Information
about Programming in C or Pascal
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Both C and Pascal are considered High Level Languages. They use English type statements that are converted to machine statements which are executed by computers.
C and Pascal programs are simple text files containing program statements. As such, they are created using a text editor. This is called the source program.
Once you have written the program, it must be compiled. The source program is compiled by a special program called a compiler, whose task is to convert the statements in the source code to either an intermediate format (called an object file), or an executable format which can be run on the computer.
There are a number of free compilers available on the Internet. Check the links on the C or Pascal programming pages for places where you might find a free compiler.
| File Extension | Type of File |
| .c | C Source
file, created using a text editor, contains source program statements |
| .pas | Pascal Source file, created using a text editor, contains source program statements |
| .obj | Object file, intermediate file generated by the compiler |
| .exe | Executable program generated at the end of the compiler and linking stages, which can be run on the computer |
| .lib | Library routines, for things like printing and reading the keyboard, they come with the compiler and are combined with .obj files to generate an .exe program |
We do not provide compilers with this course. We recommend the use of a simple DOS based compiler in order to learn programming. Turbo Pascal and Turbo C for DOS are both good easy to use compilers. They may still be available in computer stores.
You can find a list of free compilers on the home page. We do not provide support for any compilers or assist students in writing programs for courses undertaken at other institutions.