Question

I am just beginning to try to learn C and have been trying to do tutorials but they won’t compile. The errors seem to suggest it is an issue with me using a 64 bit OS (lion), but I can’t see how that could be the case with such a simple program.

The code: (copied directly from a ‘thenewboston’ tutorial)

#include <stdio.h>

int main(void)
{
    printf("Hello World");
    getch();
}

I then entered this in terminal:

gcc tnb_1.c

And the error I got was:

Undefined symbols for architecture x86_64:
  "_getch", referenced from:
      _main in cc2nMvOk.o
ld: symbol(s) not found for architecture x86_64
collect2: ld returned 1 exit status

The compiler I am using is the standard one installed with xcode.

I am sorry if this question has an obvious answer, but as I can’t get past the first hurdle I am finding it hard to learn anything.

Thank you for your help

Answer 1

Use getchar() instead of getch(). getch() is non-standard.

Using getchar() will (probably) mean you need to press enter whereas getch() does not, but if all you’re trying to do is compile a simple program to get a start with C, that probably doesn’t matter to you.