Development

Debugging free Java with SableVM and Eclipse

The SableVM Project involves the development of a liberally-licensed free virtual machine for Java. SableVM has just made a preview release branch of SableVM that supports the JVMDI (Java Virtual Machine Debugging Interface) and JDWP (Java Debug Wire Protocol). These standard protocols are commonly used by tools like Eclipse (see the screen shots) to provide a rich and user-friendly system with visual debugging support.

This release is an important breakthrough because SableVM is the first Open Source Java virtual machine that supports these protocols. This support is most important for the development of basic class libraries, like those of GNU Classpath.

Normal Open Source applications can usually be debugged with a non-free Java Virtual Machine. This method does not work with the most basic class libraries, because to debug them, one needs a Virtual Machine that actually runs on them. In other words, one needs a Java Virtual Machine that runs with free Java libraries, like GNU Classpath, and talks via JVMDI and JDWP. This is exactly what this release of SableVM provides.

The implementation of the Java Virtual Machine Debug Interface JVMDI, has been a considerable effort. It took a year of one person's work to complete SableVM. The code was created in a modular and extensible manner. The high quality of the SableVM source code is rarely encountered even in much smaller projects. Also, SableVM is an interpreter, so accessing the many structures and implementing the special mechanisms required by JVMDI was much easier than in a virtual machine featuring a Just-In-Time compiler (JIT). This might be one of the reasons why no other Java virtual machines have had this feature implemented.

SableVM's implementation is not yet fully finished, this is why it is a preview release. But the code that is there already allows for all of the standard operations like setting breakpoints, inspecting the stack and values of variables, and more.

The installation of a debug-enabled SableVM snapshot is rather painless, the Quick Start instructions are provided along with the Troubleshooting FAQ. As always, SableVM developers and users will gladly provide any needed support via the mailing lists.

Bugs in the Free Java -- run for your life!

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System Applications

Audio Projects

Planet CCRMA Changes

The latest changes from the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project include new versions of the rtirq startup script, Fedora Core 3 releases of Libcddb, Libcdio, Vcdimager, Libdvdread, Dvdauthor, OpenEXR, LCMS, Cinepaint, Libjackasyn, and more.

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Database Software

Glom 0.8.22 announced

Version 0.8.22 of Glom, a database table design application, is out with bug fixes and lots of new features and capabilities.

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PostgreSQL Weekly News

The April 17, 2005 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with new PostgreSQL database articles and resources.

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Interoperability

Samba 3.0.14a Available for Download

Version 3.0.14a of Samba has been released with bug fixes. "Samba 3.0.14a is the latest stable release of Samba. This is the version that production Samba servers should be running for all current bug-fixes."

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Samba 3.0.15pre2 Available for Download

Version 3.0.15pre2 Samba has been released. "Samba 3.0.15pre2 is a preview release of the Samba 3.0.15 code base and is provided for testing only. This release is not intended for production servers. However, there have been several bug fixes and new features added since 3.0.14a that we feel are important to make available to the Samba community for wider testing. There are still more changes planned before the final 3.0.15 release. "

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Libraries

libannodex 0.6.2 released

Version 0.6.2 of libannodex has been released, it has several new API calls and bug fixes. "libannodex is a C library providing a simple programming interface for reading and writing Annodex media. Annodex is an open standards based technology that extends the World Wide Web's hyperlinking, searching, and compositing infrastructure to time-continuous data, enabling video surfing, searching for clips of audio and video files using ordinary Web search engines, and on-the-fly composition of a video on a Web server from previously annodexed clips."

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Printing

AFPL Ghostscript 8.51

Version 8.51 of the AFPL Ghostscript PostScript interpreter has been announced. "Artifex Software, Inc. and artofcode LLC are pleased to announce the release of AFPL Ghostscript 8.51. This is a maintenance release in the new stable series. It contains numerous bug fixes and improvements, particularly in the area of PDF 1.6 handling. We recommend upgrading to all our free users."

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Web Site Development

The buzz about Apache Beehive (IBM developerWorks)

Kunal Mittal writes about Apache Beehive on IBM developerWorks. "Beehive is a new Apache project that simplifies Java™ 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) and Web services programming. This article shows how to get started with Beehive and offers a sneak preview of Pollinate, an Eclipse plug-in that creates Beehive applications."

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Catalyst MVC Web Framework 5.00 Released (use Perl)

Version 5.00 of the Catalyst MVC Web Framework has been announced. "The Catalyst development team is proud to announce the release of Catalyst version 5. Catalyst is an "Elegant MVC Web Application Framework", which means it provides an easy-to-use API for gluing together database models (Class::DBI), web templates (Template Toolkit, Mason), and your custom web actions/controllers and running it all on your web server."

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mod_annodex 0.2.2 released

Version 0.2.2 of mod_annodex, an Apache module that supports annodex media, is available with new capabilities, code improvements, and bug fixes.

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phpBB 2.0.14 released (SourceForge)

Version 2.0.14 of phpBB, a web-based bulletin board package, has been announced. "This release addresses some bugfixes as well as fixing some minor non-critical security issues."

