2020-09-04 Visual Studio C Compiler

C Compiler from Visual Studio

Visual C++ is the C and C++ compiler included in Visual Studio. When installing the Visual Studio Community, you can install the C++ development environment together. After installation, you will get C and C++ compilers and a complete IDE (Integrated Development Environment). You can learn C language without using command-line tools at all, so it is very popular.
However, Visual C++ lags behind in the C standard, and Microsoft does not seem to be updating the C standard for the compiler. If you want to learn modern C language or pay attention to the differences in C standard versions, it is not recommended to use Visual C++ to learn. But Visual Studio is quite common. If you just want to learn the basic C syntax, you can continue to use Visual C++.
We just want to use Visual C++ to compile C programs, but don't need the IDE of Visual Studio, we can download the Build Tools for Visual Studio. There are two versions available that can be downloaded:
- Visual Studio Build Tools 2017:
  https://aka.ms/vs/15/release/vs_buildtools.exe
- Visual Studio Build Tools 2019:
  https://aka.ms/vs/16/release/vs_buildtools.exe