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DevelopmentThe Cairo Vector Graphics LibraryCairo (formerly Xr/Xc) is a C language vector graphics library that is available under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL) and the Mozilla Public License (MPL):
Cairo is a vector graphics library designed to provide high-quality display and print output. Currently available
backends
include the X Window System, OpenGL (via [WWW]glitz), Quartz, win32, in-memory image buffers, PNG images, PostScript, and PDF files. Some of these backends are still experimental. Cairo is designed to produce identical output on all output media while taking advantage of display hardware acceleration when available (eg. through the X Render Extension or OpenGL).
Cairo provides a stateful user-level API with capabilities similar to the PDF 1.4 imaging model. Cairo provides operations including stroking and filling Bézier cubic splines, transforming and compositing translucent images, and antialiased text rendering.
The Cairo online documentation includes a manual with API documentation and information on creating backends and language bindings, a fairly limited FAQ, and some tutorial materials. The Cairo examples list some important projects that currently use or plan to use Cairo. The code samples documentation presents an excellent pairing of example code snippets along with the resulting imagery. Take a look for examples of Cairo's real capabilities. LWN.net covered a talk on Cairo and some associated applications by project developer Carl Worth at the 2005 LinuxConf.au. Cairo release 0.9.0 was announced this week, it is a development release with a focus on an API freeze. "The cairo 1.0 release will be source and binary compatible with the cairo 0.9.x series. All API changes in cairo 0.9.x are finalized at this point, and cairo 0.9.x should be considered API frozen. Barring discovery of serious issues with the new APIs, no API changes are anticipated between this release and the 1.0 release." If you want to experiment with the software, the Cairo download site includes CVS access, tar files, Debian packages, and links to a few dependencies.
System Applications Database Software Firebird 2 Alpha 3 Linux Builds are availableAlpha 3 builds of the Firebird 2 database have been announced. "The Firebird Project is pleased to announce that regular and NTPL Linux builds of Firebird 2 Alpha 3 are now ready for testers to download."
Interoperability Samba 3.0.20rc2 is availableRelease 3.0.20rc2 of Samba is available for testing. "This is the second release candidate of the 3.0.20 code base and is provided for testing purposes only. While close to the final stable release this snapshot is *not* intended for production servers. If all goes well, this could become the final 3.0.20 release."
Mail Software DomainKeys library 0.67 available (SourceForge)Version 0.67 of the DomainKeys library, a set of cross-platform tools for adding DomainKeys functionality to mail software, is available. "This is a bugfix release. Apart from bugfixes, the next release will be DKIM compatible, once that standard settles down a bit. This project provides a general purpose set of tools, C library and CPAN modules to help DomainKeys developers. The goal is that these tools and library can be easily adopted by all MTAs, LDAs and possibly MUAs. This project is about conforming to the DomainKeys standard."
Networking Tools AF version 0.7.2 releasedVersion 0.7.2 of AF, the active port forwarder, has been released. See the change log for details. "Active port forwarder is a software tool for secure port forwarding. It uses SSL to increase security of communication between a server and a client. Originally, it was developed to forward data point to point. However, the need for bypassing firewalls in order to connect to internally located computers influenced the further development of the project. AF is dedicated for people, who don't have an external ip number and want to make some services available across the net."
Scapy 1.0.0 ReleasedVersion 1.0.0 of Scapy, an interactive packet manipulation tool, packet generator, network scanner, network discovery tool and packet sniffer, is out with major feature enhancements. "This release works on most Unix variants. It has color themes, many new protocols (ISAKMP, SMB, etc.), 802.11 WEP support, graphing capabilities, and better support for extensions."
Web Site Development Gallery 2 Release Candidate 1 Released (SourceForge)Release candidate 1 of Gallery 2, a web-based photo management application, has been announced. "We have made small improvements since the Beta 4 release. One new thing you'll notice is that now we offer up 4 different flavors of packages for you to download so that you can pick one that suits your needs. This will make it easier for those of you who are using FTP to transfer Gallery up to your webserver."
Miscellaneous demexp 0.6 releasedStable version 0.6 of demexp, an electronic voting system, has been released. "Compared to previous stable version 0.4, version 0.6 mainly focuses on making the client more user friendly: support of demexp:// URL, support of multiple servers at once, change tracking on the server, caching."
DSpace 1.3.1 Released (SourceForge)Version 1.3.1 of DSpace, a Java-based Digital Asset Management system, has been released. "This stable release includes the many new features developed by members of the DSpace community in 1.3 and fixes an installation problem."
