LEARNINGS OF THE WEEK

by: Mary Trishia V. Tabigue IV- RIZAL

THE C PROGRAMMING LANGUAGE

Four parts of C environment

1.) Main menu
2.) Editor status line and edit window
3.) Compiler message window
4.) “Hot Keys” quick reference line

1.) Main menu
Instructs C to do something as indicated in the list of menu. It can be activated or can be used by pressing Alt key and the first letter of the menu. For example, press Alt+F to activate File menu. The basic menu of C consist of file, run, compile.

2.) Editor status line and edit window
It is where you type your program and where you see the current line and column of the text you typed. If you try to press Alt- I or Insert Key, the word insert disappears, meaning that the window is in overwrite mode. Press again “insert” to return to the normal mode and notice that the word insert appears again.

3.) Compiler Message Window
oThe message window is located beneath the middle of edit window and Hotkeys.oIt is used to display various compiler or linker messages.

4.) “Hot Keys” quick reference line
Hot Keys is located at the bottom of C operating screen. It refers to shortcut or shorthand for selecting a menu. Two sets of Hot keys are available: the normal ones and the alternate set. Press the indicated key to use normal hotkeys. For example, press F1 to activate help. On the other hand, press Alt key briefly and the corresponding Function key to use alternate hot keys.

DATA TYPES AND KEYWORDS
lThere are five elementary data types in C: character (char), integer (int), floating point, double floating point and void.

CHAR
lValues of type char are used to hold ASCII characters or any 8-bit quantity.INT
Variables of type int are used to hold real numbers. Real numbers have both an integer

Float and Double
lValues of type float and double are used to hold real numbers.lRea numbers have both an integer and fractional component

Void
The type void has three uses:–To declare explicitly a function as returning no value.
–To declare explicitly a function as having no parameters.
–To create generic pointers

Type Modifiers
lExcept type void, the basic data types may have various modifiers preceding them.lA modifier is used to alter the meaning of the base type to fit the needs of various situations more precisely.

Keywords
lKeywords in C are reserved words that have a special meaning.lReserved words are words “reserved” by the programming language for expressing various statements and constructs, thus, these may not be redefined by the programmer.