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DevelopmentIndustrial Control With Qt4LabThe new Qt4Lab project is a cross-platform open source toolkit for laboratory applications that has been built on with Trolltech's Qt application framework. It is currently in an early state of development, version 0.1.0 was recently released, the project's introductory page shows the latest developments.![[Qt4Lab]](/images/ns/qt4lab.png){kind=small}
Qt4Lab provides widget plugins and utilities for Rapid Application Prototyping and for developing
SCADA
(Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition)
application in the automotive/aerospace field.
Widgets plugins are available for GNU/Linux and Windows NT/2000/XP.
The current list of available widgets is limited to a toggle button, a switch, an LED, a thermometer gauge, and a tank level gauge. See the screenshots and demo pages for examples. Widget development appears to be moving ahead at a rapid pace, many more widgets could certainly be added. Qt4Lab is not alone in the open-source industrial control space, the ProcessViewBrowser is a more mature project (Version 2.6) with a large number of working widgets and some fairly advanced features. A bit of parallel development and competition is never a bad thing in the open-source world, hopefully the infant Qt4Lab project will evolve into another powerful free application. For more information on Qt4Lab, see this recent KDE Review.
System Applications Audio Projects Planet CCRMA ChangesThe latest changes from the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project includes a large update to a number of Common Lisp applications, new versions of Snd and Ardour, and the deprecation of Red Hat 7.3 and 8.0 packages.
Database Software PostgreSQL 8.0.0 Release Candidate 5 is outRelease Candidate 5 of PostgreSQL 8.0.0 has been announced. "Due to several small, and one fairly large, bugs that were found in Release Candidate 4, we have been forced to release our 5th Release (and hopefully last) Candidate so that we can get some proper testing in on the changes before release."
JDBC programming with Groovy (IBM developerWorks)Andrew Glover uses the Groovy language to work with databases on IBM developerWorks. "Take your practical knowledge of Groovy one step further this month, as Andrew Glover shows you how to use GroovySql to build a simple data-reporting application. GroovySql combines closures and iterators to ease Java Database Connectivity (JDBC) programming by shifting the burden of resource management from you to the Groovy framework itself."
Interoperability Samba 3.0.11pre1 Available for DownloadSamba version 3.0.11 pre 1 has been announced, it features bug fixes and a few new capabilities. "This is a preview release of the Samba 3.0.11 code base and is provided for testing only. This release is *not* intended for production servers. However, there have been several bug fixes since 3.0.10 that we feel are important to make available to the Samba community for wider testing."
Libraries Dissecting shared libraries (IBM developerWorks)Peter Seebach explores Linux shared libraries on IBM developerWorks. "Shared libraries use version numbers to allow for upgrades to the libraries used by applications while preserving compatibility for older applications. This article reviews what's really going on under the book jacket and why there are so many symbolic links in /usr/lib on a normal Linux system."
Networking Tools PIKT 1.18.0 for Linux releasedVersion 1.18.0 of PIKT is available. "PIKT is a cross-categorical, multi-purpose toolkit to monitor and configure computer systems, organize system security, format documents, assist command-line work, and perform other common systems administration tasks." Several new capabilities and bug fixes are included in this release.
PowerDNS 2.9.17 releasedThose of you looking for an alternative DNS server may want to check out the recent PowerDNS 2.9.17 release - click below for the details. PowerDNS is becoming less "alternative," though; the announcement includes a claim that PowerDNS now serves information for over two million domains.
Spread Module 1.5 alpha 1 releasedVersion 1.5 alpha 1 of the Spread Module for Python is available with bug fixes. "This package contains a simple Python wrapper module for the Spread toolkit. It wraps Spread mailboxes and messages in Python objects with appropriate methods and attributes, and turns Spread errors into Python exceptions. Virtually all Spread features are accessible from Python.""Spread is a toolkit that provides a high performance messaging service that is resilient to faults across external or internal networks.
Web Site Development Bricolage Configuration Directives (O'Reilly)David Wheeler explains configuration of the Bricolage web content management platform in an O'Reilly article. "This article provides a guided tour of all of the configuration settings in bricolage.conf to enable you to configure things exactly the way you need them, so that you can manage your sites more effectively with Bricolage."
