Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Education
❍
Scratch
—A graphical programming language aimed at young children. You'll learn
more about Scratch and its capabilities in Chapter 11, “An Introduction to Scratch”.
❍
Squeak
—he platform on which Scratch runs. You will rarely need to use this menu
entry, and should instead use the Scratch entry above.
Internet
❍
Dillo
—One of the fastest web browsers available for the Pi, but somewhat basic com-
pared to Midori.
❍
Midori
—A fast yet lightweight web browser, Midori is equivalent to Internet Explorer
in Windows or Safari on OS X.
❍
Midori Private Browsing
—Clicking on this menu entry loads the Midori web browser
in private mode, meaning that sites you visit aren't saved into the browser's history.
❍
NetSurf Web Browser
—An alternative to Midori, NetSurf can perform better on cer-
tain types of web page. Trying both will allow you to experiment and find the one that
works best for you.
❍
wps_gui
—A graphical user interface for configuring a Raspberry Pi with optional USB
Wireless Adapter to connect to a Wireless Protected System (WPS) encrypted network.
Programming
❍
IDLE
—An
integrated development environment (IDE)
written specifically for Python.
You'll learn more about using IDLE to write your own Python programs in Chapter 12,
“An Introduction to Python”.
❍
IDLE 3
—Clicking this entry loads IDLE configured to use the newer Python 3 pro-
gramming language, rather than the default Python 2.7 language. Both are largely
compatible with each other, but some programs may require features of Python 3.
❍
Scratch
—his shortcut opens the Scratch educational language, and is the same as the
Scratch entry found in the Education category. Either can be used to start the program.
❍
Squeak
—As with Scratch, this is a duplicate of the shortcut found in the Education cate-
gory. You will rarely want to click this directly, and should instead use the Scratch shortcut.
System Tools
❍
Task Manager—
A tool for checking the amount of free memory available on the Pi
and the current workload of the processor, and for closing programs that have crashed
or are otherwise unresponsive.