Desktop Applications Audio Applications Ecasound 2.4.2 releasedVersion 2.4.2 of Ecasound, a multi-track audio recording application, is out. The release notes explain the changes. "Ecasignalview user-interface has been improved. A set of new commands for modifying effect parameters was added to interactive mode. Many bugs have been fixed in documentation, JACK transport support, build system and elsewhere. A severe bug in the "reverse" audio object was fixed."
JAPA Jack/Alsa Perceptual Analyser initial releaseThe initial release of JAPA, the Jack/Alsa Perceptual Analyser is available. "JAPA is a 'perceptual' or 'psychoacoustic' audio spectrum analyser. This means that the filters that are used to analyse the spectrum have bandwidths that are neither constant (as in JAAA), nor proportional to the center frequency (as in a 1/3 octave band analyser), but tuned to human perception."
Rivendell Radio Automation System 0.9.48 releasedVersion 0.9.48 of the Rivendell Radio Automation System is available with bug fixes and new features. "Rivendell is a full-featured, copylefted broadcast automation system targeted for use in professional radio broadcast environments. It includes tools for acquisition, management and playout of audio content."
Business Applications Give Your Business Logic a Framework with Drools (O'ReillyNet)Paul Browne looks at Drools on O'Reilly. "It's almost too easy to express your business logic as a spaghetti-code fiasco. The result is hard to test, hard to maintain, and hard to update. Rule engines offer an alternative: express your business logic as rules, outside of your Java code, in a format even the business side of the office can understand. Paul Browne uses the open source Drools framework to introduce the idea."
Desktop Environments GNOME 2.12 Beta 2 releasedVersion 2.12 Beta 2 (a.k.a. v2.11.91) of the GNOME desktop has been announced. "This release is a feature, user interface, and string frozen snapshot primarily intended for wide public scrutiny before the final GNOME 2.12 release in September. GNOME uses odd minor version numbers to indicate development status."
GNOME Software AnnouncementsThe following new GNOME software has been announced this week:
KDE Software AnnouncementsThe following new KDE software has been announced this week:
KDE Commit Digest (KDE.News)The August 5, 2005 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. Here's the content summary: "KSpread improves range functions. KMobileTools adds addressbook import and export to VCard and KdeAddressBook. Umbrello adds Tcl code generator. KMail now has full text indexing. Kontact scripting (a Summer of Coding project). And the first (somewhat) working KDEMM backend based on aRts."
KDE 3.5 Alpha 1 Finally on FTP (KDE.News)KDE.News mentions the availability of KDE 3.5 Alpha 1. "To begin the KDE 3.5 release cycle, I uploaded KDE 3.5 Alpha 1 to the FTP servers. We're facing some trouble that is typical for an Alpha release, but it also brings some nice KDE 3.5 features to your desktop."
PYWM 0.1.0 releasedVersion 0.1.0 of PYWM, a Python version of the FLWM window manager, has been announced. "PYWM is a small, simple python-programmable X window manager that's packed with features yet very easy to learn and use. Some window managers are mouse heaven and keyboard hell. Other window managers are the other way around. But PYWM aims to be very comfortable to use from either."
Fonts and Images Open Clip Art Library Release 0.16Release 0.16 of the Open Clip Art Library, a collection of over 4000 images, is available. "This releases squishes a major bug that replaced valid keywords in the clip art files with some strange HASH memory location text. Most of the clip art in the library and this release is now repaired."
Games Phil's pyGame Utilities 1.0 releasedVersion 1.0 of Phil's pyGame Utilities, a collection of gui, engine, layout, text and HTML libraries, has been announced. Numerous changes are included.
Imaging Applications What The GIMP (GnomeDesktop)GnomeDesktop.org looks forward to the GIMP 2.4 release. "Until now, creating a selection mask for an object was mostly equivalent to either a slow step-by-step approximation to a certain shape or a tedious manual drawing of the selection. SIOX ('Simple Interactive Object eXtraction') allows a semi-automatic pixel-accurate selection of typical foreground objects like portraits of humans, animals, or plants with only a few mouse clicks."
Interoperability Wine TrafficThe August 5, 2005 edition of Wine Traffic is available. Topics include: a Xandros Review, AppDB improvements, PeekMessage and Performance and Turning off Anti-Aliasing.
Music Applications KMidimon 0.3 releasedVersion 0.3 of KMidimon has been released with several new features. "KMidimon is an application to monitor MIDI events coming from a MIDI external port or application via the ALSA sequencer. It is especially useful if you want to debug MIDI software or your MIDI setup."
liboscqs 0.0.3 - An OSC Query SystemVersion 0.0.3 of liboscqs has been announced. "liboscqs is a library to provide a Query System and Service Discovery for applications using the Open Sound Control (OSC) protocol."
