2.2 Knowing the Software

In addition to being familiar with the C/C++ syntax used for programming Arduino sketches, you will be able to follow along easier if you are familiar with the Java, Ruby, and Python languages. Ruby on Rails experience is also a plus. If you are unfamiliar with these, review Appendix 2, ​Bibliography​, for several titles that do a great job of teaching these languages and frameworks.

Even if you don’t know much about these languages, you should be able to build and execute the code for these projects with little or no modification on a Linux or Macintosh computer. Windows users will need to install their preferred Python and Ruby distributions as well as the Java runtime, and some of the utilities used in this book that were written for Unix-based operating systems might not have a Windows version available. A PC can be loaded with your preferred Linux distribution, and a Mac Mini will be more than adequate for the OS X crowd. This home server should be a reasonably inexpensive component in the Programming Your Home hardware collection.

Java familiarity will come in handy when writing the Android client and server applications later in the book. Experience with Python and Ruby is also a plus. Python also comes preinstalled on Mac and on nearly all Linux distributions. As such, a majority of server-side scripts in this book are Python-based. Java, Perl, PHP, or Ruby developers intent on staying pure to their favorite technology shouldn’t have too difficult a time porting the project’s server-side applications to their language of choice. I encourage any readers interested in porting the book’s code to a different language to share their work with other readers via the book’s website.