Embedded developers working on kernels or bare-metal programs often go through several development cycles. Each time the developer modifies the code, the code has to be compiled, the ELF (Executable and Linkable Format)/kernel image has to be copied onto the SD card, and the card then has to be transferred from the PC to the development board and rebooted.

Wildcards have been around forever. Some even claim they appear in the hieroglyphics of the ancient Egyptians. Wildcards allow you to specify succinctly a pattern that matches a set of filenames (for example, *.pdf to get a list of all the PDF files). Wildcards are also often referred to as glob patterns (or when using them, as "globbing"). But glob patterns have uses beyond just generating a list of useful filenames. The bash man page refers to glob patterns simply as "Pattern Matching". First, let's do a quick review of bash's glob patterns. In addition to the simple wildcard characters that are fairly well known, bash also has extended globbing, which adds additional features. These extended features are enabled via the extglob option.

Python's "multiprocessing" module feels like threads, but actually launches processes. Many people, when they start to work with Python, are excited to hear that the language supports threading. And, as I've discussed in previous articles, Python does indeed support native-level threads with an easy-to-use and convenient interface.

OpenGL is a well-known standard for generating 3-D as well as 2-D graphics that is extremely powerful and has many capabilities. OpenGL is defined and released by the OpenGL Architecture Review Board (ARB). This article is a gentle introduction to OpenGL that will help you understand drawing using OpenGL.

The internet has a sustainability problem. Many of its critical services depend on the dedication of unpaid volunteers, because they can't be monetized and thus don't have any revenue stream for the maintainers to live on. I'm talking about services like DNS, time synchronization, crypto libraries—software without which the net and the browser you're using couldn't function.

For Linux users, the command line is a celebrated part of our entire experience. Unlike other popular operating systems, where the command line is a scary proposition for all but the most experienced veterans, in the Linux community, command-line use is encouraged.

Can "by hackers, for hackers" sell laptops? System76 sold an Oryx Pro to Rob, and he's here to tell you about it. I should start by saying that although I'm definitely no newbie to Linux, I'm new to the world of dedicated Linux laptops. I started with Linux in 1996, when Red Hat 4.0 had just adopted the 2.0 kernel and Debian 1.3 hadn't yet been released. I've run a variety of distros with varying degrees of satisfaction ever since, always looking for the Holy Grail of a desktop UNIX that just plain worked.

Ever wondered why programming in Bash is so difficult? Bash employs the same constructs as traditional programming languages; however, under the hood, the logic is rather different. The Bourne-Again SHell (Bash) was developed by the Free Software Foundation (FSF) under the GNU Project, which gives it a somewhat special reputation within the Open Source community. Today, Bash is the default user shell on most Linux installations. Although Bash is just one of several well known UNIX shells, its wide distribution with Linux makes it an important tool to know.