It would probably be a good idea to use easyC for this year at least, just as you learn. It lets you see whats going on in the code, but it also lets someone inexperienced in programming see the general flow of the program, and the code that goes along with that flow. At the same time, though, I highly suggest actively trying to read up on how to program in C, and try to understand
why the code works the way it does. Trust me, once you get the hang of it, programming by hand is a whole lot funner than using easyC. I found
http://www.chiefdelphi.com/forums/sh...ad.php?t=30976 to be fairly helpful when I got started. I think about the 9th post down has a link to a good tutorial to learn the basics of C. Have fun and good luck at the competitions!