Jeff Friesen’s Beginning Java SE 6 Platform: From Novice to Professional is out now from Apress. In this article Jeff introduces you to his new book by presenting excerpts from its chapter on the Java ...

Passing arguments, writing a help menu, and debugging can be burdensome. However, the getopts command, Heredoc, and the "set ...

If you are writing a program that has a technical user base, it is a nice touch to make the program scriptable. In fact, you might want to do the hard work in a programming language and then use your ...

Here's a secret you might not have known: you don't need advanced programming skills to write basic code, and learning how can make a massive difference in the way you use your computer. Anyone can do ...

The era of scripting languages is opening up programming to the masses and extending the Web as an application platform. Even the traditional Java and Microsoft languages have had to make room for ...

It is easy to dismiss bash — the typical Linux shell program — as just a command prompt that allows scripting. Bash, however, is a full-blown programming language. I wouldn’t presume to tell you that ...

Most of us, by now, should have heard of the programming language known as JavaScript. It is quite popular and is mostly used to develop websites. If your web browser doesn’t support JavaScript or an ...