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Linux Journal September 2011
This issue's Programming
If I’ve learned nothing else from American politics, it’s that it doesn’t take knowledge or insight on a topic to have lots to say on the matter. Thankfully, although this issue’s Programming focus isn’t even close to my area of expertise, our authors don’t have that shortcoming. The worst you should have to put up with is me trying to explain what this issue contains. Feel free to point and laugh.
Kyle Rankin, a fellow sysadmin, works through an interesting conundrum this month. You’re all familiar with programs like DBAN for wiping sensitive data, but what if you need to delete information securely on a server thousands of miles away? (Or, in the next room if you’re lazy like me.) Kyle shows how to go about taking care of a seemingly difficult chicken/egg scenario. Kyle also shares a “Tale from the Server Room” with Bill Childers and talks about the joy of UPS delivery— more specifically, when servers are unboxed, sometimes things don’t go quite as planned.
If you’re beginning to worry our Programming issue doesn’t contain articles about programming, fear not. Yes, we try to include a little something for everyone, but this issue focuses on programming, and we’ve got tons of useful stuff for you. Nathanael Anderson starts out with an appealing way to
learn multiplatform GNU getting a guitar synth to work with
Rock Band 3. Unfortunately, there’s no programming that can make me any
better at Rock Band, but using a real guitar is a step in the right direction!
My friend Adrian Hannah is back this month with a primer on the Make utility. For most users, prepackaged applications are how programs are installed. For programmers, or people on the bleeding edge, it’s necessary to compile programs themselves. Adrian shows how to “make” programs from their source code.
Sometimes when you are on the bleeding edge, you’ll notice that a newer version of an application isn’t always better than the previous version. Programmers need to be aware of such things, and Bart Polot and Christian Grothoff show us Gauger, a tool that monitors performance regression. Sometimes an application is slower because it has more features, but sometimes it’s just slower because of an erroneous source code change. Gauger helps determine when new versions go bad.
When I took programming in college, I started out learning to program command-line utilities that did little more than solve the problem presented in the curriculum. If programming was a little more interesting back then, I might have stuck with it for longer than the single semester it was required. My problem was that I wanted to make GUI programs. PJ Radcliffe shows how
to develop GUI interfaces with Qt4 Designer and Eclipse. Granted, a fancy GUI controlling a cruddy underlying program isn’t very useful, but at least for me, a cool-looking program is something I’d like to spend time perfecting. PJ shows how easy it can be to include GUI controls.
If GUI programs aren’t for you, that’s fine too. Adrian Klaver explores jEdit,
which is a very powerful and crossplatform text editor. jEdit has features that make programming much easier, and its cross-platform nature means you can use a consistent interface regardless of the computer you’re stuck using. Arnold Robbins is a fan of text as well, and he presents GNU Awk version 4. Awk has been around forever, and although it’s still as useful as it’s ever been, version 4 offers a few new tricks as well.
Of course, we have our regular columnists teaching about programming this month as well. Reuven M. Lerner discusses CoffeeScript, a different way to program JavaScript. Dave Taylor finishes his series on determining the day of the week in a script. Plus, we have many other programming-related
articles as well!
If I’ve learned nothing else from American politics, it’s that it doesn’t take knowledge or insight on a topic to have lots to say on the matter. Thankfully, although this issue’s Programming focus isn’t even close to my area of expertise, our authors don’t have that shortcoming. The worst you should have to put up with is me trying to explain what this issue contains. Feel free to point and laugh.
Kyle Rankin, a fellow sysadmin, works through an interesting conundrum this month. You’re all familiar with programs like DBAN for wiping sensitive data, but what if you need to delete information securely on a server thousands of miles away? (Or, in the next room if you’re lazy like me.) Kyle shows how to go about taking care of a seemingly difficult chicken/egg scenario. Kyle also shares a “Tale from the Server Room” with Bill Childers and talks about the joy of UPS delivery— more specifically, when servers are unboxed, sometimes things don’t go quite as planned.
If you’re beginning to worry our Programming issue doesn’t contain articles about programming, fear not. Yes, we try to include a little something for everyone, but this issue focuses on programming, and we’ve got tons of useful stuff for you. Nathanael Anderson starts out with an appealing way to
learn multiplatform GNU getting a guitar synth to work with
Rock Band 3. Unfortunately, there’s no programming that can make me any
better at Rock Band, but using a real guitar is a step in the right direction!
My friend Adrian Hannah is back this month with a primer on the Make utility. For most users, prepackaged applications are how programs are installed. For programmers, or people on the bleeding edge, it’s necessary to compile programs themselves. Adrian shows how to “make” programs from their source code.
Sometimes when you are on the bleeding edge, you’ll notice that a newer version of an application isn’t always better than the previous version. Programmers need to be aware of such things, and Bart Polot and Christian Grothoff show us Gauger, a tool that monitors performance regression. Sometimes an application is slower because it has more features, but sometimes it’s just slower because of an erroneous source code change. Gauger helps determine when new versions go bad.
When I took programming in college, I started out learning to program command-line utilities that did little more than solve the problem presented in the curriculum. If programming was a little more interesting back then, I might have stuck with it for longer than the single semester it was required. My problem was that I wanted to make GUI programs. PJ Radcliffe shows how
to develop GUI interfaces with Qt4 Designer and Eclipse. Granted, a fancy GUI controlling a cruddy underlying program isn’t very useful, but at least for me, a cool-looking program is something I’d like to spend time perfecting. PJ shows how easy it can be to include GUI controls.
If GUI programs aren’t for you, that’s fine too. Adrian Klaver explores jEdit,
which is a very powerful and crossplatform text editor. jEdit has features that make programming much easier, and its cross-platform nature means you can use a consistent interface regardless of the computer you’re stuck using. Arnold Robbins is a fan of text as well, and he presents GNU Awk version 4. Awk has been around forever, and although it’s still as useful as it’s ever been, version 4 offers a few new tricks as well.
Of course, we have our regular columnists teaching about programming this month as well. Reuven M. Lerner discusses CoffeeScript, a different way to program JavaScript. Dave Taylor finishes his series on determining the day of the week in a script. Plus, we have many other programming-related
articles as well!
195 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 1, 2011
About the author
Dave Taylor
49 books37 followersDave Taylor has been involved in the online world since the ARPANET era and is recognized internationally as an expert in technology and business. He has published more than a thousand articles, launched four Internet startups, written over twenty business and technical books, and holds both an MBA and an MS Ed.
He runs the popular YouTube consumer electronics review channel AskDaveTaylor, writes for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper, and contributes to various other publications online and in print. Dave teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing, public speaking, film, and media & society at the University of Denver, where he has been recognized as a Leader in Teaching Excellence.
Based in Longmont, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, frequent conference and workshop presenter, and regular guest on radio and podcast programs. He is also an active member of his community and the father of three avid readers.
You can find Dave online at AskDaveTaylor.com and catch up on his latest film, game, and car reviews at PlanetDave.com
He runs the popular YouTube consumer electronics review channel AskDaveTaylor, writes for the Boulder Daily Camera newspaper, and contributes to various other publications online and in print. Dave teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in marketing, public speaking, film, and media & society at the University of Denver, where he has been recognized as a Leader in Teaching Excellence.
Based in Longmont, Colorado, Dave is an award-winning speaker, frequent conference and workshop presenter, and regular guest on radio and podcast programs. He is also an active member of his community and the father of three avid readers.
You can find Dave online at AskDaveTaylor.com and catch up on his latest film, game, and car reviews at PlanetDave.com
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