See Webopedia for a good description of the process. The package used for the examples is made by MIX Software . It has been adopted by many colleges and training companies teaching C programming classes. There are even some free compilers out there, although I haven't tried any of them. Any compiler that complies with ANSI standards and has the appropriate PC extensions should do just fine.
Text written for the native processor is called assembly language.
An assembler makes object code out of assembly text. The following sample code and explanation will provide the information you need to start controlling the board using the C programming language. It's very important to comment your code as you go along. It's tempting to put it off thinking all will be remembered. Murphy says it won't.