Programming in C...where to get PICO or use on PC?

[Rudyard]

I am currently doing a course about programming in C and its kinda doing my head in a bit and I need to be able to work on it at home.

I have no net connection at home and run windows XP.....at uni this course uses Linux or unix and a program or part of linux/unix called 'terminal' and then a program called PICO to edit code.

I cant get the net right now and I cant travel to uni to work in spare time (cause there is no spare time right now + live 1 hour away) so I really need to somehow practice and do my work on my home PC.

I have a disc from a while ago with puppy linux on it, can I boot up with this and somehow use the programs or can I run them (terminal and PICO or anything equivalent)somehow in XP?

Or is there a Windows version of these programs (C must be programmed in windows aswell?) i can get that is free?

Where also can I actually get these programs aswell, I cant seem to find them on the net except for PICO LISP but I dont know if that is the same!

Very confused and in need of some urgent help,
Thanks

[Abbadon]

Hi,

I am not a programmer, but I have used Linux in the past. All of the tools necessary for programming in C are bundled in Linux. Most of the C compilers
that can be used in Windows are commercial, it is possible to find some versions for free, but they are useless.

Download an ISO image of UBUNTU Linux, burn it to a CD or set of CDs, after that, you have the option to install this version in your machine, or use a LiveCD without doing a full installation.

It is also possible to dual boot Windows or Linux if you have a second hard disk to spare.

It won't be easy at first, but the knowledge you may get is good, there are many tutorials in the net that will guide you in the process.

Good luck.

[edDV]

You don't even have a dial up internet connection from home?

Go talk to your professor about your problem. He/She will see you get the software your course requires.

After you get started, a dialup should be sufficient. Beginner C classes have little to do with the internet.

You can get faster connects at local libraries or coffee shops.

[Abbadon]

By they way, PICO is just a text editor, you can write C in any text editor, of course, if you know the syntax. Some compilers come with a text editor that checks the syntax for you, but this make you lazy.

[JohnnyMalaria]

Are you programming PIC processors or just doing simple C stuff? There are a number of C compilers with names like PICO-C and PICO Extreme design specifically for programming chips.

[Rudyard]

Thank you for your help.

Abbadon - so you mean I could write C in notepad? But I guess my problem is obviously not being able to compile it......there is a link from our course to the GCC compiler we use that I can get, maybe if I use a text editor in linux I can use it with that.

Also when you say it wont be easy at first but the knowledge will be good and that there are good tutorials on the net are you refering to installing linux or programming in C??

If programming, could you recomend a good site for a novice?

EDDV,

No i dont have even dial up, the only reason I would need the net is we have a program called putty that connects to the uni servers and 'terminal' appears through that program and we can run it from our home PCs.

I know dial up is cheap but with a new baby, wife off work, big mortgage and intrest rates in Australia gone up for about the 12th time in a row with banks going over and above official rates to cover US sub prime losses + my uni fees I am scapping the bottom of the money barrell right now. I dont mean to whinge but thats just life at the moment.

I will talk to my prof but they simply said I can use the uni computers which again isnt all that practical.

BTW does anyone know if the 'terminal' in linux is a program or is it the command prompt in linux (like in dos e.g.)??

[Rudyard]

Are you programming PIC processors or just doing simple C stuff? There are a number of C compilers with names like PICO-C and PICO Extreme design specifically for programming chips.

Simple (hehe for some!) C stuff, I havent heard of PIC processors yet, its like programming C 101

[Midzuki]

My humble $1.99 suggestion:

http://www.thefreecountry.com/compilers/cpp.shtml

HTH.

[Kayembee]

Just so you know my credentials, I learned C in 1987 and have been
programming in C on Linux and UNIX systems for 20 years.

Rudyard wrote:
> Abbadon - so you mean I could write C in notepad?

Sure. Notepad is a text editor, just like Pico. Use whatever editor you
know and like.

> But I guess my problem
> is obviously not being able to compile it......there is a link from our
> course to the GCC compiler we use that I can get, maybe if I use a text
> editor in linux I can use it with that.

Getting GCC is not your problem. It's free, easily available, and runs
on Windows as well as Linux. You need access to your uni's computer from
home, that's the most useful thing you're missing.

> Also when you say it wont be easy at first but the knowledge will be
> good and that there are good tutorials on the net are you refering to
> installing linux or programming in C??
>
> If programming, could you recomend a good site for a novice?

What good are sites, if you can't use them from home?

