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Peter shows you how to program a very simple graphical "Hello World" application using Gambas 2. Gambas 2 is a visual development environment for Linux/Unix with many similarities to Microsoft Visual Basic.

Gambas is a development environment and platform for Linux and Unix systems. It uses a custom programming language, similar to (but not the same as and not compatible with) Microsoft's Visual Basic.

Gambas allows you to put together Qt and GTK+ interfaces with drag and drop ease and connect them to code, in a very similar way to Visual Basic on the Windows platform.

While something similar to VB as a language and platform will probably be unpopular with many Linux and open source enthusiasts, using the Gambas environment is one of the easiest ways to rapidly develop a graphical application for deployment on Linux/Unix systems.

The Gambas IDE bears a striking resemblance, again, to the Visual Basic IDE and brings together source editing, drag and drop GUI design and project compilation and debugging from a single interface.

One of the major attractions to this platform is its support for Rapid Application Development (RAD) and its visual approach to programming. Even if you have only a little programming experience, you can quickly put together a graphical program for almost any desktop environment.

Obviously, a development platform like Gambas isn't suitable for all projects. What I think this certainly has utility for is for very quickly building graphical applications to automate certain tasks, for example.

Gambas offers probably one of the quickest and simplest ways to build a graphical application for Linux. Anyone with a little Visual Basic experience will very quickly be able to pick it up and start developing simple applications.

Installing software on Linux, or any Unix system from the source code is something that is difficult to pick up straight away. Nowadays, the chances you'll need to actually do this are lower, but sometime it's good to know how.

Back in September, I showed you how most source applications can be compiled and installed.

Installing software. It’s something that you do quite a lot if you’re like most computer users. On Unix-like systems, there are several different ways you be getting that program however - it’s not necessarily a simple case of double-clicking one setup file.

One of these ways is to download the program’s source code and compile it yourself. This process can be a little tricky to the uninitiated, but has several benefits - including meaning you’ll have the latest copy of the program and you’ll be able to get a copy if you’re using an operating system or distribution where no pre-built packages are available.

Unfortunately, the ways different bits of software are built means that this process can differ slightly depending on exactly what you’re working on. If you’re having problems, it might be you’re dealing with something that’s a little different, so you may have to look for more help.

Something that I didn't mention in that post, but did come up in the comments was how to uninstall software that you've installed in this way. Here's how.

Provided that you kept that source directory around, in most cases you can simply run the following (as root in most cases):

# make uninstall

However, some packages don't implement this particular feature.

The bottom line is - wherever you can, try and avoid installing from source. But if you have to, this guide should give you a good insight into how.

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