Suggested Reading


Mjlink

ithic.com
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hey all,

Thanks for all the help with my GP2x!

Please let me know a few select pieces of literature I could read to learn how to program in Linux and get into development.

Thanks!

Link
 
If you're looking for more game oriented reading and don't mind spending a few dollars I've personally enjoyed "Beginning C++ through game programming, second edition" and "Linux Game Programming"... although I'm not very far in either (just bought them lately), but they provide good examples and both use gcc predominantly. They both start with basics, giving you a good foundation and working from there.
 
hey

Please be more specific? what are you looking to learn? game/graphics programming? opengl? SDL? how to use Xorg? how to make makefiles? how to use GNU tools? the workflow?

Well game/graphics programming doesn't have much todo with linux, so to OpenGL and SDL, and you need to consider if it's even worth looking into Xorg (heard it's a little tricky) when you have SDL and what not.

Umm, so I dunno.

Anyhows for projects with more than one file I just make my own makefile :), I do the same in winxp (I use mingw32 (minimum gnu for windows)).

edit
It might also help if you tell us what sorts of things you would like to make?

But yea, I know lots of things you could read, but you need to be more specific about what ya wanna learn or whatever.

antoher edit
Also, do you already program on other platforms, such as windows? what programming languages do you already know? and what sorts of things have you made already?

and another
If ya dunno where to start, then you can start by coding a basic hello world prog in C/C++ alike...

CODE

#include <stdio.h>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{

printf("hello world!\n");
return 0;
}



Then save as "whatever.cpp" and compile with g++ alike "g++ whatever.cpp -o whatever.out", and that's it. Well if you already know C/C++ then the only thing new to you might be compiling with g++.

cya
 
I you're just looking to get up and running with game programming then I'd recommend learning python and pygame. It's quite simple and allows you to get a game running with little code.
Where as if you're looking to use your programming for other projects in the future then you might want to learn C++ which will take a lot longer but is a lot more versatile.
 
I really need to start from scratch.

Last programming I forced myself through in college was Visual Basic.

I've never had the desire to program until I started tinkering with iPhone hacking and GP2x gameplay.

I want to understand the overall system, dynamics, and be able to effectively write basic code and work towards more complex things like making games and small utilities.

Hope that is a bit more descriptive.

Thank you all for the suggestions thus far.

Sorry for my delayed response, preparing for a vacation.

Peace

Link
 
I would love to start programing to. Like to start with simple games then maybe some aplications. I have aboslutly no experiece. Eventually I would like to get something playing on a pandora.

-Brandon
 
Mjlink said:
I really need to start from scratch.

Last programming I forced myself through in college was Visual Basic.
Heh... While I can't vouch for all of the quality of the following (They look "okay" to me, but
then, I've been at programming and designing systems for nearly 30 years now...), the price IS right:

http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C_Programming
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/C%2B%2B_Programming/TOC1
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Python_Programming

Those are going to be the front-runners for languages you'll use. To be sure, there's other languages available in the cross-compile world that will let you do what you want to do in another language, but until someone comes up with something like "Basic" for you or you get get pretty skilled at coding, you're going to probably want to stick with C, C++, or Python coming out of the gate.
 
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This is quite good for teaching the basics. Uses Python; it's a revision of "How to think like a computer scientist," which is available for C++ and Java as well as other languages...
 
ati said:
I also want to ask for some book advice. I am confident with application development but I want to go into system development. Stuff like daemons, services, device drivers etc. I found these on Amazon but I dunno if there are nicer sources:
That will cover things like regular programming- and you probably need something like it if you're not like me and having done professional Unix/Linux development for over 15 years. As for the daemons, you mostly need to think in terms of it running in the background and it not having stdin/stdout/stderr cleanly available- or a GUI for that matter. Services are daemons. Now, device drivers, on the other hand...

There are two books available, in addition to the serviceable online stuff:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005900/?...+Device+Drivers
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Drivers-Pr...t/dp/0132396556

The second one, the "Essential Linux Device Drivers" is a newer book and seems to be clearer for a novice to me. BOTH are VERY good and very accurate at the information and are decently written- it just feels like the second is a easier to grasp book. I have both for quickie reference copies to refresh the memory when needed on some nuance item.

If you're going to be seriously doing drivers, daemons, etc. on Linux- you probably OUGHT to come to grips with an overview of the inner workings of the kernel, especially if you're doing drivers:

http://oreilly.com/catalog/9780596005658/?...he+Linux+Kernel

If you're doing network-centric stuff, the minimum you'd need would be:

http://www.amazon.com/Linux-Socket-Program...e/dp/0789722410

However, having said this, any BSD sockets programming book will do nicely for you.
 
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