If my e-mail queue is to be believed, the initial feedback
about
SourceLib has been very positive, and I’m glad to see that our
instinct was right about the need for this kind of
resource.
One of the most requested features has been a better way to find
SourceLib samples. Right now there’s just over a dozen samples in
the library, but soon SourceLib will be sprouting more categories
and many more samples, so this is definitely an area of
concern–after all, what good is a reference resource if you can’t
use it to find what you need quickly?
The solution is to use the “Search for Resources” function.
We’ve already started adding keyword entries to the descriptions of
the individual SourceLib samples, which are automatically indexed
by this search function. Each set of keywords will include:
* the language(s) used to write the sample,
* the header files the program(s) in the sample include
directly,
* the major API functions the sample uses,
* and some topic-specific keywords.
This should make it much easier for you to zero in on a sample
that addresses your question or problem. Need code that uses the
flock() file-locking function, or the sys/stat.h system include
file? You can search on “flock” or “stat.h”, respectively.
Not every API in every sample will be included in the
keywords–there’s no point in listing “printf” for almost every
program (except for those cases where it might be the main focus of
the sample). Also, we’re not listing C constants/macros except in
specific cases. If it seems like a good idea to add the constants,
like STD_FILENO, which is included, then we’ll go back and add
them.
Oh yeah–the questions. First: How interested are you in seeing
Java covered in SourceLib? I know that Linux programmers as a group
aren’t the most enthusiastic supporters of Java, but Java seems to
be so widespread that at least some coverage of it is
warranted.
The other question is really a generalization of the first:
Which languages, besides C and C++, do you specifically want to see
used for samples? We’re planning to get to the obvious ones, like
Perl, bash, Python, and Borland’s Delphi, but the order in which
they appear will be largely determined by the level of reader
interest.
Please leave a talkback to this article with your replies or
e-mail me directly at lgrinzo@internet.com.
Lou Grinzo
Editor, LinuxProgramming.com