Visual Studio Code Setup for C Programming

Written by Pritam

What is VS Code 🤔

Visual Studio Code (VS Code) is a lightweight and versatile code editor. It's widely used for programming due to its user-friendly interface, extensive extension support, and cross-platform compatibility, making it a popular choice for developers.

Download & Install VS Code

Search on Google for VS code and download it from its official website

Install VS Code with all default

Download & Install Compiler :

C is a compiled language, which means that it is converted into machine code before it can be executed. So we need a compiler. GCC is a widely used compiler in the case of Windows we'll download MinGW, or "Minimalist GNU for Windows" (MinGW is a port of the GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) to Windows.)

What is a Compiler? 🤯 : A compiler is a software tool that translates high-level programming code into machine-readable code. Its primary role is to convert human-readable code into a format that a computer's central processing unit (CPU) can understand and execute.

Search For MSYS2 in Google and go to https://www.msys2.org/
From there download the installer

Install MSYS2 with all default

Click on the finish in the installer by checking RUN MSYS2 now
Then install MinGW by running this 👇 command in the MSYS2 terminal

  pacman -S --needed base-devel mingw-w64-ucrt-x86_64-toolchain

Then enter default=all in the terminal and then y for yes
If any error occurs press the upper arrow button on the keyboard and run the command again to make sure all operations are completed
Then run this 👇 command to check the GCC version it also ensures that the compiler (GCC) is properly installed or not
```
      gcc --version
```

Add MinGW's `bin` directory to your system PATH

What is PATH and Why Include It?: The PATH environment variable is a set of instructions that guides the operating system to locate executables or program files. Including the PATH during installation is crucial as it ensures the system can find and execute the commands associated with installed software, such as a C compiler.

First copy the bin folder -> open file explorer -> OS(C:) -> msys64 - > ucrt64 -> bin
Single click on the top bar in the file explorer to select the path and press Ctrl + c to copy the path
Generally, the path is C:\msys64\ucrt64\bin
Now click on the start menu and search for edit environment variables
Edit the PATH : Path -> Edit -> New -> Ctrl + V -> Ok -> Ok

Additional Settings for VS Code

Installing Extension for C

Open VS Code: Start -> Search VS Code -> Click
Download Two extensions named C/C++ and Code Runner
To download extensions click on extensions in the top left bar in VS code then search for particular extension and install

Settings for run code in terminal and save before run
Click on settings and then search run code in the terminal and check the following box