Programming Mechanics

The exact steps you must follow to produce a program depend on your computer environment. Because C is portable, it's available in many environments, including UNIX, Linux, MS-DOS (yes, some people still use it), Windows, and Macintosh OS. There's not enough space in this book to cover all environments, particularly because particular products evolve, die, and are replaced.

First, however, let's look at some aspects shared by many C environments, including the five we just mentioned. You don't really need to know what follows to run a C program, but it is good background. It can also help you understand why you have to go through some particular steps to get a C program.

When you write a program in the C language, you store ...

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