Note the structure of the program: include directives, followed by the definition of the function main. The body of the function --- the working part of the definition --- is the part enclosed in curly braces. Note also the comments: the text enclosed /* like this */. Comments are meant to enlighten the human reader; the compiler ignores them.
/* hello.c: display a message on the screen */ #include <stdio.h> main() { printf("hello, world\n"); }