for serious developers and for full scale Application development, however, we believe one can learn to code efficiently, without skipping inner details, and get acquainted with good coding practices by being independent(By not depending on IDEs).
We are not explaining the installation process for IDE's and Compilers because there are already a hell lot of tutorials easily available over the net. You can refer to them for guidance.
Command line:
Windows:
C language is more or less meant for UNIX operating system, however, you can still work on windows with some minor changes.To work on windows you need to have a gcc and mingw32 packs installed on your windows. You can find both video and text tutorial on installing it in the link below:
http://www.newthinktank.com/2013/08/how-to-install-gcc/
Linux:
To work on Linux too you need to have the gcc compiler installed. To know how install it watch the video in the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cotkJrewAz0
IDEs:
Code Blocks:
Code Blocks is among the top IDEs used by Professional Programmers. It provides a user friendly interface and working is easy on code blocks. You can download this from:
http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/26 .
You need to download both setup and mingw setup.
Dev C++(Blood Shed):
Dev c++ is also a very widely used IDE. It is similar to Code Blocks. This can be downloaded from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/orwelldevcpp/
Microsoft Visual Studio:
This is considered the most feature rich IDE for programmers. But the drawbacks are, it is very difficult to use and download size is large. Many free and compact IDEs are available which are sufficient for beginner programming. Apart from the disadvantages it is the leading IDE and considered to be the most standard one. This can be downloaded from Microsoft website.
There's no specific 'NEED' of learning C language. The choice is yours, you can go with an easy to learn programming language like Python, or choose JAVA and jump into Android Programming. But these languages impose restrictions on the developer, in some or the other way. C gives the developer a flexible access over the Operating System. It provides low-level access to memory, and it's program structure maps very efficiently to machine instructions. But at the same time, programming in C can be dangerous, as it has unrestricted access over the OS to some extent. So, learning the right practices of C programming is important, and this is what this blog is for!
Setting up the Environment
To get started with C programming, you just need a compiler and a text editor, no fuss, no mess!
We're not talking about IDEs, they are for lazy people(However, we've specified how to install some of the popular IDEs down below).
The problem with IDEs is that, they offer you too many luxuries, like code completion, automatic indentation and so forth. These are obviously not problems, but one can become lazy by not typing the whole thing and depending on auto code completion so much that you feel annoyed when you don't happen to code in an IDE in future. IDEs are useful for serious developers and for full scale Application development, however, we believe one can learn to code efficiently, without skipping inner details, and get acquainted with good coding practices by being independent(By not depending on IDEs).
We are not explaining the installation process for IDE's and Compilers because there are already a hell lot of tutorials easily available over the net. You can refer to them for guidance.
Command line:
Windows:
C language is more or less meant for UNIX operating system, however, you can still work on windows with some minor changes.To work on windows you need to have a gcc and mingw32 packs installed on your windows. You can find both video and text tutorial on installing it in the link below:
http://www.newthinktank.com/2013/08/how-to-install-gcc/
Linux:
To work on Linux too you need to have the gcc compiler installed. To know how install it watch the video in the link below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cotkJrewAz0
IDEs:
Code Blocks:
Code Blocks is among the top IDEs used by Professional Programmers. It provides a user friendly interface and working is easy on code blocks. You can download this from:
http://www.codeblocks.org/downloads/26 .
You need to download both setup and mingw setup.
Dev C++(Blood Shed):
Dev c++ is also a very widely used IDE. It is similar to Code Blocks. This can be downloaded from:
http://sourceforge.net/projects/orwelldevcpp/
Microsoft Visual Studio:
This is considered the most feature rich IDE for programmers. But the drawbacks are, it is very difficult to use and download size is large. Many free and compact IDEs are available which are sufficient for beginner programming. Apart from the disadvantages it is the leading IDE and considered to be the most standard one. This can be downloaded from Microsoft website.
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