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Hello I was wondering if there was a C framework for windows? Like if someone wanted to run a C program on Windows would they have to download C?

user2864740
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Jay Garza
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    Look up "libc" ("msvcrt" in Microsoft terms), perhaps. – user2864740 Aug 31 '14 at 21:45
  • http://stackoverflow.com/questions/116368/c-compiler-for-windows – Andrej Adamenko Aug 31 '14 at 21:47
  • Erm, no, C is not an interpreted language, like Python. Nor is it a language that requires an elaborate VM like Java or C#. The user simply copies or downloads the EXE file, the one produced by a C compiler and linker on the dev's machine. That dev might decide that more than one file is needed, typically when he uses a "framework" himself. – Hans Passant Aug 31 '14 at 22:32

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The C programming language does require some runtime support libraries; however, these are included in all major OS distributions (both Windows and UNIX). So, you just need to compile a C program targetting the desired CPU instruction set (e.g. "x86" for Intel chips) and distribute the compiled output. You don't need the user to install a separate set of libraries.

That being said, most programs of a sufficiently large size do rely on third party libraries and data files to work. This is why there are installer applications that copy over not just a single file but an entire directory containing the executable as well as the various libraries and associated files that are required to make that program work.

Michael Aaron Safyan
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