Looking for a Big App to learn

[Weedman]

I am looking for an Application of the size of Openoffice.

I wish to learn it, everything about it. I need something big to learn.

I have no ideas, but I am thinking Eclipse, but I don't want to have to learn a programming language just to use it.

Thanks guys,

weed^

[DThor]

You should read more about Eclipse - it's essentially a programming tool.

You'll have a lot more success if you set yourself a challenge of something you'd like to do, which would necessitate learning an app, rather than just randomly picking application names out of google or whatever. For instance, decide to make a web page, or a macro for generating movie scripts, or whatever. Otherwise, you're just going to be playing with applications. The only way to learn it is to have a clear goal and *make* the application accomplish it.

DT

[techieMoe]

You could try the GIMP. I'm learning that one myself.

[oz]

You mentioned OpenOffice... I don't think there are many Linux apps that big, but it would be a great application to learn in detail. It's place in Linux is now pretty well established and knowing a great deal about it couldn't hurt. I need to take the time to learn it better myself. The Gimp, as suggested by techieMoe would be a fun one to learn in detail, too.

Vim is an application that's quite different, but knowing it well would come in handy. It's not huge in size, though.

[TomX]

There's no point in learning how to an application if you will never use it.

If you're in need of a new mail client you learn procmail/mutt, takes ago to configure.

Also, learning regular expressions will probably make your life easier at some point, I'm currently reading Mastering Regular Expressions, it seems pretty good

Here's my list of apps to learn: Mutt, GnuPG, Vim, Apache, RegEx (not really an app), Tripwire, SSH.

[techieMoe]

There's no point in learning how to an application if you will never use it.

Agreed. It also helps me when I'm learning an application to have a set goal to accomplish (for instance, learn enough about GIMP so I can make my comics with it, or learn enough about Eclipse so I can work on my games with it). I can't just sit down and play with a program and learn it; I need a path to take it through.

[Weedman]

I can't just sit down and play with a program and learn it; I need a path to take it through.

Yep, that makes the world of sense. Learning the Gimp sounds like a good idea, as I have been dipping my feet into it but I haven't mastered it nor feel that I know it well enough.

Vim, I have to admit, would be another good one to look into. I use that more regularly than Gimp. The only codes I know are :w,:q and i for insert, but it works fr me.

After a few minutes of thinking, I am considering learning The Gimp.

One last question. Which would be better, learning it without a manual or learn it by reading a manual on it?

Thanks guys for your suggestions,
weed

[techieMoe]

After a few minutes of thinking, I am considering learning The Gimp.

One last question. Which would be better, learning it without a manual or learn it by reading a manual on it?

Thanks guys for your suggestions,
weed

That probably depends on how you learn best. Some folks I knew in college learned C++ through books, others had to have assignments and learn by writing it. For me, I just set a goal (create a comic similar to the way you do in Photoshop) and set out to digging around the menus to figure out how to do it. I also had help from the GIMP manual that comes with the binary builds of the program, particularly with the way it handles layers.

[Weedman]

I dunno about those kinds of methods, but I seem to have the most success with the application and firefox open. That's the way I learnt Linux, through the net. The same goes for a few other distros namely Gentoo & FreeBSD (though it's not a distro).

It would be great if the Mac I am working on had X11 installed, then I could use the Gimp right now. Oh well, it must be destined as a home-project.

weed