A New Series of Lessons: Programming with Haiku

Since I started publishing my Learning to Program with Haiku lesson series back in January, I have, on many occasions, seen comments asking for lessons aimed at current codemonkeys who want to break into development for Haiku. Here begins a new series of programming lessons aimed at people who already have a basic grasp on C++: Programming with Haiku.

The direction of the series is pretty straightforward. First, we’ll be spending some time (i.e. the first unit) delving into some less-commonly-used features of C++ which show up in Haiku from time to time. This is partly to bring up to speed those who are picking up the series after finishing the first one, but also to examine ways that features like containers from the Standard Template Library can be effectively used in combination with the Haiku API. There’s even a quick primer on source control thrown in for good measure – something which any developer should at least understand, if not use religiously. Following the first unit we will dig into the API. Depending on how things work out, there may or may not also be a crash course on GUI programming in there before diving into the kits themselves. Some of the lessons will deal directly with getting to know a particular kit. Others will examine important topics or the “Haiku way” of getting a task done. They should provide a good working knowledge of Haiku development methods that can easily be expanded into more advanced usage.

While I have a basic outline for the series, it’s very general and I’m not exactly sure how long the series will run. It certainly will be quite a while, though. A word of warning: my school schedule is completely insane from the start and I will not be publishing largely on a weekly basis like the first series. Instead, I’ll be posting them when I am able. I really like writing these things, so they’ll happen, but it may take some time. Now, without further adieu, Lesson 1, which starts by looking at templates and some of the containers in the Standard Template Library.

Programming with Haiku, Lesson 1