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Web Services

Introduction to Web Services for Remote Portlets (IBM developerWorks)

Bryan Castle introduces WSRP on IBM developerWorks. "Get an introduction to Web Services for Remote Portlets (WSRP), a specification which defines how to leverage SOAP-based Web services that generate mark-up fragments within a portal application. By defining a set of common interfaces, WSRP allows portals to display remotely-running portlets inside their pages without requiring any additional programming by the portal developers. To the end-user, it appears that the portlet is running locally within their portal, but in reality the portlet resides in a remotely-running portlet container, and interaction occurs through the exchange of SOAP messages."

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

Ardour 0.9beta29 released

Version 0.9beta29 of Ardour, a multi-track audio recording package, has been released: "Another massive set of fixes, changes etc. before we reach 0.99".

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Desktop Environments

The GNOME Desktop and Developer Platform version 2.10.1

The first point release of the stable 2.10.x series of GNOME is available. "This is the first in a series of stable releases containing bugfixes, translation updates and other improvements."

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Dropline GNOME 2.10.1 Released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 2.10.1 of Dropline GNOME, a version of GNOME for the Slackware distribution, has been announced. "Most of the changes were bugfix updates from gnome.org. We've also updated a few other non-GNOME components (such as Firefox 1.0.3) as well."

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GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:

• G-Inspector 20050311
• GNOME Power Manager 0.0.3 (new preferences, features, and bug fixes)
• GnomePythonExtras 2.11.0 (new features and bug fixes)
• Seahorse 0.7.7 (new features, code cleanup, bug fixes)

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KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week:

• digiKam 0.7.3-beta1 (new features and bug fixes)
• DigikamImagePlugins 0.7.3-beta1 (new plugins and other improvements)

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KDE CVS-Digest (KDE.News)

The April 15, 2005 edition of the KDE CVS-Digest is online, here's the content summary: "digiKam adds two new effects plugins: blowup and photograph inpainting. Kmail import filters: Evolution, Thunderbird, Sylpheed Claws and maildir. KChart can export charts as bitmap files. KOffice gets new icons."

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Electronics

GTKWave 1.3.58 is out

Version 1.3.58 of GTKWave is available. "GTKWave is a fully featured GTK+ based wave viewer for Unix and Win32 which reads LXT, LXT2, and VZT files as well as standard Verilog VCD/EVCD files and allows their viewing."

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Games

Eris 1.3.4 Released

Version 1.3.4 of Eris is available from the WorldForge game project. "Eris is the WorldForge client-side session layer, used by many existing clients. This release fixes bugs, improves the API and addresses some internal issues discovered since the previous version. The test code now works reliably on all platforms it has been built on, and the coverage of the tests has been extended. This is a development release, as the API will change prior to the final release of Eris 1.4.0. That said, any API changes should be minor and easy to incorporate into clients - testing is recommended and appreciated."

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Graphics

Making a plastic texture with The GIMP (NewsForge)

Jozsef Mak makes textures with the GIMP in a NewsForge article. "I got the idea for this project during a visit to a jewelry art exhibition. The artwork on display incorporated an amazing range of unconventional media, including rusted iron, precious stones and metals, wood, plastic, and the like. One of the most interesting creations among the "wearable art pieces" was a plastic object with a satin finish. I liked this satin effect so much that I decided to re-create it as a graphic material using the GIMP."

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Interoperability

Wine Release 20050419

Release 20050419 of Wine has been announced. Changes include Mailslot support, support for side mouse buttons Richedit improvements, loading of Windows registry files disabled, code cleanups and bug fixes.

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Music Applications

Amuc - the Amsterdam Music Composer

Amuc is a new music composition application. "It is stand-alone and only needs X-windows and OSS- or ALSA drivers. You get the choice among 6 real-time instruments and 6 sampled percussion instruments. Except real-time sound you can export WAVE files and MIDI files for further processing."

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Office Suites

OpenOffice.org build 1.9.92 released

Build 1.9.92 of OpenOffice.org has been released. It features numerous bug fixes and several new features.

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Web Browsers

Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3/Suite 1.7.7 Released (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine reports that Firefox 1.0.3 and Mozilla 1.7.7 are out. There are some worthwhile security fixes, but also the possibility of broken extensions.

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Zack Rusin to Finish Integrating Mozilla Firefox with KDE (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine looks at the effort to get Mozilla Firefox integrated with KDE. "Zack writes: "So anyway, getting back on track: probably very soon I'll start committing code again and will be finishing KDE integrated Firefox because some of the KDE folks asked me for it." He also attacks those who say the Mozilla code is too complicated. Together with Lars Knoll, Zack was a member of the 'Kecko' team that started working on getting Mozilla running natively on KDE at the aKademy 2004 conference last year. When completed, the work of the Kecko hackers will also allow Gecko to run as a KPart (reusable KDE component) that can be used in any KDE application."

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Mozilla Gains Canvas Element Support (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine covers the addition of canvas support to Mozilla. "Stuart "pavlov" Parmenter reports that support for the HTML canvas element has been checked in to Mozilla. This new element allows Web content providers to use scripting to draw arbitary bitmap graphics on to a designated area of a webpage. The canvas element is part of the Web Applications 1.0 specification, which is being created by the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group."

