[ale] Sharing and Programming

[Vernard Martin]

> For example, could I create one swap partition, could both use it? (Not
> simultaneously). And, could I use programs from one in the other? Could
> they be made to view, open, and execute each others files? Basically,
> could they peacefully coexist without major problems?

You can do this but its a lot of work in many cases. Basically, you have to set
up the filesystem hierarchy so that they share some of them. Then you have to
make sure that they both use the same file versions such as both using libc6
and things of that nature. In general, its not a good idea unless you already
know what you are doing. They can share the swap file though.

> 2. 	My Linux book mentions something about one of the linux tools
> being a cross-compiler? Does that mean that I could write a program in
> linux and run it in Windows/DOS without having a windows or DOS compiler?
> Also, the tools for creating programming languages, can I create
> compilers for DOS too? One more thing, is there a version of BASIC (or a
> clone of Visual Basic) available for Linux? (A good one like QBASIC, not
> just a cheapo). I ask because I only know BASIC and Visual Basic right
> now. (QBASIC was free, and a friend legally gave my dad a copy of VB3.0
> (the newest being VB6.0 :(  )) If I were to learn C or C++, are there any
> good sites or tutorials for free?

Cross-compilers don't cross-compile for different operating systems usually.
They have a target cpu and compile for that. There are some third party
commercial toolkits that will let you program under one platform and then
recompile on another but tha't not the same.

There isn't a good free basic for linux on the order of QBASIC or Visual Basic.
There is a commercial version of Basic for linux  available but I haven't 
evaluated it myself.

There are some ok C++ tutorials availabe on the web. You can probably find them
with any search engine. However

V
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Vernard Martin (vernard at cc.gatech.edu)  http://www.cc.gatech.edu/~vernard/      
Georgia Tech, College of Computing