Linux
 Several years ago I started exploring Linux. But in the summer of 1999 I actually started using Linux.
As you can see on my other pages I am interested in programming in Delphi. For that reason I wanted to start programming in Linux. As a teacher I know that most people prefer a graphical shell, so when you intend to write educational programs you must do that for (X)windows.
First I had to learn the C-language as it is THE language for Linux. Then I had to look for a suitable programming environment. I discoverd on one of my Linux CD's the package Xforms. After some problems installing the package I finaly got it working.
Most distributions contain a package containing the xforms library. When you have this package installed you must be able to run the binary included in the packages I wrote. Most distributions have version 0.89 of the Xforms library included so I compiled my programs with that library.
There is a newer versions of the Xforms library, so I recommend to take a look at the XForms homesite :
http://savannah.nongnu.org/projects/xforms/
Because I didn't understand what to do with the Makefiles (most of my programs are short and contain only one file, so a makefile isn't really necessairy) I wrote a simple program called "comp". With this program I could compile my xforms programs in a very easy way.
F.i. to compile the program 'lucas.c' (see below) I only had to enter : comp lucas.
I think Linux is a great platform for educational purposes (pupils know very well how to bypass security measurements in Windows95/98). So I started programming to convert some programs written in Delphi to Xforms.
Today xforms aren't very popular anymore. Take a look at the sourcecode to get some ideas for programming if you like.
If you want to do graphical programming on the Linux platform, please take e look at my Lazarus page.
When you are programming educational software for Linux I would like to hear about that, so maybe we can join our efforts.
At this moment I have the following programs
Fun Stuff:
- Lucas -a simple game
- Sierpinski -draws colored triangles
- Colormix -shows how to make white light
Scientific/Educational Software:
- FM-mod -showing FM-sidebands using Bessel-functions
- Fourier -shows signals in time and frequency domain
- Siboplot -Butterworth and Shebyshev-filters with Bode-plotter
- Dsp-sim -DSP simulator with FIR and IIR filters
Hardware Access:
- AD -a simple program to access an R-2R network on the parallel port
- DA -idem
- ICOM -control your ICOM-735 transceiver under Linux
XForms Demos:
- Rubber-banding -rubber-banding demo
- Make-buttons -extension of the rubber banding demo
- Dragging Objects -dragging demo
- Blinking -blinking button with timer
All programs on this page are free under terms of the GPL.
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