C Introduction | The C is a general-purpose, procedural, imperative computer programming language developed in 1972 by Dennis Ritchie at the Bell Telephone Laboratories for use with the Unix operating system. C is the most widely used computer language. This tutorial should be your starting point only. |
This tutorial is a port of the C++ tutorial but is designed to be a stand-alone introduction to C, even if you've never programmed before. Unless you have a particular reason to learn C instead of C++, I recommend starting the C++ tutorial instead. Nevertheless, if you do not desire some of C++'s advanced features or simply wish to start with a slightly less complicated language, then this tutorial is for you!
C is a programming language of many different dialects, similar to the way that each spoken language has many different dialects. In C, dialects don't exist because the speakers live in the North or South. Instead, they're there because there are many different compilers that support slightly different features. There are several common compilers: in particular, Borland C++, Microsoft C++, and GNU C. There are also many front-end environments for the different compilers--the most common is Dev-C++ around GNU's G++ compiler. Some, such as GCC, are free, while others are not. Please see the compiler listing for more information on how to get a compiler and set it up. You should note that if you are programming in C on a C++ compiler, then you will want to make sure that your compiler attempts to compile C instead of C++ to avoid small compatability issues in later tutorials.