c download failue

[Nostalgiia]

i am brand new to the c languages. i'm assuming that you have to download the language, like most others, so i downloaded the free-c from programarts.com and when i try to open it, it says theres no disk in drive 1, i hit ok, and repeats the message for 1-4, i end up having to open up my task manager and ending the process manually to be able to use my computer. help? if i'm completely retarded go ahead and let me know, but also provide something constructive, thanks.

[insomaniacal]

You need a C compiler. You write C code in plain-text form. IE, you can write it in Notepad.

List of C Compilers.

GCC is probably what you want to look at. If you're on Linux, it's probably already installed. If you're on windows, look into Mingw, a port of GCC for Windows based machines.

[Nostalgiia]

i for some reason am haveing trouble getting mingw to download. i changed mirrors and it still does nothing. i'll try again tomorrow i suppose.

[mShred]

If that doesn't work, I've used Codeblocks for compiling C programs. I like to use Notepad++ instead of Notepad though. Just a personal preference.

[thetan]

btw, all the cool kids on the block are writing C code to C99 standards and are compiling with Clang/LLVM

Just sayin'

As for compiling C shit on windows, i always do so with gcc via cygwin just out of habit mostly.

As for editing, i feel pretty awkward writing C in anything other then emacs in terminal mode. I keep Geany around for writing code in every other language though.

[Nostalgiia]

i also use notepad++, it was reccomended by a web host aquaintance along with xampp when i was having trouble downloading apache. i also heard (have never used) visual studio has a c, c++, and c# compiler, is this true and is it worth getting?

-- Fri Nov 19, 2010 11:02 pm --

now i have mingw, bear with me please, i try opening a c file with it and i get an error message, i tried opening it with the gcc application, is this correct or am i suposed to use something else?

[insomaniacal]

Assuming you've correctly gone through the installation, and set the correct enviromental Paths, read this guide and your answers will almost certainly be answered.

MinGW for first time Users