IBM has published the following technical articles, tutorials, and downloads on its DeveloperWorks website. They cover a range of interesting (though not necessarily embedded) technical topics, primarily related to Linux and open source system development. Some require free registration. Enjoy . . . !

• Experts Discuss SLOF Development and Usage — Slimline Open Firmware (SLOF) provides a largely machine-independent BIOS, illustrating what is needed to initialize and boot Linux. Three of the original SLOF developers discuss the development and usage of SLOF, initialization/boot source code for the PowerPC based on the Open Firmware standard.
• Wireless Robotics: Fast Robot Prototyping — Learn about the different materials and techniques you can use to physically build a robotic prototype. See how to build a fast and easy prototype that can be disassembled, reconfigured, and reassembled. This article builds on a previous articles, entitled “How to drive your wireless robot.”
• I/O Expansion Possibilities for the Microcontroller — Need to connect more devices than your slave microcontroller has pins? Look into I/O expansion. This article examines adding I2C I/O expansion to a robot submarine, and loading up on stepper motors.
• Using Java to Control a Bluetooth Device — The Bluetooth protocol stack lets you use several methods, including RFCOMM and Object Exchange (OBEX), to send and receive files between devices. In this article, you become familiar with the Java language library used to control a Bluetooth device and learn how JSR-82 API and OBEX can be used to transfer files between the client and server.
• Overview of XML in Firefox 1.5 — Firefox is a relatively new Web browser and currently the most popular browser built on the Mozilla platform. Users like the security and convenience features it offers. Developers like the Firefox attention to standards compliance, inherited from its Mozilla roots. The most recent version, Firefox 1.5 (currently in beta), comes with many features for XML developers.
• Java urban performance legends — Programmers agonize over whether to allocate on the stack or on the heap. Some people think garbage collection will never be as efficient as direct memory management, and others feel it is easier to clean up a mess in one big batch than to pick up individual pieces of dust throughout the day. This article pokes some holes in the oft-repeated performance myth of slow allocation in JVMs.
• Get a better handle on Struts actions, with Spring — Struts Recipes co-author George Franciscus is back with another great Struts integration recipe — this time for importing Struts applications into the Spring framework. His article shows you how to revamp Struts actions so they can be managed just like Spring beans The result is a boosted web framework that easily reaps the benefits of Spring AOP.
• First look at Eclipse Process Framework Project — Throughout the software industry, there are a lot of great ideas on how to effectively develop software, and a lot of knowledge around technologies, such as J2EE, and .NET, various tool environments. This article introduces the need for an open source process framework and the benefits of such a process to different audiences. It elaborates on the proposal to create an Eclipse technology project and the goals of this project.
• Sockets Programming in Ruby — This tutorial shows how to develop sockets-based networking applications using the Ruby language. You learn Ruby basics as well as the most important classes for sockets programming, and then look at a working chat application that illustrates these fundamentals. The tutorial finishes by exploring the higher-level classes that make it easy to build dynamic Web servers, mail servers and clients, and other application-layer protocols.
• Rational ClearQuest Client for Eclipse — The ClearQuest plug-in for Eclipse enables you to perform ClearQuest activities (tasks) in an Eclipse environment. While many of you are familiar with Rational ClearQuest and/or Eclipse, this article is aimed at bridging the gap to provide you with a good understanding of the ClearQuest Client for Eclipse. For ClearQuest fans, this is an offer that is hard to refuse – save a significant amount with this sepcial deal on Rational ClearQuest Licenses.

 
This article was originally published on LinuxDevices.com and has been donated to the open source community by QuinStreet Inc. Please visit LinuxToday.com for up-to-date news and articles about Linux and open source.