Development
Sweep 0.8.0 Audio Editor
One of the more popular audio file editors that is available for Linux and other Unix compatible platforms is Sweep. Sweep will work with a number of different audio file formats including WAV, AIFF, Ogg Vorbis, Speex, MP3 and others. Sweep supports the LADSPA plugin API, which allows a wide range of audio processors to be plugged in. Sweep works with both the OSS and ALSA sound drivers. Unlike many sound file editors, Sweep has a number of real-time audio effect capabilities, making it useful for live music DJ applications. Sweep also works well for more typical audio editor uses, such as the creation of CD audio tracks.Some of the major features of Sweep include:
- Unlimited undo/redo.
- Multithreaded background rendering and file import/export.
- Interactive Scrubbing.
- Support for multichannel files.
- Customizable keybindings.
- Support for French, Hungarian, Italian, German, Russian, and Polish languages.
- Support for the Speex speech codec.
- Cut, copy and paste insert.
- Support for discontinuous selections.
- Invert, double/halve, and shift left/right.
- Many wave visualization options.
- Numerous playback modes including reverse and looping.
- Tape loop recording.
Other features of Sweep include the ability to mix and speed-modify an unlimited number of samples and loops, and "piano style QWERTY playback", which allows the computer keyboard to be used to generate musical notes in real-time.
Version 0.8.0 of Sweep
has been released.
"This is the first milestone release for Sweep 1. Please test it
thoroughly for both general sample editing and live performance.
"
One interesting new features in version 0.8.0 is the inclusion of a new
monitoring system that allows people with two sound cards to listen to
a monitor track on one sound card while playing a main output on the other
sound card. This opens up a wide range of capabilities that are typically
performed by an audio mixing console. The release also features bug fixes
and an improvement to the Italian language support.
Sweep 0.8.0 may be downloaded here.
Sweep has been released with a GPL license.
System Applications
Audio Projects
JACK Software Releases
This week has been busy for JACK Audio Connection Kit software releases. The following new applications have come out: JACK Rack 1.1.2, JACK TimeMachine 0.0.1, k_jack v0.0.0.5 and Mammut v0.15, and JACK TimeMachine 0.0.2.Ogg Traffic
The January 19, 2003 edition of Ogg Traffic is out with the latest Ogg Vorbis audio compression software development news. Some of the topics covered include: Playing Ogg Vorbis with Windows Media Player, Replacing Real Audio with Low Bitrate Ogg Vorbis, User confirms Ogg Vorbis Support in DVD Player, and Speex RC1.
Database Software
MySQL Adds Subselects, Upgrades Performance and Security
MySQL Version 4.1 was announced at the LinuxWorld conference. "MySQL AB, developer of the world's most popular open source database, today announced a new version of the MySQL database that includes "subselects" and other enhancements designed to facilitate large-scale enterprise application development with MySQL."
Knoda 0.5.6 released
Version 0.5.6 of Knoda, a KDE frontend for Mysql, Postgresql and ODBC, has been released. New features include support for color forms and reports, syntax-highlighting in the queries-window, new command line tools for hk_classes, report can be opened depending on form values, tables and queries can be printed, and lots of bug fixes.
Electronics
Icarus Verilog Snapshot 20030116
Snapshot 20030116 of the Icarus Verilog electronic simulation language compiler has been released. Changes include: support for scaled system time, new PLI1.0 functionality, bug fixes, support for gcc 3.X, and more. See the release notes for more information.
Printing
LinuxPrinting.org news
The latest news on LinuxPrinting.org includes a new driver for the Epson EPL-5700L, EPL-5800L, and EPL-5900L printers, unidirectional printing support for the Lexmark Z12, support for the HP OfficeJet 520, 570, 580, 590, 610, 630, 700, 720, 725. 6110 printers, and text/URL/driver updates for the HP OfficeJet 500, 600, 625, 635, 710, D155 printers.LPRng-3.8.20 released
Version 3.8.20 of the LPRng printing system is available. Change information is in the source code.
Telecom
Introduction to the Parlay architecture (IBM developerWorks)
Veronika Megler introduces the Parlay API on IBM's developerWorks. "For too long, application development for the telecommunications industry has been an arcane art, relying on proprietary protocols and interfaces. In this two-part series, Veronika Megler introduces the Parlay architecture, an open set of APIs that could change all that. You'll learn how you can use the Parlay architecture to build telecommunications applications that will run on any telecom carrier's network with minimal human intervention. You'll also get an introduction to the tools and products you need to start writing the code that changes the way we'll use our telephones."
