C intro 0. How C programing goes?

In C programming, you make a text file called source code in your computer. Here is an example (You don't need to understand. Just get some feelings!):

Fig. An example of a C language source code, which is a part of program of calculation of day length.

Once you complete the source code, you compile it. Compile is to translate the source code to a binary code, which is a group of commands which your computer can understand.

The binary code is the final form of the program. You can let the computer run it. However, it is not easy to reach this stage because your source code normally contains lots of errors. People call an error in the source code a bug. You will get many bugs before you are successful in compile. You need to fix them and try compile again, again, again... This process is called debugging.

If you want to do computer programming, you need:

1. OS (operating system) ... Windows, Linux, MacOS, etc. We use Linux.
2. Tex editor ... An application software for making and editting a text file. We use "vi" or "gedit". If you want to be a serious IT user, try to use vi.
3. Compiler ... An application software which translate a source code to a binary code. We use "gcc".
4. Debugger ... An application software which support your debugging. We do not use it.

Exercise 0-1: Explain meanings and relations of the following words:

• source code
• compile
• binary code
• bug
• debugging

[Go back to C language introduction]