cool, you can write c? I tried it once, but I failed miserably :D
Unfortunately I do not know anything about Mandriva, but I am shure that there are packages for almost any program you would want to install. You just need the right repositories. If this is giving you problems, maybe take a look at ubuntu or debian. No other distribution provides as many compiled packages. That was the main reason for me to switch from suse to ubuntu.

Glad you got it going!
Now that you have the Internet sources installed, you may not want to be asked to insert the cdrom everytime you try install something.
If so, you can remove those or any sources ....

yea, but it's been so long. in school they trained me to use C++ on the Microsoft programming suite (i forget the name of it, but they've now changed to .NET. i'm obsolete), which was inherited from C. C++ does whatever C does. I used C through my internship-writing code for Nintendo Gameboy game developers periodically. but mostly i just did quality assurance testing of their games through development. But my main interest been on a higher application level - like internet. i'm a full blown php junkie. that stuff is like crystal meth. or is best used in conjuction with meth. tweek tweek, lol.

i'm kinda putting the programming stuff on the back burner. i'll cook it later. but right now i got this fresh install i gotta personalize and get running smoothly. and then after that i gotta learn linux. i know very little. linux does though provide some useful tools and even gui's for programming in java and c++ i know of.