Web Site Development
Quixote 0.6 Beta available
A beta version of Quixote 0.6 is avilable. Quixote is a Python-based web application framework. Change information is in the source code.Free Online Version of Mason Book (use Perl)
According to Use Perl, an online version of "Embedding Perl in HTML with Mason" is available.Zope Members News
The most recent headlines on the Zope Members News include: Plone 1.0 Release Candidate 2 available, MySQL User Folder 0.9.0 released, ZWeatherApplet 1.51 (bugfix release), Silva Sample Content Types 0.1 released!, CMFCollector 0.20 beta 1 released, ASP404 1.0-beta2 Zope+IIS Connector, Nuxeo Collaborative Portal Server 2.2 beta1 released, and more.Zope Newbies
This week's Zope Newbies includes articles on Python's Design Goals, and Python success stories.
Web Services
Web services interoperability, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)
André Tost demonstrates the use of web services on IBM's developerWorks. "In this article André Tost shows how a purchase order business process can be implemented across many different Web services environments. An example application defines different roles that play a part in the process of a purchase order, where each role can be played by a different vendor's implementation. André will describe what the application does, and how the individual parts of the application work together."
Desktop Applications
Audio Applications
Ecawave development stopped
Due to the wide variety of open-source audio editing packages that are now available, development of Ecawave has been stopped. Meanwhile, ecawave 0.6.0, has been released as the official last version.ecamegapedal 0.4.0 released
Version 0.4.0 of ecamegapedal, a real-time virtual guitar effects box, has been released. Changes include: "Sliders for parameter control and text inputs for lower and upper bounds have been added as well as support for LADSPA-1.1 and ecasound effect parameter hints. There has been some user interface improvements and a native JACK support has been added. Updated to use the new ecasound-2.2 libraries."
Desktop Environments
GNOME Summary for January 4 - 18, 2003
Here is the latest GNOME Summary. This week looks at the GNOME 2.2 Desktop Release Candidate 1 and much more.FootNotes
Headlines on the GNOME desktop FootNotes site include: High quality fonts donated to Free Software, Gnome Desktop SubDistro, MrProject 0.8 released, DiaSCE v1.3 released, GNU/Linux Media Player Round-up, Firestarter 0.9.1 released, Gtk# 0.7 released!, Mono 0.19 released, GTK2 Sodipodi soon to be released, New GNOME themes module, Screenshot of Lumiere working, and more.KDE-CVS-Digest
The January 17, 2003 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is out. The digest summary says: "VFolder support in KDE, more Apple updates in Konqueror, and security fixes. Also in this issue: commits to Kaplan are flowing in, the KMail merges from the different branches are finally coming together and much more."
Interoperability
Wine release 20030115
Release 20030115 of wine has been announced. The list of changes include: Much better header files compatibility in Winelib, A ton of Direct3D work, Many improvements in sound support, New wineboot tool to simulate a Windows reboot, and Lots of bug fixes.Kernel Cousin Wine
Issue #153 of Kernel Cousin Wine is out. Topics include: News: Wine-20030115; TransGaming Update; CodeWeavers Partnership, IWebBrowser Status / More Ideas, No C++ in Wine, Wineboot Progress, D3D Status Page, Accessing X11 Calls, and NTFS Filesystem Type.New release of ntfsprogs
A new version of ntfsprogs (formerly linux-ntfs) has been released. ntfsprogs allows linux to work with ntfs volumes. "The new release includes (for the first time) ntfsresize, ntfsundelete, ntfsinfo and also mkntfs and ntfslabel."
Office Applications
OpenOffice 1.0.2 available
Version 1.0.2 of OpenOffice is available. "It is a "micro" release and does not include new features. Rather it incorporates many bug fixes. Reports indicate that it is faster and more robust."
Open Office Japanese Language Project
OpenOffice.org has announced the creation of a new Japanese Language project for the OpenOffice office suite, led by Nakata Maho.GnuCash 1.7.8 available
Version 1.7.8 of GnuCash is out. New features include Scheduled Transactions, a Mortgage & Loan Repayment Druid, Small Business Accounting Features, OFX Import, HBCI Support, Multi-Currency Transaction Handling, new documentation, and improved menus.
