Love the potential of Vera. Don't know a lick about *nix. Problem?

Community Playground General Discussions
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I am a big tech nerd. I build my own computers, fix other peoples’, and often enjoy tweaking and modding games as much as I do playing them. But somehow along my nerdy path I didn’t learn any sort of Linux-based operating system. I am interested in getting Vera, but every time someone throws out a text-based command I have no clue what it means.

I know you don’t “need” to know *nix to use Vera. But if you really want it to do the fun stuff you need to learn/know LUA, etc. Can one do all of the “fun stuff” while being a true Windows-only guy?

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I am also a “windows” guy. While you will need to learn LUA to fully take advantage of all that Vera has to offer, I have quite easily avoided all that Unix stuff.

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seems much of the fun can be had by learning lua.

The really crazy stuff seems to require a basic understanding of linux command line stuff- I just got a vera and the linux command line bit i seem to follow along well enough just from the TINY understanding I have from learning to upgrade my tivo’s from the linux command line with the simpliest of commands. I think is you stumbled onto a linux primer you would be fine for much of that.

but the scripting/progamming/built your own plug ins basicall seems to require lua. And I asked the question where to find more about lua over here: http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php?topic=3039.0

got aimed to lua-users wiki: Lua Directory which seems to be a decent tutorial on writing something in lua. (I’m like half through reading- most coming back to me from me BASIC days- need to go lock at someone elses code soon enough to follow along something real world on the vera)

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I agree that you don’t need to be Linux savy to use Vera. In fact it is probably a good way to introduce yourself to the world of Linux, so is getting a netbook running some flavor of Linux and dual booting Windows. If you are a big tech nerd then Vera is right up your alley. And learning Lua isn’t something you’d have to an expert with, just understanding the basic structure is enough to start. In the beginning you’ll probably be cutting and pasting code from the forum and wiki and just changing some of the device IDs, then once you get comfortable and feel the need to do more…you can. If you have any kind of programming experience you’ll see the parallels between Lua and other languages.

I find that it is better to dive right in on some things and before you know it you’re treading water and later swimming away. You’ll find the forum, wiki, and users very helpful.