What is needed to get started with C/C++?
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You need two things:
- IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
- C Compiler

IDE (Integrated Development Environment)
- An integrated development environment (IDE) or interactive development environment is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger. Most modern IDEs offer Intelligent code completion features.
C compiler:
- It will compile your C code to machine code.
With Java you have many choices IDE, it is a tool to write code. Popular and most commonly used today is Eclipse.
With the other options you can see at:
In this document, as well as most of the instructions on o7planning we will use Eclipse.
You have two options for installation when using Eclipse for programming C/C++

Option 1:
- Install Java, it is imperative to be able to run the Eclipse IDE.
- After installing Java, download and install Eclipse package for programming in C/C ++ (Eclipse IDE for C/C ++ Developers).
- Installing the C/C++ compiler (C Compiler), the compiler will compile your code into machine code.
Option 2:
- Install Java, it is imperative to be able to run the Eclipse IDE
- After installing Java, download and install Eclipse for Java programming package (Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers).
- Install CDT (C/C++ Development Tooling), CDT is an plugin installed to Eclipse to program C/C++
- Installing the C/C++ compiler (C Compiler), the compiler will compile your code into machine code.
We will install the 2nd way.

C-Compiler is a compiler. It compile your C/C++ code to computer code. In case you're programming on Windows OS, you have 2 options to install C Compiler:
- MinGW
- CygWin
You only need to install one of these two compilers. The fact that MinGW is preferred
Install MinGW:
Install GygWin:

First you need to install Java, you can see instructions here:

Next you need to install Eclipse IDE for Java JEE Developers package. You can see the instructions at:

After you install the "Eclipse IDE for Java JEE Developers", this is the Eclipse package for Java programming, you need to install additional CDT plugin (C/C++ Development Tooling) to programming in C/C++. You can see the instructions at:
In Eclipse, select:
- Window/References

Select:
- C/C++ > New C/C++ Project Wizad > Makefile Project
Note:
- Set it to Windows PE Parser if you are on windows.
- Set it to Cygwin PE Parser if you are using Cygwin

Configuring the PATH environment variable:
In Windows, you should add to the ends of the PATH environment variable, the path to the bin directory of MinGW:
In Windows, you should add to the ends of the PATH environment variable, the path to the bin directory of MinGW:
- ;C:\MinGW\bin


Next you can see the tutorial to learn C for beginners: