Programming With Linux

[lethal666]

I would like to go into a computer programming carrer using linux and was wondering if anyone has any ideas on how i should get started.

[drnde]

Re: Programming With Linux

what languages do you want to programm in ?
what kind of applications do you want to write ?

I use linux for web programming, apache and ruby work far better
with linux then they do with windows....

if you want a powerful java ide try eclipse www.eclipse.org/,
for php and ruby on rails you can try aptana studio http://www.aptana.com/
sadly aptana studio does not currently support 64bit linux

[conholster]

Re: Programming With Linux

Depends on what you want to do. Kernel stuff or enduser applications or anything in between? Most work ads I've seen where they specifically hire linux ppl are mainly kernel level programming. I wouldnt go and restrict myself to only linux programming since Windows is and for the foreseable future is the standard platform.

Anyways...with C you cant go wrong (kernel is 99% C) if you really learn it. On the other hand kernel development aint no walk in the park so to speak. At what level are you now, what do you know?

Get involved in some OSS project, that stuff always looks good on your resumé.

If you're still in high school, start paying more attention to math and start figuring out how to get to/pay for college Age aint a barrier but its easier when you're younger to get a good education.

Hope this helps

[lethal666]

Re: Programming With Linux

I dont know what i want to do (deffenetly something i need to look into.) Just into High school. Love math. I would at some point want to run/make/invent an opperating system. Or possibly work for Ubuntu. I am using Several different linux based Operating systems including Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu.

[lethal666]

Re: Programming With Linux

wondering about terms and things i might need too know about

[conholster]

Re: Programming With Linux

wondering about terms and things i might need too know about

Well I dont know about any special term you'd need to know about, most of the stuff is learned through using and doing..

If you really want to get started with programming and such I'd say start with python http://www.python.org find some tutorial to get you started. After that think of some app you'd like to do and start coding it. The good thing with python is theres alot of ready-to-use libraries that you can implement in your code so you dont have to do everything yourself. That's how most programmers get started. Don't worry to much about books and so forth. The only way to learn how to code something is to do it. When it comes to programming there's no such thing as practicing, I think alot of would-be programmers get stuck where they need-to-find-tutorial-on-how-to-write-xyz.

Another thing good about python is that theres alot less to 'understand' compared to Java for instance...i.e

Hello world in python looks like

print "Hello world"

and the same in Java:

class hello
{  
        public static void main(String args[])
        {
          System.out.println("Hello World!");
        }
}

When you wanna get into GUIs there's pyQT, as an example of its ease of use, you'll create a simple text editor in a few minutes (with the help of QTdesigner) once you get the hang of it.

I hope this has been of some help to you

[lmilano]

Re: Programming With Linux

I really second conholster's suggestion.

Python is a great language in many ways, and it's great as a first language. But it's a lot more than that, a lot of the software you are using is written in Python (lots of Google internal code, Kubuntu tools, etc).

Qt is a great tool for Graphical programming. And it is cross platform: the same software you write will run in all platforms supported by Qt. Same with Python.

PyQt puts them together.

Both Python and Qt are heavily object oriented, try to get into those concepts (objects, inheritance, etc). In particular, Python allows you to get into these concepts without getting into the hairy details, as you would in C++. Java is somewhere in-between.

It is possible to have a good career path as a Linux programmer, but that's a second step. You'll need to pick a profitable area. Both embedded and portable (as in netbooks et al) are good areas right now.

Other than that, programming is mostly platform independent, I wouldn't focus in one particular platform at the beginning.

[lmilano]

Re: Programming With Linux

A little more on python. I think it's best to get started by example:
http://www.diveintopython.org/toc/index.html

And then move into more formal documentation:
http://docs.python.org