Linux® Desk Reference, Second Edition

Introduction

Have you ever heard the saying “If all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail?” Nowhere is that more true than in software development. New software development tools are unleashed on the public every day, usually accompanied by a dozen or more acronyms. Although it is possible—even likely—that somewhere in this menagerie there is a tool that is ideally suited to whatever problem it is you're currently working on, the fact remains that if the only programming language you know is C, your project will undoubtedly be developed in C.

In this section I provide a very high-level overview of some of the tools available for software development in a Linux environment. My intent here is not to provide a practical introduction to these ...