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Introducing Motor: An IDE for Linux

What is Motor?

Motor is an integrated IDE that works in the console and provides

the developer with a useful mcedit-like editor, front-end to the

compiler, linker, debugger (gdb), concurrent version system (cvs) and

other useful things. It can also generate distribution packages in any

format. Almost everything is done with templates, so any kind of

language or distribution can be added easily.

Some of you may remember RHIDE, another text-mode programming

IDE available for Linux. It had been ported to Linux from DOS where

it had been a part of DJGPP tools. I liked the idea of such an IDE, but

I disliked its DOS habits. For example, to be able to process Alt-Fx

keys it blocked switching local consoles. Well, they could be switched,

but with Alt-Ctrl-Fx. This was the first thing that disturbed

me. Also it took about 80% processor time and the

user interface was too heavy to work on remotely. It lacked internal

support for various GNU development tools a lot of UNIX programmers

can't imagine working without. All that inspired me to write Motor.

Getting and Installing Motor

I don't think Motor differs dramatically from other Linux program as

to the installation process. All you need is the tarball or the rpm

file, which can be downloaded from the motor homepage at

http://konst.org.ua/motor/

Let's assume the version number is 1.14.19

To install from the tarball do the following:

tar zxvf motor-1.14.19.tar.gz

cd motor-1.14.19

./configure

make

make install

And if you've got the rpm:

rpm -ihv motor-1.14.19-1.Linux-i386.rpm

"Hello, world!": a Simple Project Using Motor

Now, we will write a simple "Hello, world!" program in C with motor.

Then we'll make a distribution package so the program looked like a

real GNU application.

What to start with? Of course, by typing 'motor' on the command line to

execute the program. Assuming your project list is empty, the project

creation dialog is displayed. As you can see, it's possible to set

various parameters here. But for the program we'll write, you

should select "from scratch" mode, "terminal program/C" template and