5 replies to this topic

[Progress]

I would like to ask if anyone could help me with this.
All I need is to be pointed in some direction of how to go about this and what to do. I can figure out the rest.
I know Ruby to some extent but am going to begin to learn multiple languages, starting today. My goal as of now is create simple back light control program.
Any suggestion for any language to do this is fine.

Thank you.

[Guest]

I think a back light control program would actually be pretty complicated. The back light is part of the hardware, and usually the operating system is designed to handle stuff like that.

I would recommend starting one language at a time, some people just get ahead of themselves when they take their leap into programming. I assume since you know some Ruby, that you have probably done some basic programming exercises, and probably created some useful little things for yourself.

Ruby is a pretty simple language, and I think it can leave a lot to be desired. You probably want something more complex and more mainstream to work with.
Here are some language examples:

• Python - Pretty easy to learn and very useful too. A lot of people use it as their main scripting language.
  
• Java - Harder than Python, but still modern, high level, and a great way to get into object oriented programming.
  
• C++ - Hardest of the bunch, but it is widely used and has advantages of high level and low level languages.

You can pick any language you want, and get started with it. Their are a lot of tutorials online, and many books you can buy to learn. Once you get a good foothold on the language, you can search online for programming exercises. You even do that with Ruby right now. Just try some simple things to get you thinking and in the programming mind set.

[Progress]

Well I am doing it one language at time. Except I stopped learning Ruby and have started C++...so I cheated a tad >.> nevertheless! So any helpful tips to hardware libraries, where to access such things, anything dealing with hardware using C++?
I'm pretty patient so anything I learn, I do not plan to use instantly. (Not that this should matter to anyone).

[WingedPanther]

This is going to depend on your OS. You'll probably have to find the appropriate OS calls to the video driver to do this. This is NOT necessarily simple.

[Progress]

OS calls, Video driver.
Thank you.
My quest towards creating this can now begin.

Anymore helpful information would still be helpful, so long as it IS information.
The OS will be Windows xp and/or Ubuntu, the language is C++.

[WingedPanther]

For Ubuntu, you'll probably want to be familiar with GTK as well.