Terminal help

Question

okay does anyone know the command to compile a source file in terminal?

Answer 1

Okay. I'm not sure which programming languages you're familiar with. Let's assume we're talking about C or C++. A source file is basically a (plain) text file that you (or someone else) has created. It'll have variables (and, I think, function definitions) declared first, followed by the actual code for the functions. For instance, a simple source file might look something like this (let's call this file hello.cpp):
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
main (int argc, char **argv)
printf("hello, world \n");
exit (0);
The "#include" statements tell the compiler to include some standard code files that handle things like displaying text. The 'main' function is the first function that will be called when the program begins to execute. Basically, this program prints 'hello, world' in your Terminal window and then quits (the program basically ignores any input given when the program starts up.). I think it'll compile.
Now, you can read the program, but computers don't operate on text files. The program has to be compiled into (what is known as) a binary file. This is basically a set of commands that your computer can understand and which looks like gibberish to most of us. The program 'gcc' will take your C or C++ source file and turn it into a binary file (or, as I referred to it before, a compiled program). So, after you create the plain text file above (I just use project builder, included with the developer tools. Any program that creates plain text files should work just fine), navigate to the folder containing your hello.cpp files and type
gcc -g -Wall -o hello hello.cpp
After a second, your command prompt should reappear, and you can type:
./hello
'hello world' should appear under your command prompt. The command './hello' instructs the computer to run the program 'hello' that is found in the current folder (the '.' denotes the current directory, so you don't have to type out /users/you/...../hello).
As for your second question, gcc should be able to compile any C or C++ files, which end in one of these: .c .cp .cpp .cxx .C .cc .c++
I hope this helps.
-Anthony
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