IBM has published the following new 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 . . . !

• Inside the Linux Boot Process — This article explores the Linux boot process from the initial bootstrap to the start of the first user-space application. Along the way, you'll learn about various other boot-related topics such as the boot loaders, kernel decompression, the initial RAM disk, and other elements of Linux boot.
• What to plug into Eclipse — Throughout the Java developer community, Eclipse is best known for its industry-leading Java Development Tools (JDT). But Eclipse was built to encourage the use of plug-ins, and in that respect, it is wildly successful. Find out about some of the capabilities that have been built into Eclipse plug-ins, such as the ability to program in other languages like Ruby or to build interactive multimedia with environments such as OpenLaszlo.
• SoC Design for Hardware Acceleration — System-on-chip (SoC) designs offer the opportunity to migrate functionality initially implemented in software and firmware into hardware acceleration engines and state machines. This article examines methods for software design, specification, and implementation that will simplify future efforts to offload software functionality to hardware.
• Melt Down the Terabit Memory — The future of high-data-rate terabit memories might involve melting a polymer hole and then refilling it. Chips with a “curve” might suffer less stress fractures in casing and connections. Some IBM technologies are on the front lines of prediction and prevention of pandemics. Plus, attend a Cell Broadband Engine technical briefing, learn to facilitate petroleum exploration with Blue Gene, and catch The Hitchhiker's Guide to Verification and the Denali SoC workshops.
• Denali Verification and Testing for Power Architecture — Sanjay Srivastava, president and CEO of Denali Software, Inc., talks about his ten-year-old company's entry into the hardware verification arena, its partnership with IBM to develop verification and compliance software for designs using the CoreConnect on-chip bus, and how Denali works within Power.org to develop open standards.
• Everything You Ever Wanted From Flow Control — Flow control is usually straightforward: sequence, selection, iteration. And many programmers, having been raised on these primary control structures, have a difficult time seeing what other kinds of flow control might be necessary. This article introduces continuations and teaches you to think about flow control in radically new ways.
• LPI Exam 202: Network Client Management — Learn to configure DHCP, NIS, LDAP servers, and PAM to support authentication to prepare you for the LPIC-2. This tutorial series serves as a comprehensive study guide so you can take the exams with confidence. And even if you're not preparing for Linux certification at this time, this series helps you build fundamental skills on Linux systems administration.
• Go beyond what the desktop normally does with Tcl/TK — Most computer users interact with their workstations primarily through some form of graphical user interface (GUI). In the world of Microsoft Windows, this interface is tightly controlled. The UNIX world, by contrast, offers a veritable smorgasbord of different GUIs with varying degrees of functionality. They range from minimalist window managers, such as twm, to large, capable tools, such as GNOME and KDE (K Desktop Environment). This article shows you how the Tcl/Tk scripting language offers a simple and elegant way to code GUI widgets with minimal effort.
• Developing PHP the Ajax way — Ajax, is arguably the most popular new Web technology on the face of the earth. This article will show you how to speed up application development using the Simple Ajax Toolkit (Sajax). Begin by writing a simple photo album using the standard method of PHP development and then apply Sajax to make it an active Web application.
• Ajax Back, Forward, Reload and PHP — A major challenge of Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (Ajax)-driven Web sites is the lack of a Back button. We will use JavaScript to create a history stack for the Ajax photo gallery built in Part 1 of this two-part “Developing PHP the Ajax way” series. This history stack will closely mirror the history utility found in Web browsers, and it will be used to provide Back, Forward, and Reload buttons for the application.
• There's more to AJAX than XMLHttp — Discover three Ajax data transport mechanisms (XMLHttp, script tags, and frames or iframes) and their relative strengths and weaknesses. This tutorial provides code for both the server side and the client side and explains it in detail to provide the techniques you need to put efficient Ajax controls anywhere you need them.
• Develop for the Web with Python and Django — In this first article of a two-part series, we show off Django, an open-source model-view-controller (MVC)-style Web application framework powered by the Python programming language. With Django, you can create high-quality, database-driven Web applications that are easy to maintain.
• Use Apache Geronimo to Build a Cluster — Explore Geronimo's support for clustering in this installment, Part 2, of this five-part series. Learn to build up the cluster nodes and test communication among other nodes and the cluster manager Web service we introduced in Part 1. Then you'll deploy and test the current state of the application on Geronimo.

 
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.