How to get started?

[Mohenjo]

This is going to be a silly question, so I apologize.

About a decade ago I completed my bachelor's degree in computer science, where programming was a big portion. After having left college I've spent the last 10 years doing everything related to computing except programming. Though I've always held and maintained an interest in Linux.

I'm at a point where I'd like to begin playing around with development on my Fedora box, and I really don't know where to start sadly!

So my questions are simple:
--What would be a good development environment for Fedora? While I've no idea how to do it yet, I'm hoping to develop a small application that has a GUI.
--Is there a "de facto standard" site for code references that developers use? I understand the concepts, so when I dive in I'll have a basic understanding of what I want to do and will just need some way to get example code.

Thanks much!

::edit::
Wow, I pretty much left out the most important piece! My preferred language is C++, and I hope that's still one of the more common used when designing Linux-based applications.

[RupertPupkin]

Since you're using C++, I'd say that Qt would be your best choice for developing GUI applications. It's the most commonly-used toolkit for C++ in Linux, and it's available and usually installed in most distros. There are other choices (e.g. FLTK, FOX, Gtkmm) but not everyone will have those installed.

You could start with the official Qt documentation here: http://doc.qt.nokia.com/
Then make sure you install the Qt development package:

yum install qt-devel

You might want to take a look at the C++ GUI examples in this thread. In particular, look at Pitfall's first example here. That is typically the way GUI Qt applications are created, using Qt Creator and separating the UI design from the backend code.

[Fenrin]

Most linux applications are either based on the GTK+ framework or on QT. Another alternative is wxWidgets (programs which use this: Code::Blocks, Audacity for example).

for gtk development:
http://developer.gnome.org
some tutorials
gtk3 reference manual

best for Gtk development is probably the Anjuta IDE (except if you want to use C#, then monodevelop). If you follow a tutorial older than maybe 2 years, you must probably change some code a bit so that it works with the current version.

I have only a bit GTK3 experience, not any QT or wxWidget experience. If you are not sure what to use, you could just search for the term GTK vs QT via a search engine.

QT has probably the advantage that there are more books available. But for rather simple GUI's you probably don't need a book. Also it's probably easier if you want to license your program commercially.

native gnome applications and gnome desktop are built with GTK and KDE desktop and native applications are built upon QT.

[jwele]

I second using QT framework, they have great tools for it, and If you get into networking I have heard some good stuff about boost.asio for a networking framework if you want to make more "WOCA" (Write once compile everywhere).

[Gareth Jones]

Originally Posted by Mohenjo

--What would be a good development environment for Fedora? While I've no idea how to do it yet, I'm hoping to develop a small application that has a GUI.

yum groupinstall "Development Tools"

will give you the core Linux programming tools (GCC/G++, Make, autotools, headers for the C library etc.).

For GUI development, groupinstall "X Software Development", "GNOME Software Development", "KDE Software Development", and/or "XFCE Software Development", depending on your preferred desktop.

For KDE, the standard tool-kit (GUI framework and support library) is Qt, which is C++-based. For the others, GTK+ is preferred. GTK+ is C-based, so it can be used from C++ directly, but there is a native C++ binding called Gtkmm. Personally I find Gtkmm feels more "native" than Qt (it's less mired in macros etc. inherited from the pre-standard C++ compiler mess, and doesn't use an additional language pre-processor). Others will swear by Qt though, so give both a whirl and see which you prefer.

Both have the facility to build interfaces graphically (e.g. Glade for GTK+), and are portable to other (non-Linux) OSes. There are IDEs for both if you prefer that to a plain text editor (KDevelop for Qt/KDE, Anjuta for GTK+/Gtkmm/GNOME).

--Is there a "de facto standard" site for code references that developers use? I understand the concepts, so when I dive in I'll have a basic understanding of what I want to do and will just need some way to get example code.

We call it the internet.

Start by running through the tutorials linked on the Gtkmm and Qt websites. Then check out autoconf and automake, and Git/Mercurial/Subversion/... for project management, or you can let the IDEs handle that for you.

[Pitfall]

@RupertPupkin: thanks for referring to my code.

I also highly recommend using Qt. Their documentation is one of the best I have seen so far. Please take a look at QML, it is a really interesting technology. You can build a GUI using a CSS-like syntax and handle events in your C++ code. Using native Qt widgets are also available of cource.
Gtkmm is another option if you dislike Qt.