MediaWiki 1.4beta4 released (SourceForge)Version 1.4beta4 of MediaWiki is available. "MediaWiki 1.4beta4 is an experimental release, to help flush out remaining major problems in the code prior to a final public 1.4.0 release."
Infrae pre-announces Silva 1.2Version 1.2 of the Silva Content Management Framework has been announced. "This release contains three major new features: expanded version management for XML documents, subscription functionality for all versioned content, and an internationalized Silva user interface, including Dutch and German translations. Infrae is actively seeking volunteers to translate Silva into other languages."
Miscellaneous moodss 19.5 released (SourceForge)Stable version 19.5 of Moodss, a GUI-based system monitoring application, is available. "This new version adds the delta(), diff() and last() functions to user defined formulas, which allows the calculation of growth rates, for example. Of course, the minor improvements and bug fixes are present as usual..."
Desktop Applications Audio Applications Ardour 0.9beta23 releasedThe Ardour multi-track audio recorder project is making progress toward the 1.0 release with the announcement of version 0.9beta23. "This release is another milestone: it marks the end of all bugs that were slated to be solved before the 1.0 release. The plan from here is to wait for about a few days to allow testing of this release and minor (cosmetic) bug fixing to continue, and then ardour 0.99 will be released. After that, release engineering (install process, new user experience) will be all that stands between us and release 1.0rc1, which will hopefully be the last release before 1.0."
GLAME 2.0.0 announcedStable version 2.0.0 of GLAME, the Gimp for audio processing, is available for download. Working features in this release include a wave editor, a filter network editor, Scheme language scripting, plugins, a swapfile backing store, and more.
Desktop Environments GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced in the last week:
GNOME Journal Issue 2The latest issue of The GNOME Journal has been published. This regularly published online magazine features original content and commentary for and by the GNOME Community. This second issue covers some technical articles, including CD/DVD creation, connecting to remote resources, how to get help from the GNOME community, and more..
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced in the last week:
KDE CVS-Digest (KDE.News)The January 7, 2005 KDE CVS-Digest is out with the following content summary: "Gwenview adds support for animated pictures. Digikam adds more image editing plugins: Sheartool, anti-vignetting, lensdistortion. KWin adds dynamic keybindings. PwManager adds Smartcard interface"
Electronics Smart Gnome Control v0.3 (SourceForge)Version 0.3, the initial beta release, of Smart Gnome Control has been announced. "Smart Gnome Control is a graphical user interface to multiple communications receivers via the Hamlib library. The specific purpose is to let you control your communications receiver from a personal computer, and to simplify the hobby of shortwave radio listening."
XCircuit 3.3.6 releasedVersion 3.3.6 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing package, is out. Here's the CHANGES file info: "Corrected a fatal error in library copies if no valid object is selected. Corrected a compile error (C++-like syntax fails on many compilers). Added option to print or not to print the ".end" statement at the end of a SPICE deck."
Open Collector ReleasesThe latest new electronics applications on Open Collector include Confluence 0.10, "a declarative functional programming language for the design and verification of synchronous reactive systems".
Electrical Engineering Comes to KDE with KTechLab (KDE.News)KDE.News mentions the electronic simulator KTechlab and points to a review article. "While only at version 0.1 it already contains a lot of functionality for developing and simulating electronic circuits. Currently KTechLab can create circuit diagrams for electronics and flow diagrams for PIC chips (a family of programmable chips). It can even compile and run your flow diagrams in a circuit."
Games DeadlyCobra 0.7.0 announced (SourceForge)Version 0.7.0 of the game Deadly Cobra has been announced, this version features multiplayer support. "Deadly Cobra is an SDL based game similar to the classic Nibbles or snake game. The point is to eat as many "Men" as possible without eating yourself or hitting a wall. Features include single & multiplayer modes, cool 2-D graphics and great music."
Eris 1.3.2 ReleasedVersion 1.3.2 of Eris has been released. "Eris is a client-side sessions layer for WorldForge that automates many common operations, and greatly simplified creating and maintaining a client. This is the second unstable release of the current development work that will become Eris 1.4. A large number of bugs have been fixed since the previous release, in all areas of the code. The API has evolved slightly, so that more failures can be reported to the client application (for example, failure to create a character)."
the Lightweight Game ToolkitThe Lightweight Game Toolkit (LGT) is a new cross-platform Python-based game platform. "LGT is a Python package which uses pygame and PyOpenGL to provide simple hardware accelerated 2D graphics and other game operations."
