New linux programmer

[Joshua Baldus]

Hey all,

I'm not entirely new to c++ programming, but I've decided to switch focus to
linux based development. It's a completely new environment for me - I'm
used to Visual Studio - so I decided to try KDevelop for a starting point.
Unfortunately, it seems to require some serious understanding of linux
development environments - I can't even compile a basic Qt hello world
app - /bin/sh qmake not found. I checked the QT_DIR variable and it points
to the Qt directory fine, but ... *shrug*

Basically I'm looking for a programming environment for xwindows (openSuSE
KDE) that I can learn on - KDevelop seems geared towards long time
enthusiasts/professionals. I don't really care if I'm using Qt or GTK+ (or
any other GUI kit), as long as I can learn the _basics_ of the linux dev
environment. Can anyone recommend a package or tutorial that is easy to
set up in SuSE x86_64 to (re)learn c++ in linux?

Any suggestions will be thoroughly [researched and investigated]
appreciated~

TIA,
Josh

[Ian Proty]

Post by Joshua Baldus
Hey all,
I'm not entirely new to c++ programming, but I've decided to switch focus
to linux based development. It's a completely new environment for me -
I'm used to Visual Studio - so I decided to try KDevelop for a starting
point. Unfortunately, it seems to require some serious understanding of
linux development environments - I can't even compile a basic Qt hello
world app - /bin/sh qmake not found. I checked the QT_DIR variable and it
points to the Qt directory fine, but ... *shrug*
Basically I'm looking for a programming environment for xwindows (openSuSE
KDE) that I can learn on - KDevelop seems geared towards long time
enthusiasts/professionals. I don't really care if I'm using Qt or GTK+
(or any other GUI kit), as long as I can learn the _basics_ of the linux
dev environment. Can anyone recommend a package or tutorial that is easy
to set up in SuSE x86_64 to (re)learn c++ in linux?
Any suggestions will be thoroughly [researched and investigated]
appreciated~
TIA,
Josh

One of the main points to appreciate with rpm based distributions ( which
SuSE is ) is that software tends to be split into two rpm packages, one
the main package and one package containing the files need for
development. These files are usually just header files which go in
/usr/include

for example you will have packages that look something like

qt4.rpm
qt4-devel.rpm

Use YaST to ensure that you have installed the qt4-devel package and that
should provide qmake. KDevelop is probably what you're looking for if you
want an IDE as it's probably the best IDE used on Linux.

Unfortunately I don't know of any howtos for an introduction to Linux
programming, but the QT docs ( which once again may be in a separate rpm
named qt4-docs.rpm or similar ) are an excellent introduction to QT
programming.

Ian

[George Huber]

Post by Joshua Baldus
Hey all,
I'm not entirely new to c++ programming, but I've decided to switch focus to
linux based development. It's a completely new environment for me - I'm
used to Visual Studio - so I decided to try KDevelop for a starting point.
Unfortunately, it seems to require some serious understanding of linux
development environments - I can't even compile a basic Qt hello world
app - /bin/sh qmake not found. I checked the QT_DIR variable and it points
to the Qt directory fine, but ... *shrug*
Basically I'm looking for a programming environment for xwindows (openSuSE
KDE) that I can learn on - KDevelop seems geared towards long time
enthusiasts/professionals. I don't really care if I'm using Qt or GTK+ (or
any other GUI kit), as long as I can learn the _basics_ of the linux dev
environment. Can anyone recommend a package or tutorial that is easy to
set up in SuSE x86_64 to (re)learn c++ in linux?
Any suggestions will be thoroughly [researched and investigated]
appreciated~
TIA,
Josh

Others may disagree with this -- but I would suggest that you start with
the command line tools, e.g. make, and a text editor, e.g. emacs, to
start learning the programming environment for Linux. You will learn a
lot about the Linux environment as well as how to troubleshoot you
environment when things go wrong.

BTW -- I have been developing Linux applications for almost a decade
now, and my 'IDE' is still emacs, and my build process is still
makefiles -- guess its just how you learn, but KDevelop etc. just seem
to bloated and seem to automatically create way to many files for my likes.

From your description of the error message, it seems that the shell
can-not find the qmake program to execute. Typically qmake lives at:
$QTDIR/bin .... so even if the environmental variable is correctly set,
if your path is not the program will not run.

Try the following tests:

(1) from a command prompt, try to invoke qmake,

$> qmake

if you get a help screen, then qmake is correctly installed and
there is something wrong with your IDE.

(2) if the above fails, try the following steps at a command prompt:

$> export PATH=$PATH:$QTDIR/bin
$> qmake

if you get a help screen, then you path does not include the
directory for qmake. (NOTE: you modifed the path for your
current shell only...going to any other command prompt (or xterm)
will only have your old shell. You will need to reset you path
somewhere so the changes are permanent.

(3) if the above fails, then you probably need to install the
development packages as someone already suggested.

George

[Guillermo Antonio Amaral Bastidas]

Post by Joshua Baldus
Hey all,
I'm not entirely new to c++ programming, but I've decided to switch focus to
linux based development. It's a completely new environment for me - I'm
used to Visual Studio - so I decided to try KDevelop for a starting point.
Unfortunately, it seems to require some serious understanding of linux
development environments - I can't even compile a basic Qt hello world
app - /bin/sh qmake not found. I checked the QT_DIR variable and it
points to the Qt directory fine, but ... *shrug*
Basically I'm looking for a programming environment for xwindows (openSuSE
KDE) that I can learn on - KDevelop seems geared towards long time
enthusiasts/professionals. I don't really care if I'm using Qt or GTK+
(or any other GUI kit), as long as I can learn the _basics_ of the linux
dev
environment. Can anyone recommend a package or tutorial that is easy to
set up in SuSE x86_64 to (re)learn c++ in linux?
Any suggestions will be thoroughly [researched and investigated]
appreciated~
TIA,
Josh

There is a great book I give out to my newbie students called "C++ for
Linux" -SAMS, You can search amazon for it and check it out, it will teach
you all the basics that you might need, then try out something like "C++
GUI Programming with Qt4" -Prentice Hall, to get you started in Qt and open
the door to KDE development.

There are many free tutorials in both the `Qt Trolltech` and `KDE techbase`
sites or you can just email me and I can help you out as much as I can.

Cheers,
GA
--
Guillermo Antonio Amaral Bastidas (gamaral)
# Free & Open-source Software Advocate
# KDE Developer: gamaral
@ blog: http://blog.guillermoamaral.com/

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