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What is C?

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 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 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 available for free. It is called either "cc" or "gcc" and is available on the command line. If you are working at home on a Windows machine, you are going to need to download a free C compiler or purchase a commercial compiler. 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 TURBO C as your environment for these examples; if you are not, all of the code will still work fine -- you will simply need to understand and use whatever compiler you have available. Let's get started!

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