Is there a Linux/UNIX API or something similar?

[cloutier]

I've been studying C++ for a while now, and I am pretty well-versed in the idea of OOP and how to properly structure programs. In essence, I understand how to structure program logic, but I don't actually know how to make my computer do anything but print values to the terminal, if that makes sense. Is there some sort of API for Linux/UNIX? If there isn't, is there a way to create one? I might be starting to delve into fairly complex areas here, but I feel like it's time to do a little more than "print".

[strongdrink]

Depends what you need to do... If your looking into basic apps - try GTK+ - if you want to build a game, try SFML - be specific.

[cloutier]

It's just that all I know how to do is read files, command line input, etc, but I don't know how to make the computer do anything but that. Are there not just commands you can run for "draw a line" or "play a sound" or anything of the like? I'm looking mainly into sound generation (like synthesizers), but learning how to do anything like that would be nice.

[ciphermagi]

You might want to explore wxWidgets library, or like sd said, GTK+ or SFML. If you want to add GUI's you will either have to program a graphics library yourself or start working with one that's already been created.



I would recommend the latter.

[strongdrink]

SFML has sound capabilities
http://sfml-dev.org/tutorials/1.6/start-linux.php
http://sfml-dev.org/tutorials/1.6/audio-sound.php