Best C Programming App for windows

center15

I'm looking for a c editor/compiler for windows can anybody recommend such a program. I already have textpad but I can't get it to run c despite installing c compilers
thanks in advance.

Cake Fiend

Dev-C++ owns my bones.

Blowfish

Sico wrote:

Dev-C++ owns my bones.

i'd say the same, but you can download older versions of visual studio for free aswell.
Another option (though slightly more complicated ) is use Eclipse and cygwin, instructions below if you need them
http://csserver.ucd.ie/~meloc/3011/practicals/practical1/InstallationInstructions.htm

[edit] I hope that link work's outside ucd, some lecturers filter non-ucd ip's, so let me know if it works

Mutant_Fruit

I just started using Dev C++ myself. I prefer it to Emacs alright. But havn't used it too much as of yet.

I have to say, the ability to step through the code line by line is great! I couldn't do that in Emacs.

Soes Eclipse allow that for C code?

Blowfish

er kind of. The debugger in eclipse is great for java, but can be a bit funny sometimes with c/c++

laluna

Borland dead easy to install and handy to use

Mutant_Fruit

Borland is a piece of *(£^%*& that i hope to god i never have to use again. They tried to make us use it in college this year, but pretty much everyone had reverted back to cygwin/emacs or dev C++ before the end of the first month.

Unless we have an exceptionally old version, Borland != good.

Blowfish

i'd have to agree, i used borland for a little bit, but there were some things that just got really annoying

bpmurray

The original Apple acronym for Windows, Icons, Mouse, Pointer was WIMP, for good reason.

Use vi with gcc on the command line :-)

Creamy Goodness

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Borland is a piece of *(£^%*& that i hope to god i never have to use again. They tried to make us use it in college this year, but pretty much everyone had reverted back to cygwin/emacs or dev C++ before the end of the first month.

Unless we have an exceptionally old version, Borland != good.

wouldn't happen to be DIT would it?

we keep asking them to install dev c++ but they never listen.

not only is borland **** but borland in DIT everytime you hit backspace an illegal character (normally a little red box) comes up and won't allow you to type further until you cut the illegal character out.

myself at home i use dev c++ but when at college i use borland through the command prompt.

Mutant_Fruit

Cremo wrote:

not only is borland **** but borland in DIT everytime you hit backspace an illegal character (normally a little red box) comes up and won't allow you to type further until you cut the illegal character out

Same with us. We're in UCD. All i can say is thank god we learned with emacs and Cygwin first. Otherwise i'd say a lot more people would hate programming than at the moment :P

I was just giving Visual C++ Express edition a shot. It's pretty nifty when it comes to ye olde stepping through code and whatnot and it works for compiling regular C code! Its only a few hundred megs download, so if you have spare bandwidth, you could try giving it a shot.

I think the code stepping through ability is a bit better than in Dev-C++ (which i managed to confuse with a moderately recursive function :P)

dazberry

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

Unless we have an exceptionally old version, Borland != good.

AFAIR Borland C++ hasn't been updated in years. Following on from that there was Borland C++ Builder, which didn't really get all the attention it probably deserved and had the BCB people up in arms for years as Delphi tended to get priority from Borland. I believe the whole lot (C++, C#, Delphi etc) have been integrated into BDS 2006 (Borland Developer Studio).

I haven't worked past the Delphi 7 IDE, generally found it good, if you're using a version from pre-2000, then its likely pretty grim - although they were decent enough in their time.

D.

fatherdougalmag

Visual Studio Express Editions (http://msdn.microsoft.com/vstudio/express/ - including C++) are worth a look.

center15

thanks for all the suggestions, I'm trying out Dev-C++ but when I run a prog the cmd windows closed straight away could someone please tell me how to fix this?
thanks.

Mutant_Fruit

i believe if you write in (as code) at the end of your program:

system("PAUSE")

it'll wait for you to press a key before quitting.

Or just put in

getchar();

EDIT: Used square brackets for some bizarre reason... thanks for the headsup cremo.

Creamy Goodness

Mutant_Fruit wrote:

i believe if you write in (as code) at the end of your program:

system["PAUSE"]

it'll wait for you to press a key before quitting.

i think you have the wrong brackets there

sytem[b]([/b]"pause"[b])[/b]

also don't forget to have the standard library in you file ( #include <stdlib.h>)