I am facing an amazing problem with GCC compiler. When I copy any C code from any documents or texts and paste at gedit and try to compile it with using GCC compiler, it gives error. But when I typed the same code, it executes.
Why is it so??

What's the error u get ? We could point out what's going wrong only after looking at it.

Can you provide the gcc error message, which is print when you compile the pasted code?

I copied a simple code from .doc file:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <unistd.h>

int main ()
{
**printf("Hello Worldn");
**fork();
**printf("Goodbye Cruel Worldn");
}

When I compiled it, I got the following error message:

/Desktop$ gcc -o lab.o lab.c
lab.c: In function ‘main’:
lab.c:6: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:6: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
lab.c:6: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:6: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
lab.c:7: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:7: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
lab.c:7: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:7: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
lab.c:8: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:8: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
lab.c:8: error: stray ‘\302’ in program
lab.c:8: error: stray ‘\240’ in program
But when I wrote the same code, it executed. How's that??

Can I know the control flow of my program via GCC compiler like in turbo C compiler. I mean that can I know which part of the code is executing at present and where does the flow of my program is going?????

there are some stray characters in your program. I can already see a
**printf, why do u have the two '*'s there?

In general, when you copy from a doc file , it copies some format specific characters. You can open this in an editor like vi and emacs and view them.

- Kshitij

The problem usually occuring is that double quotes changes when you copy it from doc file to gedit file. Hope changing it works for you. Also remove the "**" in the program.Execute it and please post back the output.