[Gllug] Writing C

[David Goodwin]

Nordlund, Niko wrote:
> Dear all,
> 
> I have been considering converting from Mickey Mouse products to Linux for
> the past six months. The problem being that I am working for a company where
> no-one else has even heard of something that could replace MickeySoft. All
> our desktops and servers are running W. Furthermore, all of our applications
> are Windows, Windows-SQL and VB based. In short, I need to get a rather good
> idea what Linux programs would suit our purposes before I could start
> convincing other people that Linux is a viable option for us. 
> 

If you were in the West Midlands I'd recommend you visit 
http://www.openadvantage.org ....


>  
> SQL. I would need a SQL database engine that is, stable, can handle large
> databases (> 2GB), easily extendible with own functions (at least postgreSQL
> supports dynamic loading of functions written in c)
> 

I'd recommend PostgreSQL.

> Graphical interface for developing and administering the SQL database. 

http://phppgadmin.sourceforge.net/
http://linux.maruhn.com/sec/postgresql-pgaccess.html
http://www.pgadmin.org (e.g. 
http://www.pgadmin.org/pgadmin3/shots/pgadmin3_linux.png)

> 
> C. As indicated above I would need to do a bit of C coding to get my
> functions available within SQL. I have some experience in using VB, but I
> would like to move over to C. Any suggestions which editor and compiler
> would be easy to learn? Preferably a nice GUI. I would also need to pass
> data to and from a database. Also, recommendations on what C-books to read
> are welcome. 

A Book on C  - ISBN 0201183994

There are also PostgreSQL books (e.g. 
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/search-handle-form/026-5846995-7254058 
some of which cover programming C + PostgreSQL. )

> 
> Intranet tools to SQL. We are, at the moment, using VB to pass info between
> our intranet pages and SQL. What would be the easiest Open Source way of
> doing this?
> 

PHP would probably be the best.


> VNC. I would like to give a "thin client" a go. Obviously on local network
> we have enough capacity to run X window, but going to another continent
> would need something else. My issue relates to user authentication in VNC.
> Then there is the question of how to do this in a secure fashion.

VNC can be tunnelled through ssh or similar, making it secure. I've 
found that when using ssh port forwarding (and ssh's inbuilt 
compression) I can use a 1024x768 vnc session remotely over an ADSL line 
  with no problems (I was in Walsall, server was somewhere near London).


> 
> A *big thanks* to everyone who bothers to answer!


Good luck,

David.


-- 
David Goodwin
Open Minds High Availability Solutions
T: +44 (0) 121 313 3947
E: david.goodwin at openminds.co.uk
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