Re: Recommendations for a Linux tool-writing approach?

[Jason Drury <druryjason () yahoo com>]

You shouldn't do this in Bash. Out of Python, Ruby, and Perl which do you know best? As Jamil stated, most people do 
their GUIs via a web framework these days. If you know Python, check out Flask (simpler) or Django (more complicated, 
but also more powerful). If Ruby, check out Ruby on Rails. If Perl check out Mojolicious. Just be aware learning these 
frameworks is often just as time consuming, if not more, then learning the underlying language itself that is why I 
recommend sticking with the language you already know and not trying to learn both a web framework and the underlying 
language it is written in. It will be a significant time investment. If you want to keep it a bit simpler, you can 
write a native GUI app in Tk, all three scripting languages support it.

-Jason
www.jasondrury.com



On Wednesday, December 4, 2013 7:54 AM, Frank Michael <frankcmichael () gmail com> wrote:
 
Excellent response Robin. I know you just helped me with a few ideas and I didn't even ask the question.

Thanks,

Frank


> On Dec 3, 2013, at 4:58 AM, Robin Wood <robin () digininja org> wrote:
>
> > On 30 November 2013 13:43, Glen Roberts <glenroberts () me com> wrote:
> > Any recommendations for a Linux tool-writing approach? I am more of a
> > scripting guy than a programmer but I want to take it to the next level.
> >
> > For context, I need to write a few SANS gold papers for the Masters program
> > and want to author some
 Linux tools related to the papers I write (subjects
> > to be determined). I’m looking at this as an opportunity to improve my
> > intermediate Linux skills while also adding some programming skills. I’m
> > thinking of going with straight-up bash and maybe use some Python, Ruby or
> > Perl but I would love to get some ideas from some of you experts before
> > diving in. It would be great to learn how to make a UI that can run various
> > back-end scripts.
>
> I've got a bit of experience here so hope this helps....
>
> There are a few reasons I write tools:
>
> To automate an existing manual process - Wifi Honey came from a video
> that Vivek did on SecurityTube where he talked about setting
 up a wifi
> honeypot but did it all by hand. All I did here was to automate that
> process.
>
> To improve an existing automated process - CeWL is based on a set of
> one line bash scripts that I saw on PaulDotCom. I took the idea and
> fleshed it out into a larger app.
>
> New ideas - These are fairly rare but I have had a few, Pat To Pass
> and PassPat were both ideas I had for ways to analyse passwords.
>
> So I'd suggest looking around at what you and your colleagues do and
> see if you can find something that can either be automated or
> improved. Pick something in an area you are interested in even if you
> know nothing about it. Don't pick something in an area just because
> other people think it is cool, if you don't enjoy the subject you
> won't do a good job on it.
>
> The tool can be iterative in its releases, the first version may only
> have fixed options and do just a single job but then you can flesh it
> out in the next few versions. If you think you might do this put a bit
> more effort into v1 so that it can be extended, or, make v1 just a
> throw away proof of concept so you don't mind when you bin all the
> code and just take the ideas into v2.
>
> For the GUI, I'd pick an existing tool and add a GUI onto that rather
> than trying to write a tool and a GUI in one. The second approach will
> leave you trying to learn GUI writing stuff on top of the tool and
> you'll probably do half a job of both. Pick a tool that has a bunch of
> command line options and give people an easy way to select them. If
> you went for nmap for example, have macro buttons so with one click
> you could do "-PN -p 21,22,80,139,445". That would save a little bit
> of effort on the user's part. I like it when the GUI shows what the
> command line that they are going to run will be, it means I can use
> the GUI to learn how to use the CLI version.
>
> Hope that helps.
>
> Robin
>
>
> > Thanks in advance for your help.
> >
> >
> > Glen Roberts, CISSP
> > @InternetGeneral
> > glenroberts () me com
> >
> >
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