Then any of the popular compilers will meet that condition. You will not find a C89 compiler that is noticeably better than the rest.

Please forgive me for the offensive remark. I will remember that your humor mechanism is in need of repair and avoid similar remarks in the future.

Yet VS 2008's C compiler is different than a standard C compiler.

Please forgive me for hurting your feelings. I did not know you get so emotional over the truth.

It conforms to C89, along with the C95 addendum. How is that not good enough? Like I said, all of the commonly used compilers are equally solid with C89. In my experience gcc is no better or worse in C89 mode than VC in C89 mode. Gcc is a great compiler, and I am not trying to convince you to use VC, but your statements really do suggest either ignorance or emotional attachment to gcc.

And what's the problem with that ?!
It's by far the best compiler/debugger on the market.
All Big Companies have VS 2008 Enterprise licences and nothing else. It's just unbeatable nowadays..

I rather use the VS 2008 complier myself but AFAIK it is NOT standard (eg. it will comply exactly in another IDE/complier/etc).

I dont give a shit about gcc. Also, I rather use gcc, besides the standard, is because the rest of people are using gcc so if there is a problem, it will be a common problem.

Best is subjective. I do not think M$'s compiler is the best, but it is competitive with the other top compilers. The IDE and debugger are the biggest selling points for VS, in my opinion.

As I said before, VS 2008 is a C89/95 compliant compiler. You said you do not care about C99, so I do not understand why you keep insisting that VC is not standard. If you have specific complaints about VC that make it not standard in your opinion, I can address them. But until then, it is just going to be back and forth with no progress.

It was true a few years ago that VC++ 6.0 was not very standards-compliant compiler. I suspect they got so many complaints about it that M$ decided to make it fully c++ compliant.

The problem with Microsoft compilers is that they do not support POSIX standards. So a lot of code that is written with gcc can not be easily ported to VC++. If portability is important then Code::Blocks with MinGW is probably the better IDE/compiler.

I would suggest using NetBeans IDE. It has an easy to use editor interface and gives you syntax options much like you'd find in Visual Studio. I have found NetBeans to be a great compiler for my C work.

(Never use Eclipse for C, worst one I've found)