What is a C file
Source code developed and written in either the C or C++ language are commonly stored in a C file. These programming languages are used in software programming. Code in the C file is written in plain text. Thus, files with the C extension can be opened by any basic text editor. However, if viewed and edited in a basic text editor, there is no syntax highlighting of the code available.
A C file may include the whole source code written in C or C++. The files can also contain snippets of code that reference to other C files with more or complete code. Sometimes, a distinction between different C files is made, yet it doesn't hold for all cases. It is said that files with a lowercase c (.c) contain code written in C, while files with an uppercase C (.C) contain code written in C++.
Here's a small, but not exhaustive list of programs that can open C documents:
- Apple Xcode (Mac)
- BloodshedSoftware Dev-C++ (Windows)
- Borland C++Builder (Windows)
- Code::Blocks (Windows, Mac & Linux)
- Eclipse IDE for C Developers (Windows, Mac & Linux)
- Embarcadero C++Builder (Windows)
- ES-Computing EditPlus (Windows)
- Freescale CodeWarrior Development Tools (Mac)
- GNU Emacs (Linux)
- gVim (Windows)
- MacroMates TextMate (Mac)
- Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 (Windows)
- Vim (Linux)
- ZinjaI (Windows, Mac & Linux)
