Mac OS

Editor

• vim
• Sublime text

  Compiler

• clang
• gcc

  IDE

• Dev C++ (recommended on Windows)
• XCode (recommended on Mac OS)

Example with editor and compiler

To create a “hello world” program.

Editing

In Sublime, open a new file, save it as hello.c, then the sublime will set the language environment as C for you.

#include<stdio.h>
int main(void){
    printf("hello, world\n");
    return 0;
}

To compile and run this file, use shortcut Command + B. Then you will find an executable file hello, which is the result of compiling, is created in the same file. Sublime itself doesn’t have compiler, it uses external compiler. Moreover, Sublime can’t handle inputs.

Command + B helps you compile and run the program at the same time, if you want to compile and run programs separately by yourself, use clang or gcc:

First edit the program in Sublime, then run clang -o hello hello.c in terminal to compile the program and create executable file hello. Actually, you can use clang hello.c only, but it will assign a name for the executable middle file, such as a.out.

In order to run the program, ./hello or ./a.out.

Except light editor like Sublime, you can use preinstalled vim in terminal. Run vi hello.c to open the file with Vim, then press I to start editing, press esc and input :wq to quit editing, save what you write and exit Vim. To learn more about Vim, MIT course Missing Semester is a good choice.

Example with IDE

Dev C++

Too simple, nothing to say, just try by yourself.

VS Code

For people who prefer VS Code, make sure you have compiler(like clang) already installed. VS Code provides a very detailed manual of how to install a compiler. Or you can see the last two section of this article.

VS Code is first and foremost an editor, and relies on command-line tools to do much of the development workflow.

Besides this, you need to install C/C++ Extension in VS Code.

Open a terminal window in VS Code, Execute code hello.c to create a new file called hello.c.

If the code command doesn’t work for you:

1. Make sure VS Code is in the Application folder.
2. Use shortcut Command + Shift + P to open the Command Palette. Enter shell command, choose “Install ‘code’ command in PATH”.

After you finished programming in hello.c, execute make hello in terminal to compile it. Remember, it’s hello not hello.c, only the name, no suffix.

Check the files by ls -l, there will be two files in this directory now, hello.c and executable hello which is the result of compiling. Finally, execute ./hello to run the program.

Install MinGW-x64 on Windows

1. Install msys2-x86_64-20221028.exe from MSYS2
2. After installed, run MSYS2, in the window execute pacman -S mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-gcc to install gcc or pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-x86_64-toolchain to install the tool chain.
3. Add MinGW compiler to your Path
   1. Right-click “My Computer” and click System.
   2. In the System Properties window, click Advanced tab.
   3. Click the Environment Variables button.
   4. In the Environment Variables window, in the User Variables section click PATH row.
   5. Click New, and add your MinGW compiler path, for myself, it’s D:\msys64\mingw64\bin\gcc.exe, D:\msys64\mingw64\bin\g++.exe and D:\msys64\mingw64\bin\gdp.exe. By the way, if you only add D:\msys64\mingw64\bin, the cmd can find them, but VS Code can’t.
   6. Click OK.
4. Check your MinGW installation. Open cmd, execute

    gcc --version
    g++ --version
    gdb --version
   

   If you’re able to check their versions, you’ve installed compilers successfully.

   Using GCC and GDB with MinGW in VS Code

5. Click Terminal, then click Configure Default Build Tasks, choose gcc in the dropdown menu.
6. In order to use make command in VS Code terminal, go to mingw64\bin, rename “mingw32-make.exe” as “make.exe”. Otherwise, VS Code can’t find it.
7. To run your program like “hello” in terminal, execute .\hello (not ./hello).
8. To use debug, edit your launch.json.

    // an example
    {
     "version": "0.2.0",
     "configurations": [
       {
         "name": "C/C++ Runner: Debug Session",
         "type": "cppdbg",
         "request": "launch",
         "args": [],
         "stopAtEntry": false,
         "externalConsole": true,
         "cwd": "d:/c_workspace",
         "program": "${fileDirname}\\${fileBasenameNoExtension}.exe",
         "MIMode": "gdb",
         "miDebuggerPath": "gdb",
         "setupCommands": [
           {
             "description": "Enable pretty-printing for gdb",
             "text": "-enable-pretty-printing",
             "ignoreFailures": true
           }
         ]
       }
     ]
   }