You know, back in the Stone Ages, when all online access wasn't thru the
Internet, people used to dial up the actual computer they wanted to talk
to. All thru the 1980s I used to access my work account from home that
way. Perhaps your uni still has a dialup connection you can just call up
from home? You'd still need a modem, and depending on local telco rates
and distance to the university, it might cost you more than a dialup
Internet account, but then again it might not. Ask your instructor if
such a dialup number is available.

> No i dont have even dial up, the only reason I would need the net is we
> have a program called putty that connects to the uni servers and
> 'terminal' appears through that program and we can run it from our home
> PCs.

That sounds like the kind of text-only access I describe above, except
"putty" uses Internet (TCP/IP) access rather than dialup. If dialup is
available at your uni it would work similarly, except you'd use a
"terminal" or "modem" program that knows how to dial a number with a
modem instead of "putty".

> I know dial up is cheap but with a new baby, wife off work, big mortgage
> and intrest rates in Australia gone up for about the 12th time in a row
> with banks going over and above official rates to cover US sub prime
> losses + my uni fees I am scapping the bottom of the money barrell right
> now. I dont mean to whinge but thats just life at the moment.

Around here (USA) dialup Internet access is about $10/month. I don't
mean to be critical, but given that the money's to further your
education, maybe saving that money is a false economy?

> I will talk to my prof but they simply said I can use the uni computers
> which again isnt all that practical.

Like I said, talk to your instructor, and find out what ways are
available to reach your uni account from home. They might have legacy
access methods that nobody uses any more, but which still exist.

> BTW does anyone know if the 'terminal' in linux is a program or is it
> the command prompt in linux (like in dos e.g.)??

Dunno of a specific program in Linux called "terminal", but I suspect
they're referring to old-style terminal access to that command prompt,
usually called the "shell" in UNIX/Linux, or the CLI in DOS. That kind
of text-only access should be all you need for an introductory C course.
Only when you get to writing applications that use graphics would you
need more.

One reference I would recommend to ANYONE learning C: _The C Programming
Language_ by Kernighan and Ritchie, also known as "K&R C". It is the C
programmer's Bible.

[edDV]

You don't need a phone company internet account to dial into a UNIX or mainframe computer over a terminal connection but you do need an account on the computer. There may be a long distance charge

This is the way it was done in the good old days of IBM 3270 terminal emulation. This was the way I communicated with my local library until around 2001 when they added terminal connection over the internet. Real modern of them.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_terminal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_emulator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VT100
http://www.cs.utk.edu/~shuford/terminal/dec.html

Windows 98 and XP include Hyper Terminal. Dozens of terminal programs exist for the PC, Mac, AppleII, Linux, Unix and every other OS you can think of. Most are free.

Relating all this to C for microcontrollers and microprocessors, a terminal program is what you use to communicate with the processor to run or debug software or poll status. This is usually done through an RS-232C (serial port) connection from a PC terminal command line program or serial emulation over Ethernet these days.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debugger
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emulator
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C_language

No more HyperTerminal in Vista?

[AlanHK]

You must have some tutors for your course?

Ask them; they can surely give you specific advice, and probably give you the software you need. If your course uses Linux, I expect most of the required software will be freeware, so no worries about copyright.

Most Linux programmes have Windows versions, e.g. You can get a Windows clone of pico, called nano. And plenty of C compilers. There are several varieties of C, so you should be sure you have one compatible with your course.

[Rudyard]

Yes there are tutors and when asked they said just use the uni computers....again not real helpful.

I seem to have found a solution, I d/l ubuntu, burnt to livecd and can boot off that and use the same terminal as in uni along with GCC seems to be in there.

As long as it recognises my USB stick, i can save anything to that and should be in business.

[freebird73717]

Don't you love the simple solutions! And If you find you like ubuntu but still need windows you can install it onto your system as a dual boot and it wont even touch your windwos files.

[jman98]

Rudyard - I do NOT recommend that you use PICO unless you are being forced to do so. PICO is a very simple to use text editor, but the problem is that you will learn a bunch of non-standard things if you get used to it. Few systems install PICO, but since the source is free, you can do so. You'd do yourself more favors to suck it up and learn the vi editor. The vim clone is free for PCs and other OSes. Go to http://www.vim.org for a copy. They have tutorials. Vim works great on ASCII terminals and either it or true vi will be available on any Unix type system you might program on in the future. Vim is completely compatible with vi, but it has some additional enhancements that add things to vi that are lacking. The story is that vi was supposed to have much more in it, but the programmer (Bill Joy) working on it lost a lot of work due to a power failure and no recent backups. The story goes that he just said "Close enough" and didn't redo the missing work.

If you are using Ubuntu, I need to warn you that PICO probably doesn't come with it and you'll need to learn to use vim.