I recently purchased an Apple MAC studio with M1 core, and wanted to install and execute a basic C++ program. To achieve this, I followed these steps:
Install C and C++ compilers
Unfortunately if you're a Mac user, Gcc is not included by default as a native feature. If you attempt to execute commands from a terminal such as gcc or g++, the following error will appear: "$ gcc -bash: gcc: command not found".
To quickly and easily install C and C++ compilers, all you have to do is open the terminal window in your system and run this command:
xcode-select --install
It's worth noting that it's not necessary to install Xcode completely - only the command line tool will suffice!
Note: gcc and g++ are both compilers used to compile C and C++ programs. GCC stands for the GNU Compiler Collections, which consists of multiple compilers - two being gcc and g++. While gcc is mainly used to compile C programs, g++ is a more advanced compiler that can be utilized for both programming languages - it is an extended version of the traditional compiler designed specifically for use with C language applications.
Create a basic C++ program
Let's get started on our c++ algorithm! We'll call it moonbooks.cpp and begin by launching a new terminal:
touch moonbooks.cpp
Now, let's open the code with an editor (vi for example)
vi moonbooks.cpp
so we can start coding:
#include <iostream>
int main () {
std::cout << "Hello Moonbooks!";
return 0;
}
Now let's make sure to save our work, then exit the file.
Execute your basic C++ program
To compile and create an executable program, simply enter
g++ -o moonbooks moonbooks.cpp
in the command line. Subsequently, to run it just type
moonbooks
In case you're met with a zsh error message that states "command not found: moonbooks" A speedy, short-term fix is to enter the "pwd" command which will give you direct access to the file's executable. Once that's done, simply hit enter!
/Users/Student/Desktop/moonbooks
should print
Hello Moonbooks!
References
The resources that helped me are listed below for your convenience:
Links | Site |
---|---|
How To Compile C++ On A Mac (A Quick And Easy Tutorial!) | siytek.com |
xcode | developer.apple.com |
What is the difference between gcc and g++ in Linux? Difference between gcc and g++ | includehelp.com |
Is it necessary to install X Code for c++ compiler? What if I install X Code and Uninstall it? Will g++ compiler will also get deleted? | stackoverflow |