I would like to start building my own addons/tools/snaps for Ubuntu. But I have no idea where to start and in which programming language they are build. Could you help me in the right direction?
I would like to create tools like Spectacle and AutoMute (for Mac) for Ubuntu.
22 Answers
I wrote Automute, flattered by the mention! To your question, both the apps in question have two parts: (1) Very simple UI and (2) Some "lower level" interface to the OS. In MacOS's case, it makes sense then to write them in Objective-C (or now Swift), as that's the platform's native language that allows to do both pretty easily.
If you're new to programming, I'd look into python as a good first language that has libraries (which themselves were written in platform native language such as C) that would allow you to interface the OS, as well as other libraries letting you build simple UIs.
If you're already familiar with programming and want to learn the language in which complex instances of such applications are built, in the linux world that would probably be C++.
Good luck!
1Start at which provides assistance for multiple programming languages. There's also a Forum to ask questions if, after reading the documentation, you still need help.
