Did I Install A C Or A C++ Compiler ? A simple way to see the difference

[yordan 10]

If you already had the same problem I just experienced, you should probably be interested by this trick.
I just installed a compiler, and I wanted to know if I installed the C and the C++ compiler, or only the C compiler.
The answer is simple : let's use small sample programs.
Everybody know the well-known "hello" world C program, it compiles with a standard C compiler.

main (){printf("Hi, Folks, what s new");}

And here is a sample C++ "hello world" program :

#include <iostream.h>main(){	cout << "Hello World!";	return 0;}

The second sample program compiles only with a C++ compiler, the standard C compiler gives an error for the "cout" syntax.
So, using these two small pieces of code allows you to check that you have both the standard C and the C++ compilers.
Hope this helps you as it helped me.
Regards
Yordan

[WeaponX 0]

Haven't used those compilers that were meant only for C or only for C++. The ones I tried usually compiles both, but that's definitely a good thing to know. Even Borland's Turbo C++ (name implies that it's a C++ compiler) works with the C language

[miCRoSCoPiC^eaRthLinG 0]

Haven't used those compilers that were meant only for C or only for C++. The ones I tried usually compiles both, but that's definitely a good thing to know. Even Borland's Turbo C++ (name implies that it's a C++ compiler) works with the C language

Yep - all C++ compilers are supposed to be backward compatible, i.e. be able to compile C code as well. That is a standardised rule.

[yordan 10]

Yep - all C++ compilers are supposed to be backward compatible, i.e. be able to compile C code as well. That is a standardised rule.

Yes, and the trap is that C-only compilers won't compile C++ programs. So, if you prepare a system for somebody else, you should better verify it before calling your collegue, or you will have to pay an apologizing beer. By the way, I wrote this in the "How-To's" section, because there is no "Tricks and Tips" section. Edited May 24, 2007 by yordan (see edit history)

[tombert 0]

You forgot your namespaces! It probably won't compile with most compilers to begin with now.

[Pratyusa 0]

You forgot your namespaces! It probably won't compile with most compilers to begin with now.

Practically speaking most of the compilers are built to compile both C and C++ programs. You will hardly find any compiler only meant for C only..

[Quatrux 4]

you can find older compilers which will only compile C language and won't understand C++ but these days I also believe you can hardly find one, unless it's a custom one made but some guy which is open-source, but use the same tools.. If your code can compile C++ it really can compile C language..the difference I saw with using different compilers, both seem to compile the same little code, but the executable files are much bigger in size of bytes when compiling with Microsoft Visual Studio, when a simple other compiler from the Internet, they seem both to work the same, I remember in the old days people/programmers managed to create really very cool programs or demos (graphics show) in size of 4kb or 16kb now even a hello world is ~240kb