Just starting out

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

I managed to get 'my' unit to work with both HD and a scart TV.

I found out about the startx command (why don't they tell you about that in the initial blurb?) and I've messed about with various programs.

What I've not yet worked out is how to enter simple line by line programs, like those shown in MagPi for python.

It seems to assume that you will know how to start up something that will let you enter a set of program commands and then be able to run it.  I'm sorry, but I really do need a beginners guide to how to do this. I had to give up on Linux Red Hat because the books assumed that you knew what you were doing and the screen never ever fitted the monitor, nor were the colours any good, so I gave up. With the Raspberry Pi I was hoping for a "guide to what you need to do to get going" but now I'm doing a hunt and pounce on stuff across the internet to try and get going.

Maybe my grandson will have a better clue and can tell me what needs to be done.

AH well, onwards and upwards, as they say...

David Ackrill wrote:

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions.

 

I managed to get 'my' unit to work with both HD and a scart TV.

 

I found out about the startx command (why don't they tell you about that in the initial blurb?) and I've messed about with various programs.

 

What I've not yet worked out is how to enter simple line by line programs, like those shown in MagPi for python.

 

It seems to assume that you will know how to start up something that will let you enter a set of program commands and then be able to run it.  I'm sorry, but I really do need a beginners guide to how to do this. I had to give up on Linux Red Hat because the books assumed that you knew what you were doing and the screen never ever fitted the monitor, nor were the colours any good, so I gave up. With the Raspberry Pi I was hoping for a "guide to what you need to do to get going" but now I'm doing a hunt and pounce on stuff across the internet to try and get going.

 

Maybe my grandson will have a better clue and can tell me what needs to be done.

 

AH well, onwards and upwards, as they say...

Seriously go talk in the official raspberrypi.org forums, they are insanely helpful with questions like these.

Thanks for the advice,

I've tried to sign up but the confirmation email seems to be taking a while to come through.

Maybe it'll be here in the morning.  Night all.

Dave

David,

  Just a suggestion, on the other forum be very careful what you say and how

you say it.

   http://www.element14.com/community/thread/20081?start=49&tstart=0

Hi David,

I just noticed I have recording capability! so here is a video explanation (might take a while for the video to be processed to the site).

This is not using RPI but the process is similar.

Here, I wrote some C code - but a similar method is needed for Python or most other language.

Some languages have built-in interpreters, but usually the steps (as shown in the video) are:

1. Write some code in a text editor of your choice

2. Save file to a convenient location

3. Open up a 'terminal'

4. Compile the code (for some languages - some don't need this step)

5. Run the code.

I once tried to register on that other site, it didn't work, and when I read some of the comments on that site, I didn't bother to reattempt!

Edit media

Dimensions x Small Medium Large Custom

Subject (required) Brief Description Tags (separated by comma) Video visibility in search results Visible Hidden

Parent content

RE: Just starting out

Poster

Upload Preview

Ok

Cancel

I'll bear that in mind. Thank you.

I can get very frustrated at times, especially if I have a glass or two of wine or a bottle or three of beer, and decide to expand on my opinions on why things don't work or how the instructions are lacking in clarity...

I really, really want this to work.  I want to learn about how to programme and I want to help my grandson to learn as well.  I just need some clear instructions on simple things like "how do I set up a program window that I can input commands, save them and then run them" - I hope that this is read as a straight forward request from someone who, even though has a bit of computer experience, needs some help.

Please believe me, I am not a total novice. I can program a PIC, I can program an Arduino and I've even programmed in Basic, but I'm not a Linux person, I find it a strange place to be inside a Unix based system, so I do need help to navigate about.

Dave

Look up "geany" or "idle" for python programming.

coder27's choices will be better than the gedit used in the video - I'm not familiar with Python unfortunately.

By the way, when you're in the terminal typing commands, here is a quick reference to some of the useful commands, I hope it makes sense.

Quick Linux Guide

Once logged into the Linux machine via Telnet, you will see a command prompt. In Linux, the software that is running that displays the prompt and allows you to type content is called the ‘shell’. You can leave the shell at any time by typing ‘exit’.

Command Prompt

Commands typically (but not always) have the syntax

command -option -option argument

An example would be

ls –l *.txt

The command ‘ls’ performs a directory (i.e. folder) listing. The argument ‘-l’ displays in a ‘lengthy’ format. The ‘*.txt’ argument defines what files to list.

Redirection

You can force the output into a file, using ‘>’.

For example,

ls > listing.txt

would place the directory listing output into a file called listing.txt.

History

You can see earlier commands that you have typed by using the history command. It is very useful.

Commands

Useful commands are shown here.

Thanks shabaz,

I didn't see a link to you video, I'll check back tomorrow to see if it comes up later.

Being an older person, videos are usually not a great deal of help.  Personally, I prefer a text list of "do this then do that" that I can work through.  Whenever I've tried to use video tutorials the tutors always seem to run through their list in the format "do this then click on that and then click on this and then this runs and then you do that and then this happens and then you do that and that's COOOOOL" and I'm still trying to remember what the second thing that they clicked on was...

Dave

Thanks for that,

Some of those commands look like others that I used in NOS back in the days of TCP/IP over radio.

So much to do, so little time to achieve it in.

David Ackrill wrote:

 

Some of those commands look like others that I used in NOS back in the days of TCP/IP over radio.

