10 Chapter 2 Some Fundamentals
the original source program. In that case, the entire process of compiling, linking, and
executing the program must be repeated until the desired results are obtained.Integrated Development Environments
The individual steps involved in developing C programs were outlined earlier, showing
typical commands that would be entered for each step.This process of editing, compil-
ing, running, and debugging programs is often managed by a single integrated applica-
tion known as an Integrated Development Environment, or IDE for short. An IDE is a
windows-based program that allows you to easily manage large software programs, edit
files in windows, and compile, link, run, and debug your programs.
On Mac OS X, CodeWarrior and Xcode are two IDEs that are used by many pro-
grammers. Under Windows, Microsoft Visual Studio is a good example of a popular IDE.
Kylix is a popular IDE for developing applications under Linux. All the IDE applications
greatly simplify the entire process involved in program development so it is worth your
while to learn how to use one. Most IDEs also support program development in several
different programming languages in addition to C, such as C# and C++.
For more information about IDEs, consult Appendix E, “Resources.”Language Interpreters
Before leaving this discussion of the compilation process, note that there is another
method used for analyzing and executing programs developed in a higher-level language.
With this method, programs are not compiled but are interpreted. An interpreter analyzes
and executes the statements of a program at the same time.This method usually allows
programs to be more easily debugged. On the other hand, interpreted languages are typi-
cally slower than their compiled counterparts because the program statements are not
converted into their lowest-level form in advance of their execution.
BASIC and Java are two programming languages in which programs are often inter-
preted and not compiled. Other examples include the Unix system’s shelland Python.
Some vendors also offer interpreters for the C programming language.