Office Suites OpenOffice.org build 1.9.121.1 releasedBuild 1.9.121.1 of OpenOffice.org has been announced. Changes include bug fixes and a few new features.
PDA Software jSyncManager v3.2 beta 01 released (SourceForge)Version 3.2 beta 01 of jSyncManager has been announced. "The jSyncManager Development Team is pleased to announce the releases of version 3.2 beta 01 of the jSyncManager Core Application Set, API, and Core jConduit Bundle. This beta release is considered feature complete, and requires user testing to ensure that new functionality added in this release cycle functions correctly. The jSyncManager is a pure Java protocol stack, development environment, and application set for synchronizing PalmOS-based handheld devices. It contains its own object-oriented protocol stack, and thus does not rely upon any platform-specific code to synchronize data."
Miscellaneous Gourmet 0.8.5.10 released (SourceForge)Version 0.8.5.10 of Gourmet, a recipe manager for the GNOME Desktop, is available. "Version 0.8.5.10 fixes a lag when adding ingredients by hand. Gourmet Recipe Manager is a recipe-organizer that generates shopping lists and allows rapid searching of recipes. It imports mealmaster & mastercook files and exports webpages & other formats."
OmegaT 1.4.5.03 released (SourceForge)Version 1.4.5.03 of OmegaT, has been announced. "OmegaT project is proud to announce the OmegaT 1.4.5.03 -- a high performance Java based Computer Assisted Translation tool featuring Fuzzy matching, Translation memory, Keyword search, Glossary term identification, and Translation leveraging into updated projects. Release 1.4.5.03 features a German Manual (thanks goes to Martin Wunderlich) and a small usability bugfix."
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe August 9, 2005 edition of the Caml Weekly News is online. Topics include: ocamlsdl natively for Windows?, ocamllex problem and right-associating infix application operator camlp4 extension.
Haskell Haskell Weekly NewsThe August 9, 2005 edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online with this week's Haskell news. Highlights of this week's issue include new bindings for GnuTLS and OpenLDAP, a new version of Haddock, and discussions on parsing other languages in Haskell.
Lisp Status reports of Lisp projects for Summer of CodeSome status reports for Lisp projects from the Google Summer of Code event are online.
Perl POE 0.32 Released (SourceForge)Version 0.32 of POE, a networking and multitasking framework for Perl, is available. "Version 0.32 is mainly a bugfix and portability release: Better support for ActiveState Perl and Cygwin were added, and several bugs were removed."
This Week in Perl 6 (O'Reilly)The August 8, 2005 edition of This Week in Perl 6 is online with the latest Perl 6 development news.
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The August 10, 2005 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with the latest Tcl/Tk news and resources.
XML Appreciating Libxslt (O'Reilly)Bob DuCharme explores libxslt on O'Reilly. "The two most well-known XSLT processors are probably the Apache project's Xalan (available in both a Java and C++ version) and the Java-based Saxon, which was written by XSLT 2.0 specification editor Michael Kay. If those are the only two XSLT processors you currently use, it's worth checking out Daniel Veillard's libxslt. Its origins (and that of libxml2, the XML processor that it uses) in the GNOME project give it a higher profile in the Linux world, but Windows and Macintosh ports are easy to install and use."
Cross Assemblers gputils 0.13.3 releasedVersion 0.13.3 of gputils, the GNU PIC Utilities, is out with bug fixes.
Profilers Valgrind 3.0.0 (for x86 and amd64) is availableVersion 3.0.0 of Valgrind, a suite of simulation based debugging and profiling tools, is out. "3.0.0 is the first Valgrind to support both x86-linux and amd64-linux. Support for ppc32-linux is also integrated but does not work well enough to be useful yet. There have been many other improvements and refinements relative to the 2.4.X line."
Test Suites Programming Tools: FitNesse (Linux Journal)Reg. Charney looks at FitNesse on Linux Journal. "FitNesse is a collaborative tool based on a wiki that allows users, developers and testers to define, modify and delete tests. These tests are more like usage scenarios. You define what you expect to put into the system and what you expect to get out. The FitNesse framework runs your test and displays the results on a wiki page. To make it all work, FitNesse comes with its own simple server, so no other software is required.
Version Control Monotone 0.22 releasedMonotone 0.22 is out. This is "mostly a bug fix and smoothing-things-out release," but it does also include a switch to the botan cryptographic library. Some configuration changes may be required when upgrading; see the announcement for details.
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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