Hi everyone,
I got so much help to my last question I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction again this time.

OSS is AWESOME; however, it's daunting in the fact of how complex the programs are, or seem to be. So here's my question: Is there a place where I can download source code of programs in different languages that are simple, or not super complex at least. The last tar.gz(?) file I downloaded had so many files in it I had no idea where the source code was or what language the program was written.



Would like to know so I can someday perhaps contribute to the Linux community with the addition of new or enhanced codes.

Thanks

Sorry, no. Source code for an entire operating system IS complex. It's usually in C/C++, and (since you don't say which "tar.gz" file you downloaded and from WHERE), the language is just that. There isn't a "plain-english' version of the source code...read the comments in it, the headers in the files, etc.

I would pick a particular well known project and just dive into it. Try to understand each bit.

zlib isn't so big, and has a ./configure && make style build system. It's written in C and produces both binaries and libraries. Very typical of an OSS project.

http://zlib.net/zlib-1.2.5.tar.gz

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My suggestion: consider a different approach. Learn a language first. Many of the basic components of Linux are written in C. That would be a good choice, and there are many tutorials/resources for programming in C all over the web.

Your original approach seems similar to immersing yourself in a foreign language (like Spanish, French, German, etc.). While immersing yourself may help you learn that foreign language faster, the same is not true for computer languages. Very quickly: part of the reason the immersion works for spoken foreign languages is because (1) language is tolerant--you don't have to be perfect to get your meaning across and (2) you get feedback from the other person in the conversation. In programming, you get neither of those. Everything must be precise (down to punctuation) and the program cannot explain what went wrong and why. So looking at lots of code without knowing the language(s) first is a sure way to get very, very confused and very, very frustrated.

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Check the gnu hello.c
http://www.gnu.org/software/hello/

You can get some example programs written in Qt. Qt is a framework which simplify some programming aspects and speed up creating a programs and is quite good for beginners. There is also an editor especially prepared for it named "QtCreator". Of course you can use other frameworks and addons to choosed language or pure C, if you wish. I recommend you approach to first invent an idea - simple application you will need, like Calculator for graphs (sin, cos, etc.), Database of your books or music, an Notes reminder (organizer). I known everyting is already written, but doing this by self you will learn faster then just reading other sources. And then, when you get more knowledge, then you will be able to understand others.

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.