Before you start C programming, you should know what modern tools you need to write a C app. You need a professional C/C++ IDE and a C/C++ compiler to compile and run your applications. The RAD Studio and C++ Builder IDEs are extremely powerful development tools for those who want to develop C and C++ applications.
C is one of the most powerful programming languages and it’s suitable for a wide variety of uses. You can create a C program and compile it with several different C and C++ compilers and IDEs. In this post, we will explain how we can create a simple C app in modern ways of programming.
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How to write a C program with a free C++ IDE?
You can edit and run C code using C++ Builder. The C++ Builder system is a modern powerful C++ IDE. It has C and C++ compilers allowing you to carry out any variety of professional quality development.
C++ Builder has a free C++ Builder Community Edition. There is also a paid C++ Builder Professional / Architect / Enterprise version too.
1. Download the free C++ Builder Community Edition and install it.
2. In C++ Builder, create a new console application from the File->New->Console Application – C++ Builder menu . Chose C Language as a Source Type and Target Framework as None from the next window and press OK. ,
How to write a C program in Windows?
If you are new to programming, here is a quick introduction on how to create a simple C Program. C programs are plain text files, which means you can use any editor to edit these kinds of programs, but a proper C++ IDE has much more features.
When you start coding, first of all, you should include libraries that you wish to use. The C language has many libraries and each of them has commands or functions for specific tasks. For example, the stdio library has standard input and output functions to read from files and similar sources. The signatures for these functions are declared in the stdio.h header. Generally, for beginners, the stdio.h header is enough to enable you to create simple apps. We can include this library header as below,
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#include <stdio.h> |
Second, you should add a main procedure. This is the main part of the program – hence the name – and it is executed first. In the simplest sense, all other parts of your program are launched from the main section either directly or indirectly. Things get a little more complicated than that once you start to write more complex programs but for now you can think of the main section as the ‘main loop’ where things begin to happen in your program code. Here is the simplest C code,
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int main() { return 0; } |
In C++ Builder you can simply press Run Button (without debugging or with debugging) or F9 key to compile and run your code, or you can use Run Menu to compile and run too.
Is there a simple example to show how to write a C program?
After that you should write your lines of program code into this procedure, between the { and } brackets. If you are a beginner, “Hello World” examples are a good way to understand how the basic features of a particular programming language works. It is also a good way to understand how to edit text, how the syntax (the rules) of the language work, how to compile and link, how to debug and execute, and how to deploy or release. This C example below is a “Hello World” C example that can be run with C++ Builder.
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#include <stdio.h> int main() { printf("Hello LearnCPlusPlus!"); getchar(); return 0; } |
In C and C++, after every command you use you should put a semicolon “;”. In this example above we print a text with printf() function and then we wait to get a character input (key press) with getchar(); functions, then we exit and return 0; which means our main app has run successfully and exits.
In the example above we define the main() function as an integer (int) function, that means we should return an integer value. Here, in this example we use boolean x variable. We print text with the printf() function and then we wait to get a character input (key press) with getchar(); function, sometimes this is necessary to see results when running it. If the x variable here is true this example will print “Hello World!”, if you set it to false it will printf “Hello Universe!” to the screen. Then we exit and return 0; which means our main app successfully ran and ended normally, without an error
How to compile C program in the C++ Builder IDE?
In C++ Builder you can simply press the Run Button (without debugging or with debugging) or F9 key to compile and run your code, or you can use Run Menu to compile and run too.
How to create a C program and compile it in the RAD Studio Command Prompt?
If you want to run this program in Console then you can execute the RAD Studio Command Prompt from the Windows start menu.
This will open a Command Console (Terminal) with RAD Studio / C++ Builder configs. After this step, in Terminal, go to folder of your C file and type bcc32 and your file name. For example you can compile your app as below,
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D:\MyApp> bcc32 myapp.c |
How to run a C program in Windows terminal?
To run your compiled app you can type compiled excitable file name which has .exe extension of you C file. For example to run compiled myapp.c file write its executable output as below,
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D:\MyApp> myapp.exe |
Note that you can also develop GUI based VCL or FMX C++ apps by using your C code in your apps too. C++ compilers are generally compatible with most C code and C libraries.
How to write a C program with a professional C++ IDE?
Although the free C++ Builder Community Edition is extremely powerful it is intended for students, beginners, and startups. If you are a regular business or do not qualify for the free community edition, then you can download a free trial of the very latest full RAD Studio C++ Builder version.
C++ Builder is the easiest and fastest C and C++ IDE for building simple or professional applications on the Windows, MacOS, iOS & Android operating systems. It is also easy for beginners to learn with its wide range of samples, tutorials, help files, and LSP support for code. RAD Studio’s C++ Builder version comes with the award-winning VCL framework for high-performance native Windows apps and the powerful FireMonkey (FMX) framework for cross-platform UIs.
There is a free C++ Builder Community Edition for students, beginners, and startups; it can be downloaded from here. For professional developers, there are Professional, Architect, or Enterprise versions of C++ Builder and there is a trial version you can download from here.