Imaging Applications GIMP 2.2.2 Released (GnomeDesktop)Version 2.2.2 of the GIMP is available. "This is a bug-fix release in the stable GIMP 2.2 release."
Multimedia GStreamer announcements (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop has an announcement for new versions of the GStreamer streaming media framework and some associated packages. "The GStreamer team has made three new releases recently in the ongoing quest to provide high quality playback support. GStreamer Core 0.8.8, GStreamer ffmpeg 0.8.3 and GStreamer plugins 0.8.7. All these 3 releases contain significant playback related bugfixes and additions."
Music Applications Ceres V0.42 and Mammut V0.18 announcedA dual release of Ceres version 0.42 and Mammut version 0.18 has been posted. Bug fixes and installation improvements are included. "Ceres is a simple program for displaying sonograms and for sound effects in the frequency domain.""Mammut will FFT your sound in one single gigantic analysis (no windows)."
MusE 0.7.1pre3 has been releasedVersion 0.7.1pre2 of Muse, a MIDI and audio sequencer application, has been released. "This will be the last prerelease for 0.7.1, there "should" be no further functionality added this time around, apart from fixing found bugs."
Office Applications theKompany.com Releases Version 1.2 of Aethera (KDE.News)KDE.News covers the release of Aethera 1.2, a a personal information management suite. "Aethera is commercial Free Software available at no cost under the GNU GPL with some proprietry plugins available to add extra features. Calendaring support is provided by the popular KOrganizer application from KDE. It supports a number of groupware servers including KDE sister project Kolab."
Science JGAP 2.0 released! (SourceForge)Version 2.0 of JGAP has been announced. "JGAP is a genetic algorithms package written in Java. It is designed to require minimum effort to use "out of the box," but is also designed to be highly modular to allow for custom components to be easily plugged in by the more adventurous. JGAP version 2.0 represents the second big production release of JGAP after many years of development, testing, alpha, and beta releases!"
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe January 4-11, 2005 edition of the Caml Weekly News is online with the latest Caml language developments.
Java Working with Hibernate in Eclipse (O'ReillyNet)Jim Elliott works with Hibernate in Eclipse in an O'Reilly article. "In this article, Jim explores Hibernate Synchronizer--a plugin that automatically updates your Java code when you change your mapping document."
Results from the Second 2004 ONJava Reader Survey (O'ReillyNet)O'Reilly has published the results of their 2004 ONJava Reader Survey. "The results are in from our second reader survey conducted at the end of 2004. We intend to run these now and then to ask you who you are and what you would like to see from ONJava. With the release of J2SE 5.0 and the increasing popularity of various frameworks and tools, we asked what you are using and what you would like to see covered on ONJava. Here's a snapshot of what the 660 respondents told us."
Perl This Fortnight in Perl 6O'Reilly's This Fortnight in Perl 6 for December 21-31 2004 is online with the latest Perl 6 news.
Python Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!The January 9, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with the week's Python language articles and resources.
python-dev SummaryThe python-dev Summary for November 16-30, 2004 has been published. Take a look for the summary of traffic on the python-dev mailing list for that period.
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The January 5, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out. Take a look for the week's Tcl/Tk articles, events, and resources.
XML WPC Releases XML Schemas for HIPAA Transactions (LinuxMedNews)LinuxMedNews has an announcement for a set of open-source XML schemas for HIPAA, the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. "WPC has released Open Source schemas representing the HIPAA transaction sets. Representing HIPAA EDI data in XML just became much easier. WPC, publisher of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) transaction implementation guides adopted under HIPAA, is pleased to announce the release of W3C complaint XSD, Open Source Schemas, under the GNU license."
Manage XML collections with XAPI (IBM developerWorks)Uche Ogbuji looks at XAPI on IBM developerWorks. "XML repositories are a simple extension of the idea of XML documents, and they call for a simple API for access and manipulation. The likes of DOM and XPath are too granular, while XQuery may be too elaborate for some needs. A group of XML repository implementers (named XML:DB) have come together to develop such an API specification, and the result is the Application Programming Interface for XML Databases (XAPI). In this article, Uche Ogbuji introduces XAPI."
IDEs DrPython 3.8.5 releasedVersion 3.8.5 of DrPython, a Python language IDE, is available. See the Change Log for details.
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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