new to C--can't get program to compile

Hi. I'm an experienced MATLAB programmer, but know nothing about lower level languages like C. I want to analyze some sea surface height data available from http://podaac.jpl.nasa.gov/. I can download the data files, but they are in some unknown binary format, and I can't read them. A C program is provided at http://aspera.jpl.nasa.gov/download/.../c/atgdmp_v2.c which dumps the data to some more readable format. My problem is I can't get the program to run. Having no C compiler, I downloaded one (called Miracle C Compiler) from www.c-compiler.com. But when I try to compile the program, I get:

too many locals declared
'short ssha[3127]'
aborting compile

Am I doing something wrong? Is there maybe a limit on the size of variables because it's a free trial C compiler? Should I try downloading a different compiler? There seem to be more compilers for C# and C++ than for plain old C. Will these work?

Thanks a million for any insight.

Samerune

as I remeber Salem once mentioned that Miracle C is some study project...

get some real compiler - there are several free available like MS VS Express 2005 - you can find a list with links in the FAQ

Yeah, Miracle C is a toy - not a compiler.

All the compilers like visual studio express, dev-c++, GCC are all perfectly capable (and $0) of compiling C or C++.

Go with Dev-C++, it's the least tricky to learn, easy to link libraries with and add arguments to main without having to modify any file or entering cmd.exe manually and starting up your compiled program. And other great things...

I personaly think that Microsoft Visual products are crap, but that's just me.

Many people also like Code::Blocks (especially since Dev-C++ is dead . . . well, it's not being developed anymore), although I must say that I've never used it myself.

Why does everyone forget to mention LCC?

From http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~lcc-win32/:

Quote:

---

This software is not freeware, it is copyrighted by Jacob Navia. It's free for non-commercial use, if you use it professionally you have to have to buy a licence.

---

If I had a choice I'd use a free compiler, especially if I was recommending it to someone that might not be able to use it under the license agreement.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dwks

Many people also like Code::Blocks (especially since Dev-C++ is dead . . . well, it's not being developed anymore), although I must say that I've never used it myself.

---

I prefer dev-C++ myself. But I agree, the IDE is dead, but the devpaks's over a given period tend to have updates for MingW associated with it, which is all you really need. Dispite I think they need to churn out some more updates for Dev-C++..

I'd help myself, but it's written in Delphi. Can you believe it? A C/C++ IDE written in Delphi. :)

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by dwks

I'd help myself, but it's written in Delphi. Can you believe it? A C/C++ IDE written in Delphi. :)

---

Yeah! That's why I left Dev-C++ way long time ago....insulting poor C & C++ users :)
Visual C++ 2005 express all the way :D

I prefer PellesC myself (modified LCC) -> http://www.smorgasbordet.com/pellesc/

With its own beautiful IDE :D

Thanks, everyone. I downloaded a different compiler--LCC. "hello world" works, but unfortunately, I still can't get the program I need to use to compile. I get a whole string of warnings along the lines of "Missing prototype for exit", and then finally "Error undefined reference to _get_hdr_param". The program I'm trying to get to run is at

http://aspera.jpl.nasa.gov/download/.../c/atgdmp_v2.c

I guess I need to learn C from the ground up, but obviously that will take a while, and I'd really like to get this program to run sooner. If there's something obvious I need to do to get this to work, I'd really appreciate if is someone could point it out. Thanks again.

The warning about exit() not being prototyped could be avoided by putting #include <stdlib.h> together with the other #include directives.
The error is due to the fact that there is no get_hdr_param function defined in the code (and it couldn't be found in the compiler's libraries either), and in the parent directory of the link you provided there is a get_hdr_param.c containing the function.
What you need to do is compile that file together with atgdump_v2.c. I haven't used LCC but if it's like gcc you'd probably only need to do something like
lcc -o atgdump_v2.exe atgdump_v2.c get_hdr_param.c