Linux Programming
 

Hi Guys,

now that I have some experience with Linux I would like to learn basic Linux Programming and scripting. Can anyone give me an advice where to start? I have 0 programming experience other than Qbasic when I was about 9 years old! (long time ago)
Your help is greatly appreciated!

Can you clarify what you mean by "Linux programming"? There's a guide to Bash scripting here.

You can start with a scripting language, for example python, there are several tutorials about python for free on the internet, on the other hand, if you want to put fun into your programming adventure you can try C :)

Nylex, what I meant was programming with Linux!

It's not really that different than programming on another operating system I'd imagine (obviously there will be some differences, however). Just pick a language and get a good book. I think it depends more on what exactly you want to do.

thanks guys!

My three pieces of advice were going to be:

1. Python
2. Begining linux programming (Wrox)
3. Use the net. Search on 'linux' 'programming' and 'tutorial' (plus other terms) for example

I note that I'm not the first to say 'python', but I still wanted to say it anyway. As languages go, its quite 'clean' and consistent, which makes it a better place to start than, perl, say and yet it is sufficiently closely related to C/C++ that you could go to one of those afterwards without a great culture shock. And you can still do quite serious stuff with it.

The book is quite a good reference on the linux environment generally (also consider almost anything published by O'Reilly with an appropriate title).

Having said those two, there are loads of useful tutorials, guides and other documents scattered around the web. And generally that is free, where buying books isn't. And if your distro of choice has an 'install extra documentation' option, take it. There is often useful stuff hiding in there, too (howto's, etc).

Don't learn shell. It's awful. BASIC was much better :)

Why? Shell scripting is useful..

Hi.

Shell scripting is only one of the scripting languages. It may have features that do not appeal to everyone, but it is indispensable for many aspects of *nix:
Best wishes ... cheers, makyo