This book is neither a comprehensive reference, nor a light weight novella. It is intended to be a learning guide for the GDE. The reader is presumed to be familiar with software development processes in general. That is, they are expected to be familiar with edit-compile-debug cycles on some sort of platform, whether that be UNIX or Windows or even something else. We will attempt to guide you through the process of choosing, configuring and using GNU tools. We will do this by developing an example project demonstrating the actual use of each tool.
There is an immense variety of tools available that can be classed as part of the GDE. Since this is not an encyclopedia of GNU tools, this book will be constrained to a small core set that serves as the foundation for GNU development: compilers, editors, build tools, source management tools and development libraries.
We will do this by introducing you to selected tools. The same ones the GNU developers use themselves. Each tool-based chapter will tell you how to obtain, configure, install and use the basic features of each of the tools it describes. This book is not intended as a long-term reference text for them, but it will get you through the basic introduction and fundamental usage of each one.