There's more than just a hint of similarity there.  KA9Q himself even called NOS the "Linux of its time".

coder27 wrote:

 

David,

  Just a suggestion, on the other forum be very careful what you say and how

you say it.

   http://www.element14.com/community/thread/20081?start=49&tstart=0

Yeah my favourite part of that thread is how latter on

http://www.element14.com/community/message/61522#61522

you find out that he wasn't banned for no reason as he claimed in the first post but because he was attacking a mod.

Nice list of common commands shabaz, very helpful.  For programming I've always enjoyed using nano from the command line.  It's not a full on IDE or anything, but it gives just enough highlighting to help you out when you're brain's feeling fuzzy.

coder27 wrote:

 

David,

  Just a suggestion, on the other forum be very careful what you say and how

you say it.

   http://www.element14.com/community/thread/20081?start=49&tstart=0

Yeah my favourite part of that thread is how latter on

http://www.element14.com/community/message/61522#61522

you find out that he wasn't banned for no reason as he claimed in the first post but because he was attacking a mod.

Nice list of common commands shabaz, very helpful.  For programming I've always enjoyed using nano from the command line.  It's not a full on IDE or anything, but it gives just enough highlighting to help you out when you're brain's feeling fuzzy.

you find out that he wasn't banned for no reason as he claimed in the first post but because he was attacking a mod.

Since when is attacking a mod grounds for being banned?  

You seem to enjoy taking frequent swipes at the mods here.  Are you trying to get banned?

What's classy is banning your biggest supporters.

Michael Horne, the dude who organized the Cambridge UK jam.

Banned.

David Ross, the dude who loudly promotes the Pi:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/tivolicloudenablement/tags/pi%22?lang=en

Banned.

Jamodio, the dude who organizes Pi summer camps at Geekdom,

and who found the Pi's circuitry error causing previously unexplained

chip overheating?

Banned.

Steve Read, the dude who works in his local after-school pi club,

Banned.

Morgaine, an official E14 Top Member who alerted Liz to the reputation

of Eben's book publisher.

Banned.

Jim Manley, perhaps the RPF's all-time biggest promoter,

publicly censured for supposedly implying that Eben was a liar.

Teasle: He was just another drifter who broke the law!

Trautman: Vagrancy wasn't it? That's gonna look real good on his grave stone in Arlington: Here lies John Rambo, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines. Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA.

What's also bad is some of the technical threads I notice get killed, and that is really bizarre.

I remember on e14 forums someone had some queries with a H-bridge circuit, and

looking at the original thread on the RPI forum ( http://www.raspberrypi.org/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=37&t=24526 ),

it was killed, because an engineer (grahamed) actually spoke up politely and explained the circuit. He even wanted to PM,

but the thread was locked. I don't know if it put him off or not, he's posted 53 times.

coder27 wrote:

 

 

you find out that he wasn't banned for no reason as he claimed in the first post but because he was attacking a mod.

 

 

Since when is attacking a mod grounds for being banned?  

You seem to enjoy taking freqent swipes at the mods here.  Are you trying to get banned?

 

What's classy is banning your biggest supporters.

 

Michael Horne, the dude who organized the Cambridge UK jam.

Banned.

 

David Ross, the dude who loudly promotes the Pi:

https://www.ibm.com/developerworks/community/blogs/tivolicloudenablement/tags/pi%22?lang=en

Banned.

 

Jamodio, the dude who organizes Pi summer camps at Geekdom,

and who found the Pi's circuitry error causing previously unexplained

chip overheating?

Banned.

 

Steve Read, the dude who works in his local after-school pi club,

Banned.

 

Morgaine, an official E14 Top Member who alerted Liz to the reputation

of Eben's book publisher.

Banned.

 

Jim Manley, perhaps the RPF's all-time biggest promoter,

publicly censured for supposedly implying that Eben was a liar.

 

Teasle: He was just another drifter who broke the law!

Trautman: Vagrancy wasn't it? That's gonna look real good on his grave stone in Arlington: Here lies John Rambo, winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor, survivor of countless incursions behind enemy lines. Killed for vagrancy in Jerkwater, USA.

Jim Manley - still on the Rapsi forums, still posting (when I last looked)

Micheal Horne. Not sure if its the same dude but I reckon he is - recantha2 - on the forums.

Morgaine. Well known around the internet for being banned from forums (is he really this guy?

When I look at the figures, I reckon I can make my own judgment - 60k users on the raspberry pi forums, you came up with 6 people, two of which are still part of the 60k. ANd four other you say are the raspberry pis biggest supporters? You reckon. I'm thinkin they are four people out of 10 of thousands. Not to disparage their stuff of course, that some good stuff. But biggest suppporters. Nah.

I'm a bygones be bygones type of fella, but Ireckon, you get banned, theres a reason. Usually a goodun.

but Ireckon, you get banned, theres a reason.

The reason was explained in the posting guidelines (up until August 2012).

"The Forum Administrators will be keeping the forum and blog comments under control. They are tribal creatures – offend or upset one and you risk offending and upsetting all.  Beware their wrath… "

You wrote:

But biggest suppporters. Nah.

Well, if you knew or cared anything about the foundation's educational goals,

you would know exactly how supportive these people have been and how

summarily they have been banned and/or censured for their contributions.

Classy, my friend, classy.