The Beginner Guide to Writing Linux Shell Scripts

bashscripting-smallFor starters – let’s clarify that headline. Linux has more than one possible shell, and scripting any of them is a subject that can easily pack a full book. What we’re going to be doing is covering the basic elements of a bash script. If you don’t know what shell you’re using, it’s probably bash. The process will be familiar to anyone who’s worked with DOS’s bat files, it’s essentially the same concept. You just put a series of commands into a text file and run it. The difference comes from the fact that bash scripts can do a LOT more than batch files. In fact, bash scripting isn’t all that far from a full-fledged language like Python. Today we’ll be covering a few basics like input, output, arguments and variables.
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Agile: Create Web Apps the Amazingly Simple Way

agile-smallThere are some people who insist that the only real way to code is in a text-based editor like vi or emacs. Others would sooner chop off a limb than depart with the comforts of Visual Studio. While the first group will happily code away at their consoles from now until Y2K38, the second group is always demanding new innovations in simplicity of software development. These people are the target users of the Agile Platform – an amazingly simple way to create beautiful and functional web apps. As just one example, you can take an Excel spreadsheet and turn it into a searchable, sortable, editable web app in literally 5 minutes, without writing a single line of code. Old-school hacker or not, that’s pretty impressive.
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How to Install Google Go in Ubuntu

googlego-logoWhat do you get when you mix Python and C? According to Google, it’s Go – a new programming language developed in-house and later open sourced. Go was created by a small team inside Google, including the well known Ken Thompson, co-inventor of Unix and major influence on C. It was created out of a lack of satisfaction with existing languages, mainly the excessively (in the minds of Go’s developers) long compile times needed for other languages. With Go, even a very large and complex application can compile in a few seconds, often less. Additionally, Go has built in concurrency support, so you can code for multiple CPUs without resorting to outside libraries of unknown quality. While we don’t usually cover much programming here at MakeTechEasier, Go is such an interesting language that we just had to dip in a bit, and where better to start than by covering the system setup needed to get Go up and running on your Linux box.
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A Basic Introduction To Python 3

Python LogoA while back I was introduced to what has become my #1 favorite programming/scripting language: Python. It’s difficult for a language developer to come up with something that’s both powerful and easy to write, something that flows naturally and allows you to focus on what’s important in your code. Python does this beautifully. It makes just the right kinds of assumptions, allowing you to focus more on what your program should do instead of exactly how it should be done. There’s no worrying about memory management, variable typing, or those blasted semicolons, you just keep your mind on the logic of your application.

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