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Just starting out

e14 Contributor

I took the plunge and bought two Raspberry Pi units with SD cards and PSUs.  I can get keyboard/mouse and arrange video connections.  Hardware I can do, software is my weak point...

 

The other board will be for my grandson who is starting to get interested in computers and is a member of the Raspberry Pi club at his secondary school.

 

The question is, where can I find some simple programmes that he and I can input to start learning about programming and then branch out into developing and debugging other programmes please?

 

Bear in mind that a) we are both beginners (I tried Basic with a ZX81 many years ago but HTML is a closed book that I would like to open) and b) it would be nice to have something that we can both programme in and see something happening fairly quickly.  Even if it is the good old "Hello World" message scrolling across the screen.

 

Thanks

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    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

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

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

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    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.

    Command

    Example

    Description

    cd

    cd /home

    Change directory (folder)

    mkdir

    mkdir bob

    mkdir /home/bob

    Make a directory (folder)

    pwd

    pwd

    Display the current directory

    ls

    ls -altr

    Directory listing of files. The ‘-altr’ is a combination of 4 options. ‘-a’ lists hidden files too. ‘-l’ displays in a lengthy detailed format. ‘-t’ displays in date stamped order. ‘-r’ reverses the order, so that the most recent file is printed last.

    cp

    cp bob.txt mytest1.txt

    Copies a file

    mv

    mv bob.txt tests/.

    Moves a file into a folder or to a new file name. The example shown here would move the file into the tests folder.

    rm

    rm bob.txt

    Delete a file

    cat

    cat readme.txt

    Displays the contents of a file.

    more

    more readme.txt

    ls –altr | more

    cat readme.txt | more

    Displays content, but pauses per page. It can be combined with other commands that print lots of output, using the ‘pipe’ character ‘|’. The second example would be useful for viewing the contents of a folder with hundreds of files. The third example does the same as the first example.

    su

    su

    su - bob

    Change user. This allows you to jump from one user to another. It effectively creates a new shell. The first example allows you to become the root user who has administrator privileges. The second example changes to the user called ‘bob’. You can revert back to the original user (i.e. the original shell) by typing ‘exit’.

    ps

    ps -ef

    View the running processes. The example lists all processes (‘-e’) and in a long format (‘-f’). This command is useful to see what is running, and also useful if you want to force a process to close using the next command in this table

    kill

    kill -9 3244

    Force a process (program) to be closed. The ‘-9’ is a special signal that usually tells the program to close. The argument 3244 is the process number, found by using the ‘ps –ef’ command mentioned above.

    df

    df -k

    Check disk space. The ‘-k’ displays the values in kbytes.

    history

    history

    See all the previous commands that were typed

     

     

     

     


  • in reply to shabaz

    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

  • in reply to shabaz

    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.

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    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". image

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    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.

  • @David, sounds like you are doing great already :-) One of the many books that are available may help too, have a look on Amazon. I quite like the Haynes manual for the Pi, and of course there is the one by Eben Upton and Gareth Halfacree.

     

    @mynameis.jim: I was banned for quoting a mod, in context, from the same thread that I made the quote in!

     

    @Morgaine: Why does KA9Q seem such a familiar call sign to me ? Never been involved in Ham Radio but that instantly gave me a flashback of many years, for some reason i'n thinking Demon Internet ??

     

    Steve

  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    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

     

    Blimey mate - just cos you got banned, doenst mean the whole place is defective. Sour grapes? I've seen stuff on their way more off the wall that stuff I got chucked off here. Not been their recenttly though, been trying to catchup

     

    Element 14 forums few thousand members. Raspberry Pi forums, 60k members. They go to be doing something right, you reckon?

     

    Funny, just took a look a that link what was posted, and the guy who started it seems to now be back on the raspberry pi forums and I think is the same dude who organsied the cambridge UK jam. Does he post here any more?

  • Thanks for the additional information and suggestions.

     

    I've downloaded python for windows, so that I can make sure that I know what it should do when I transfer it to the Raspberry Pi

     

    I also found a link to a PDF book called "Think Python" which seems to be on my sort of level.  Well, the first few pages seem OK anyway.

     

    I have also programmed my 1st Python program!  Nothing fancy, just a word string from MagPi, but I did then modify it to produce the famous "you can fool some of the people..." from a list of strings.

     

    Next I have to figure out how to run Python on the Pi.

     

    Thanks again for the help.