I'd like to program some Ansi-C on a Surface Pro X. On my Computer I just set up VS Code as an editor and installed Msys2 which comes with the GCC. But the same won't work on the Surface Pro X, cause if the processor architecture as I understand (correct me if I'm wrong). So my question is: How can I compile and run C on a Surface Pro X and also check for Ansi C conformity. It also would be nice to be able to work in VS Code. Also is this a general problem of the Surface Pro X? Would those issues also appear when trying to program java or python?
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What do you mean by "work on the Surface Pro X"? Do you mean you want to write a GUI application, or just writing a command line program? For command line you should be able to compile it and run it from within msys2 on the Surface Pro X. – lurker Nov 28 '21 at 23:57
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Surface Pro X comes with x86 emulation. – Raymond Chen Nov 29 '21 at 00:26
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@0_________I'm using Ansi-C for academical reasons (university). – KlonAnon Nov 29 '21 at 07:11
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@lurker both i guess, but I can't run the msys2 installer – KlonAnon Nov 29 '21 at 07:13
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@Raymond Chen Thanks I didn't now that – KlonAnon Nov 29 '21 at 07:18
1 Answers
I don't have a Surface Pro X or any other ARM Windows device, however it should be possible to use VS Code since there has been a Windows on ARM version since May 2020 (download on the usual Visual Studio Code download page). I am not sure on what development environments are available for Windows on ARM, but you could always install WSL (the Windows subsystem for Linux) where you can then install pretty much anything you want. You can then link your VS Code to your WSL and work there. To install development tools for any language you would then follow instructions on how to install that environment for Linux (eg. using apt-get for Debian and it's derivatives like Ubuntu).
To install basic development tools for Java and C/C++ in WSL type sudo apt install default-jdk default-jre gcc g++
, python is generally already installed in a linux environment.

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