Programming Develop Your Own Software & Software Applications
Developing your own software can be a costly affair, first you need an Operating System to run the Integrated Desktop Environment or IDE both of which, on some systems need to be purchased, depending on your selection, the cost can run into many hundreds of pounds.
Now wouldn't it be great if the software needed to write such Applications was free, well I have news for you Linux is free and so to is the software to write applications and the source code from which others have already written many other applications and libraries is also free and readable. That is free to obtain, free to use, free to distribute your software and free to sell and patent if you choose to do so, in short if programming is something you want to get into you are free to choose, but only with Linux.
You can obtain some basic development software some of which is free, but writing commercial software can get you into all sorts of problems especially if your application is successful. It seems the lawyers always rub their hands with glee every opportunity they get, it can be argued you stole the code from another application, your application may infringe on another's patent and so on.
Even with Linux the accusations fly thick and fast, although you might write code and distribute it freely it doesn't mean anyone can use the code for their own ends. It can still be protected, if the code or a portion of the code is used from a third party it is mandatory for the authors permission to be asked, this is the Linux way. If you have protected your code this way, the author may request recognition for his / her / their efforts, again it is down to choice. If you alter and / or improve on someone else's code it is expected you offer this to the open source community from which it came.
Their may seem to be few advantages to writing your own code, especially if you just give it away at the end, but such projects do exist and thrive in many countries including our own. Writing such code sets you aside from most and the knowledge that many hundreds of people or more will use your code can be very satisfying and rewarding in it's own right.
If your affinity is programming and you intend to pursue this endeavor you might like to know what sought of help is available for free, byway of web resources.
Perl
Lets start with "Perl" Perl now into Version 6 as of 28th November 2007
Perl is a high-level programming language with an eclectic heritage written by Larry Wall and a cast of thousands. It derives from the ubiquitous C programming language and to a lesser extent from sed, awk, the Unix shell, and at least a dozen other tools and languages. Perl's process, file, and text manipulation facilities make it particularly well-suited for tasks involving quick prototyping, system utilities, software tools, system management tasks, database access, graphical programming, networking, and world wide web programming. These strengths make it especially popular with system administrators and CGI script authors, but mathematicians, geneticists, journalists, and even managers also use Perl.
CPAN stands for Comprehensive Perl Archive Network its website is located at [http://cpan.org]
Chances are Perl is already installed on your system if running Ubuntu and especially if you are running the server version. Various web functions and server side tools depend on Perl and the various Perl library packages available for specific jobs, so this tool is particularly useful. It is part of a vast network and has a large following of Users and Supporters.
Finding the Perl Libraries required for any given "cgi" (Common Gateway Interface) or sever side includes is more difficult but you can search for the missing libraries you need in the Debian repository then install the relevant library package required via apt-get install or Synaptic Package Manager.
Super Collider
SuperCollider is an environment and programming language for real time audio synthesis and algorithmic composition. It provides an interpreted object-oriented language which functions as a network client to a state of the art, realtime sound synthesis server.
SuperCollider was written by James McCartney over a period of many years, and is now an open source project maintained and developed by various people. It is used by musicians, scientists, and artists working with sound. For some background, see