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Mozilla Firefox Spatial Navigation Builds (MozillaZine)

Spatial Navigation builds of Mozilla Firefox are available. "The spatial navigation feature lets you select links by holding Shift+Alt and one of the four cursor keys. The links are selected based on their visual position on the page rather than their position in the HTML source code."

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Minutes of the mozilla.org Staff Meeting of Monday 28th March 2005 (MozillaZine)

The minutes from the March 28, 2005 mozilla.org staff meeting have been announced. "Issues discussed include Mozilla Firefox 1.0.2, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2, Mozilla 1.7.6 and developer.mozilla.org."

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Minutes of the mozilla.org Staff Meeting of Monday 11th April 2005 (MozillaZine)

The minutes from the April 11, mozilla.org Staff Meeting have been announced. "Issues discussed include Mozilla Firefox 1.0.3, Mozilla 1.7.7, Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.3, Mozilla 1.7.6, Mozilla Firefox 1.1 and Mozilla Thunderbird 1.1."

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Miscellaneous

Nvu 1.0 Preview Release Available (MozillaZine)

A preview release of Nvu 1.0, a web authoring system, has been announced. "This version includes full support for editing HTML 4.01 Strict, HTML 4.01 Transitional, XHTML 1.0 Strict and XHTML 1.0 Transitional documents. There's also new help content and a user guide. In addition, many other bugs have been fixed."

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Languages and Tools

Caml

Caml Weekly News

The April 12-19, 2005 edition of the Caml Weekly News is online with another round of Caml language articles.

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Java

JSF conversion and validation (IBM developerWorks)

Rick Hightower and Paul Tabor discuss Java Server Faces on IBM developerWorks. "Java Server Faces (JSF) provides a standard conversion, validation, and messaging framework that accommodates most form-processing needs while ensuring data-model integrity. In this third article in the JSF for nonbelievers series, Paul Tabor and Rick Hightower show you how simple it can be to plug-in your own custom flavor of conversion or validation, even for complicated applications."

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Using the Strategy Design Pattern for Sorting POJOs (O'Reilly)

Olexiy Prohorenko writes about the Strategy Design Pattern on O'Reilly. "I wouldn't be exaggerating if I said that all of us use POJO's—"Plain Old Java Objects"— in our everyday application development. We use them with Hibernate or with entity beans, sometimes we use them as simple transfer (value) objects, and we use them while creating domain models. But what is POJO itself?"

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Taming Tiger: Beyond the basics of enumerated types (IBM developerWorks)

John Zukowski covers enumerated types on IBM developerWorks. "In this month's Taming Tiger, columnist John Zukowski explains how to work with enumerated classes and their predefined methods and shows how to add constructors, override methods, and have instance variables."

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Perl

This Fortnight in Perl 6 (O'Reilly)

The April 4-11, 2005 edition of This Fortnight in Perl 6 is online with the latest Perl 6 discussions and news.

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Building Good CPAN Modules (O'Reilly)

Rob Kinyon explains techniques for making good Perl modules for the CPAN site in an O'Reilly article. "When you are planning to release a module to CPAN, one of your first tasks is figure out what OS, Perl version(s), and other environments you will and will not support. Often, the answers will come from what you can and cannot support, based on the features you want to provide and the modules and libraries you have used. Many CPAN modules, however, unintentionally limit the places where they can work. There are several steps you can take to remove those limitations."

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Python

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!

The April 18, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with the week's Python article roundup.

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Ruby

Ruby Weekly News

The April 17, 2005 edition of the Ruby Weekly News has been posted. It summarizes the ruby-talk mailing list.

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Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The April 17, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with a new collection of Tcl/Tk articles.

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XML

XML Matters: Program with SVG (IBM developerWorks)

David Mertz works with SVG on IBM developerWorks. "Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) is an XML format that describes scale-independent graphics, with good support in free software and commercial tools. In this installment, David introduces scripting and animation with SVG, and touches on manipulating SVG through DOM. Because SVG is XML, it lends itself to transformation and/or generation with any of the tools and libraries you might use for XML generally."

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XML Namespaces Don't Need URIs (O'Reilly)

Michael Day discusses XML Namespace issues on O'Reilly. "The decision to identify XML namespaces with URIs was an architectural mistake that has caused much suffering for XML users and needless complexity for XML tools. Removing namespace URIs altogether and simply using namespace prefixes to identify namespaces would make it easier for people as well as software to read, write, and process XML."

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Going Native, Part 2 (O'Reilly)

Ronald Bourret continues his O'Reilly series on native XML databases with part two. "The second major use of native XML databases is data integration. XML is well-suited to data integration because of its flexible data model and machine-neutral text format. In addition, XQuery is a good data integration language because of its ease of use, support for transformations, and ability to join data from different documents (data sources). Finally, there are a large number of tools for converting data from various formats to XML."

Comments (1 posted)

Cross Assemblers

gputils 0.13.1 Released

Version 0.13.1 of gputils, a collection of tools for working with Microchip PIC microcontrollers, is available. The comments say: "Fixed bugs."

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