Main function

In C#, we were able to code instructions directly within the program code. In C/C++ and many other languages, you organise code into groups.

When you start organising code in this way, you need to indicate where the program starts. The main function forms the starting point for a C/C++ program. The code within the braces ({ ... }) is what runs when the program starts.

The code below shows main, and its code for the hello world program. When this program is run, it will start running the code within this function’s braces, starting with the call to write_line.

#include "splashkit.h"

int main()
{
    // The code within these braces is run when the program starts
    write_line("Hello World");
    return 0;
}

We will go into details on how this works in the next chapter. For now, you will just need to enter this code as is, and make sure any instructions you want to run occur between the starting { and the return 0; } command that appears at the end.