1.1 Your First C Program

All programs must have a starting point for execution, which varies from language to language. In Python, this is the first statement encountered outside of all functions and classes. In C, every program must have a main function. The first statement executed is the first statement within the main function. Consider the basic "Hello World" program below written in C:

/* hello.cc 

   The hello world program in C.

 */

#include <stdio.h>

int main()

{

  printf("Hello World!\n");

}

The main function will be called automatically when the program is executed. Thus, you never call this function directly within your program.

Chapter 1. An Introduction

1.2 Programming Environment