This tutorial will help you start C Programming Language studying by practice on Ubuntu 24.04 "Noble Numbat". The required tools are all fully free software namely GNU GCC and Geany. We also include a link to a collection of good lessons so you can learn it further at home. Last but not least, we also include this article with beneficial information and useful references for you programming lovers. We hope this will benefit everyone especially university students in Informatics and Computer Science. Finally let's try it out now and start learning!

 (Geany showing an example of C program, its compilation process at bottom as well as its execution result in a Terminal next to it)

 

Subscribe to UbuntuBuzz Telegram Channel to get article updates.

 

What is C language?

C is a programming language (not a hardware nor a software) that was born 1970's in the original UNIX operating system, is the main language used to create today's computer operating systems, is taught at universities especially at Informatics or Computer Science, and survives a very long time until today. For Ubuntu users, C is well-known as the language that creates the GNU OS, the Linux kernel and the GNOME desktop. For most people, C is very useful to learn for their first programming language and helpful for them continuing to any other modern language today. Read See Also for the links.

What is Geany?

Geany is a programmer text editor as well as Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that has ability to write codes in all programming languages. At the Ubuntu Buzz, we present Geany as the choice and replacement to proprietary software Sublime Text and Visual Studio because it is free/libre, small, fast, lightweight, detects many languages automatically, and extensible by plugins and last but not least we practiced it on our computer course for years and we know it works very well for students. In this context, Geany is capable to write codes in C programming language with convenience for the user to click Compile, Build and Execute automatically. Read See Also for the links.

 

What is GCC? 

1. Install GCC 

Run Terminal and type command line below followed by Enter. On our system, it requires 40MB to download and 150 MB disk space.

$ sudo apt-get install gcc

 See picture below:

Go next.

2. Install Geany

Run Terminal and execute command line below like the above. It requires 4MB to download and 14MB disk space. 

$ sudo apt-get install geany

See picture below:

Go next. 

3. Run Geany and Write your first C code

Click Ubuntu logo to open application menu and find Geany and click to run it. Alternatively, you can also run Geany directly from the terminal by command line $ geany like above.

Geany runs and is ready to use. Below is how Geany looks like on our system.

Now, on Geany you should create a new file and save it in a directory. We recommend you to make a new folder "c-programming" in the "Documents" and save your files there starting from "program-1.c". This way, you will save all future files in the same place and make it easier for you to learn.

Then, on Geany you write codes exactly like example below. This is the standard example called "Hello World!" for learning the language the first time. Tip: you can also copy-paste the same code below. 

#include <stdio.h>
int main(){
    printf("Hello, World!\n");
    return 0;
}

Go next.

4. Compile, build, execute

Click Compile button and watch the blue output text at the bottom.

Click Build button and watch again the output.

Click Execute and watch for it will show a Terminal showing something. 

These three clicks on Geany are simplification to the process called "compilation" that means by using the compiler you translate your source code "program-1.c" file into binary executable file "program-1" without extension. Remember that this will also produce an intermediary file (often also called object file) "program-1.o". On our system, these three files size are 72 bytes, 16 kilobytes and 1.5 kilobytes respectively. After that, happens the "execution" that means running the executable file "program-1" without extension in the new Terminal. Here the compiler is the program we installed first time called GNU GCC. See your own Files at c-programming at Documents. See picture below.

Go next.

5. See the result

If your code is valid e.g. no error whatsoever, Geany will show you Terminal showing the output of your program. In this example, it will say "Hello, World!" and right below it "program exited with code: 0" and "Press return to continue". Done.

How To Learn C Language

We recommend you to learn C by practice and with a teacher who is capable to train you. For that purpose, we recommend Cprogramming.com because they have a very good collection of lessons with examples you can practice with Geany. A standard curriculum of C basics includes more or less the following chapters:

1. Introduction to the C language, variables, data types.

2. If statements.

3. Loops. 

4. Functions and program organization. 

5. Switch-case.

6. Pointers.

7. Structures. 

8. Arrays. 

9. Strings. 

10. File Input/Output.

11. Typecasting. 

12. Command line arguments. 

13. Linked list.

14. Recursion.

15. Data structures.

Go to their tutorial (under See Also below) and start learning one by one. Some tips for you: Copy-paste every example to Geany then compile then see how it runs is good to start. Don't hesitate!

****

Related Articles

Alternatives to Visual Basic (Qt SDK, GNOME Builder, Netbeans, MonoDevelop etc.)

Collection of Various Programming Language Setups (BASIC, C, C++, Java, Pascal, GTK and Qt)

List of Popular Free Software Written in C++ (0 A.D., Audacity, Blender, Godot, Inkscape, etc.)

See Also

CProgramming.com Lessons Tutorial

C Programming Language (Wikipedia)

GNU GCC - The C Language Compiler

Geany - The Integrated Development Environment

GNOME Desktop Environment - The Ubuntu GUI is Written in C

Linux - The European Penguin Kernel is Written in C

****