GCC on Mac...unable to find

Question

I am talking a course in C++. I was told that GCC 4.0 exists on the mac. It comes under Xcode. But I am unable to find this compiler to run my C++ code. In fact I download Xcode and reinstalled it. To search for GCC I did the following:
--Open Xcode
--File > New Project
I do not find GCC in the list of things there are...How do I open C++ compiler on the mac and run my programs? Please help!

Answer 1

No. GCC is only a compiler. If you need an editor, try TextWrangler. It's free. Better still, use Xcode, Apple's free Integrated Development Environment (IDE). It will invoke "gcc" for C programs (you write), and "g++' for C++ programs.
Technically, GCC is not in Xcode. GCC is a program (one of many) invoked when you compile your program. Xcode "knows" what program / command to invoke by looking at the file extension (.c = C program, .cc or .cpp = C++ program, .m = Objective-C, etc).
You can trace GCC's lineage back to its UNIX roots, where the closest thing to an IDE is Emacs. After all, Mac OS X is just a pretty face on top of BSD UNIX. IDEs are great, but knowing how to use vi and emacs, make files and command-line compilers is what (all?) programmers should learn (IMHO).
Try this on your command line / terminal:
cat>hello.c
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
printf("Hello, world.\n");
return 0;
<Ctrl-D>
gcc -o hello hello.c
./hello
The "cat" command takes whatever you type and redirects it to a file named "hello.c".
Hitting Control-D in your terminal means end-of-file (it closes the "hello.c" file).
The following command, gcc, compiles "hello.c", creating an executable program named "hello".
The final command "./hello" runs your program. It should say "Hello, world." and terminates.
Congratulations! You just created and ran the obligatory Hello program.
To debug a program, use "gdb". Again, using Xcode would simplify things. Like "gcc", "gdb" is a command-line program, but Xcode putd a pretty interface on it. Again, it'd probably be a good idea to learn how to use "gdb" in all its native, command-line glory.