How do you compile a C program using C++ Compiler?
 

Just started an intro to programming class, which focuses on C.

The instructor uses Visual Studio 6.0, C++ compiler to compile a C program, the problem is that I'm using Visual Studio.Net 2003, and I can't seem to figure out where everything is located to compile my basic C program. Can anyone tell me, what I should be looking for, or where the build command is located.

I was under the impression that you would just compile it normally... I've always just compiled C the same way as C++ in VS.NET...

Let me show you what I mean, here's a screenshot. Where can I find the build command or build icon so that I can compile this program?

http://img92.exs.cx/img92/6425/compile1.gif

First, in VS.NET you have to create a C++ project, and then pick "Win32 Console Project"

Give it whatever name you want, then in "Application Settings", have it be a blank project.

Right click "Source Files" on the Solution Explorer, and then add a New or Existing item (if you don't have a source file already, add New and save it in the same directory as where VS.NET created the project, for ease).

Once you've got that created, go ahead and write your code. When you're done coding, go to the Build Menu and select "Build Solution" - then go find your application on the harddrive (should be in SOURCE_DIRECTORY\Debug\bin).

The reason you don't see anything like that in the screencap you posted is because Visual Studio needs to have a solution to build - you can't just point it at a random source file on the harddrive and tell it to go compile it. Until you're working on on a file in a solution, you're just using VS.NET as a pretty colored editor.

Thanks for the help, my professor, makes our class use programs that already work, and we use that to make changes, sort of like using a template.

So here's what I did, I created a new c++ project, then picked win32, called the file test.c (since I want it to be a c file)

I next right clicked source files, and I added an existing file called asterick.c file as seen above in screenshot. I then built the solution had no errors, linked the file no errors, however, when I went to execute the program, the command prompt flashes really quick, and Im back to visual studio, with the error saying the program [3392] test.c.exe, Native has exited with code 0 (0X0).

In theory the program should work, however, it's not executing, what am I doing wrong?

sounds like you dont have anything at the end of the program to halt the execution and wait for the user to close it... so as soon as it finishes, it closes... "Code 0" typically means that the program completed execution normally...

getch(); would do the trick

The other alternative would be to run the program from the command line - and that way you can see the result without worrying about the command prompt spawning and exiting quickly.

I'm betting 99.99% of C code would compile with a C++, compiler;

However, Visual Studio has an option to compile as C Code:
Click on the "Project" menu and select "{Project Name} Properties." Expand the "C/C++" Tab, and choose "Advanced." change the "Compile As" setting to "Compile as C Code (/TC)"

Cheers!

viewing it from the command prompt works, and the getch() code works as well, however, I thought return 0; is something the sytem generates to tells the user to press any key to continue, but I guess it doesn't work with the visual studio.net

Return 0 doesn't ask the user to press any key to continue - it's a way of telling the shell that the program exited successfully, and that's it. The DOS command "pause" asked the user to press any key to continue.

Oh ok that makes sense, about the return 0 statement.

I also found out that if you hit ctrl+F5, which turns out to be start with/out debugging(debug-->start w/out debugging), the command prompt doesn't flash by real quick. Before I was using debug-->start.

it should since c is a proper subset of c++

try gcc to compile your c code.