Developing Applications on Linux

[SpolanderCJ]

I am relatively new to Linux and I would appreciate a definitive answer to this question which I am sure has probably been asked in one form or another before.

I have been using Windows operating systems and developing software on this platform for most of my life.
One of the great things about Windows, is that Microsoft provides you with products like Visual Studio and SQL Server with which you can easily develop applications in a choice of languages which integrate easily with the Windows product.

I recently installed Linux Mint and I must say, that am am very impressed with this Distro of Linux. Really easy to use has a strong Windows feel to it with all the benefits of Linux.

Can someone please point me in the right direction.
I would like to be able to do a similar job in developing simple forms based applications that have a good relational database in the background. (I assume that MySQL would fit the bill here). What choices do I have for development languages and perhaps an IDE.

Many Thanks

[gm10]

I would like to be able to do a similar job in developing simple forms based applications that have a good relational database in the background. (I assume that MySQL would fit the bill here). What choices do I have for development languages and perhaps an IDE.

Well, if you stick to Visual Studio Code you retain a familiar environment: https://code.visualstudio.com/

The choice of languages is yours, just keep using whatever you're used to, or learn something new. For the GUI, there's no Windows forms or WPF API (unless you want to use Wine), so you'll probably end up creating a GUI using Qt, GTK, a browser.

[SpolanderCJ]

Thanks very much for taking the time to reply and for the information.

I found out to my embarrassment shortly after I had made the post, that The Software Download center has a category dedicated to development languages. I suppose that one must make a choice based on what is on offer. It seems as though Python is a popular choice but I'm not sure.


Many Thanks.

[gm10]

Python is one of the most high level languages there is, even if you forget everything you know about coding you can probably still write python scripts.

So sure, python will work, but the whole range of C-languages is available, too. As I said, the choice is yours.

[catweazel]

Python is one of the most high level languages there is, even if you forget everything you know about coding you can probably still write python scripts.

Humbug!

Code: Select all

>>> computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> 

[gm10]

Python is one of the most high level languages there is, even if you forget everything you know about coding you can probably still write python scripts.

Humbug!

Code: Select all

>>> computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> 

Seems legit. Clearly something they will need to fix in Python!

[lsemmens]

Nah! It's just that the Python has given up smoking.............[runs....hides]

[Hoser Rob]

Python is one of the most high level languages there is, even if you forget everything you know about coding you can probably still write python scripts.

Humbug!

Code: Select all

>>> computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> 

Agree 100%. Anyone who says programming is easy is bogus and can't actually do it. Period.

[gm10]

Python is one of the most high level languages there is, even if you forget everything you know about coding you can probably still write python scripts.

Humbug!

Code: Select all

>>> computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
  File "<stdin>", line 1
    computer, order 1kg of Mac Baren Modern Virginia Flake pipe tobacco
                    ^
SyntaxError: invalid syntax
>>> 

Agree 100%. Anyone who says programming is easy is bogus and can't actually do it. Period.

Now that escalated quickly.

Since you know I can't just let this slide I'll quote you the "bogus" developers of python:

Whether you're new to programming or an experienced developer, it's easy to learn and use Python.

See https://www.python.org/

At the end of the day it's for yourself to judge whether you find something easy or hard - some people simply lack the talent for programming and thus struggle with it. But OP clearly knows how to code and thus does not have that problem.

[Neil Darlow]

I used to develop applications on Windows using Delphi. I now do the same for GNU/Linux using Lazarus.

The programming language is, obviously, object-oriented Pascal and, with care, you can also target MacOS and Windows too (you have to recompile your code on those operating systems but the benefit is that the resulting executable uses the native widgets).

Lazarus supports a rich set of data-aware controls for MS-SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL and others like SQLite and FireBird (previously InterBase). These can support all the familiar dialogs and tab controls you will have used when programming under Windows.

Others have suggested Python which is a fine language but you have to commit to using a particular GUI library. This can be a bit of a drawback when developing croass-platform applications where native look-and-feel might be desired.

ATB, Neil