Whoever Said You Need An IDE To Program In C?

Note: This guide is for Windows only and the steps might differ for Mac and Linux users

Let’s face it, IDEs can take up a lot of unnecessary room. So, forget all the noise you heard about using an IDE and just give me a minute of your time. In my life, C has been a language thrown around in semi-crowded rooms. Kinda like that one building you pass all the time on your way somewhere important to you. I never took a second to look into it. Mainly because I thought you needed an IDE or to install more stuff on your already full computer.

When I tried C for the first time, I was shocked. No, I didn’t download and install an IDE. I did something else instead. Something that you can do too 🙂. So what did I do? Well, I downloaded GCC, installed the C/C++ extension in VSCode, and started programming. Here are the steps:

• Go to this website to download a GCC zip file

• Download the latest version

• Extract the zip file

• Rename the extracted folder (make the name shorter, ex: gcc-14.1.0 )

• Move the folder to the (C:) directory in files

• Inside the folder, go to the bin folder

• Copy the path to the bin folder

• Go to your environment variables

• Click on Path in System Variables

• Add the path to the GCC bin directory to Path (System Variables)

• Open the CMD ( Command Prompt )

• Run gcc –version

• Once you have verified GCC, make a folder ( ex: testing-c )

• Open the folder in VSCode

• Create a C file ( ex: testing1.c )

• Copy and Paste this code:

• Open CMD ( Command Prompt )

• Go to your folder in CMD ( ex: testing-c )

• Run gcc testing1.c

• Run a or a.exe

Congrats, you are now on the bus that goes down C road. Have a seat and get ready for the bumps, wrong turns, and potholes. What makes this bus different is we’re going to be getting off at EVERY STOP because there is always a lot to learn on this trip.

With that being said, I can’t wait to learn C.

Happy Coding Folks!