- Our teaching and learning resources use
Microsoft's "Visual Studio" which means the IDE version of Visual Studio
... for code-completion, code formatting, compiling, debugging, and assignment frameworks. We not only show how to code in a programming language, we demonstrate the practice of programming.
And we do it using VS. More professional programmers use VS-IDE than any other
Integrated Development Environment (IDE); unlike many pro tools, VS works for students, too.
Using Visual Studio (see below)
will usually result in the best programming development experience unless your system is older
or has relatively little memory.
Please note: "Visual Studio" (IDE) is a different product than
"Visual Studio Code" or "Visual
Studio for macOS", despite the naming similarities.
- Want to use something other than Visual Studio
IDE?
Yes, it is possible to use something other than Visual Studio
IDE
to do C programming. Students have been successful using Visual
Studio Code (for Windows, macOS, or Linux). Whatever you use, it
should have a built-in debugging utility. A debugger may preserve
your sanity and/or the health of your computer, the window you tried to throw it through, or the safety of passers-by below if
the window was open.
-
However, expect to be self-sufficient with respect to development
tools and some aspects of support from your instructor -- everyone does
not use the tools you do. Be prepared to translate anything referring to
Visual Studio into your own tool's equivalents. Our courses may provide
a Visual Studio project for an assignment; you will have to extract the
code. Experienced programmers can probably manage this easily, but it
will all cost you extra time.
- Visual Studio IDE runs only in a Windows Operating System environment
-
Students are licensed to use Windows 10 OS and other software; go to
the
Seneca Software Center and click on "Students". Windows 10
Education includes features from Windows 10 Enterprise and is an upgrade
from Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, or earlier versions. The upgrade
is recommended.
- Thinking of using Visual Studio Online (AKA Visual Studio
Codespaces) ?
see this
https://www.zdnet.com/article/microsoft-to-developers-say-goodbye-to-cloud-based-dev-environment-visual-studio-codespaces/
- Apple macOS
See these
no charge options for Apple macOS users.
- Linux
Linux gurus, you know what to do. Install a bootloader with Windows
10 OS installed. See above links to get a no charge, licensed copy of
Windows 10.
If that does not work for you, one of the macOS
options may work for you. (macOS is Linux with lipstick)
- I have read down this far
https://www.onlinegdb.com/ -- easy to use online Code, Compile, Run,
Debug for C / C++
Download source to your computer and Transfer / Compile / Run on matrix
(see below).
-
Seneca provides an application streaming service
called
MyApps. Some software requires a connection through
StudentVPN
to access the licensing server. (VPN =
Virtual Private Network) All other software on MyApps is Open Source --
don't bother with myApps and just install locally. There are reasons the
MyApps option is this far down the list. A "cloudpaging player" client app
must be loaded on your computer.
-
Some students have completed their programming course on Seneca's
matrix server using vi, gcc, and gdb in a *nix (Unix / Linux) terminal environment.