Focus: Programming

Last year, Linux use in the business community jumped by 10%. For this sort of growth to continue, more programs need to be written which directly target this community and the consumer in general. Computer stores are stocking Linux distributions. To promote the sale of these distributions to their customers, applications of interest to the consumer must be available. Accounting programs for the small as well as the large business, financial programs for the individual, educational tools, games and more games. These are the types of programs people want and are therefore the types that must be supplied.

Many projects to bring this type of application to Linux exist. Pick your favorite (http://www.linuxresources.com/apps/projects.html) and help out, or start one that is missing. Get active.

The place to start for programming information is, of course, Linux Journal. This month, in order to support the quest for applications, applications and more applications, we feature programming tutorials and tools. Programming has become an annual focus for Linux Journal because of its popularity with our readers. Our writers like it too, sending us more articles dealing with programming issues than any other topic.

Last November, we interviewed Guido Van Rossum, creator of the Python scripting language; last month, we interviewed John Ousterhout, the wizard of Tcl/Tk; this month, we talk to Larry Wall, the guru of Perl. To hone your programming skills, you can study the complete programming cycle, learn about POSIX threads, write your own GUI using Java and learn all about that architecture called CORBA. To learn a bit more about memory management, take a look on-line at a review of three memory checkers and a description of the buffer-overflow hack and how to avoid it (see “Strictly On-line” in the Table of Contents and our web site at http://www.linuxjournal.com/issue61/).

Marjorie Richardson, Editor in Chief

Larry talks about the past, present and future of the Perl programming language and along the way tells us a bit about himself.by Marjorie Richardson

Build your own graphical user interface using Java for true cross-platform portability. Mr. Darwin talks about the Java Foundation Classes and AWT (a windowing toolkit).by Ian Darwin

C programmers get a look at the basics of POSIX thread programming through the eyes of an expert. Mr. Masney discusses the problem of variable access synchronization and how to solve it.by Brian Masney

How to get started writing programs for the Common Object Request Broker Architecture—a look at the strengths and weaknesses of this very popular architecture. The application developed as an example uses the freely available OmniORB from Oracle-Olivetti Research.by J. Mark Shacklette and Jeff Illian

A step-by-step look at the software development cycle from research to documentation. As an example, the author presents a digital signal processing application for the next generation of digital radio products.by Ian V. McLoughlin