Web Browsers
mozillaZine
The latest mozillaZine topics include: New Favorites Plug-in for K-Meleon, Chimera Not Dead Either, Trunk Freezes for 1.3 Beta Tonight, Reports of Phoenix's Death Greatly Exaggerated, Improved about:config Page, Rolling Out Mozilla Across an Organization, Automatic Image Resizing Checked In, and European Mozilla Developers Meeting 2003.Lynx 2.8.5dev.13 released
Version 2.8.5dev.13 of Lynx, a text-based web browser, is available for download. Tons of bug fixes and performance improvements have been added, see the documentation that comes with the source code for details.
Languages and Tools
Caml
Caml Weekly News
The Caml Weekly News for January 14 - 21, 2003 is out. Topics include Introduzione alla programmazione funzionale, ChartPak - a data visualization library for the web, and Coyote Gulch test in Caml.The Caml Light / OCaml Hump
This week, the new software on The Caml Light / OCaml Hump includes the HOL Light theorem prover, ChartPak for dynamically generating business graphics on the web, and Introduzione alla programmazione funzionale, an introduction to functional programming.
Java
Introduction to Thin Client Framework (IBM developerWorks)
Peter C. Bahrs and Barry A. Feigenbaum introduce the Java Thin Client Framework on IBM's developerWorks, the series is available as Part 1 and Part 2. "Thin Client Framework (TCF) is a lightweight, flexible, and powerful programming framework for Java client applications. In this two-part series, you will learn about TCF from two of its originators. Follow along as Drs. Barry Feigenbaum and Peter Bahrs use detailed discussion, a working example, and live code samples to introduce you to the TCF architecture, design, and implementation."
Using JMeter (O'Reilly)
Budi Kurniawan shows how to work with JMeter on O'Reilly. "JMeter is a Java-based tool for load testing client-server applications. Stefano Mazzocchi originally wrote it to test the performance of Apache JServ (the predecessor of Jakarta Tomcat). It has since become a subproject of Jakarta."
Introduction to Text Indexing with Apache Jakarta Lucene (O'Reilly)
Otis Gospodnetic explains Lucerne on O'Reilly. "Lucene is a Java library that adds text indexing and searching capabilities to an application. It is not a complete application that one can just download, install, and run. It offers a simple, yet powerful core API. To start using it, one needs to know only a few Lucene classes and methods."
Java Swing: Menus and Toolbars, Part 1 (O'Reilly)
O'Reilly has published an excerpt on Java Swing menus from "Java Swing, 2nd Edition". "This chapter discusses Swing menus and toolbars. Menus are the richer and more flexible of the two, so they encompass most of the chapter. They tend to be the first thing users explore in learning a new application, so it's fitting that Swing provides a great deal of freedom in laying out menu components."
Lisp
OpenMCL 0.13.3 released
Version 0.13.3 of OpenMCL, an open-source Common Lisp implementation, is available. "This version provides options for controlling the generation and retention of additional debugging and documentation information, exports symbols related to Grays Streams from a new package, improves ANSI compliance and fixes several bugs."
Lisp Announcements
Beta versions of three Lisp applications have been released. Araneida 0.69, CLiki 0.3.9 and db-sockets 0.58.
Perl
The Perl Review
Volume 0, Issue 7 of The Perl Review is out. Articles include: Jotto: The Five-Letter Word Game, Processing RSS Files with XSLT, Separating code, presentation, and configuration, and Paying Homage to Perl (PHP).What's new in Perl 5.8.0 (O'Reilly)
Artur Bergman explores new features in Perl 5.8.0 on O'Reilly. "It's been nearly six months since the release of Perl 5.8.0, but many people still haven't upgraded to it. We'll take a look at some of the new features it provides and describe why you should investigate them yourself."
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)
The January 13-19, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is out. "Another week, and its load of patches. A major evolution of the UTF8 implementation, some experimental surgery on the debugger, weak hashes, strong pack templates, Win32 modules and quite a number of new ideas are summarized in this week's summary."
This week on Perl 6 (O'Reilly)
The January 12, 2003 edition of This week on Perl 6 is out. Topics include: More Thoughts on DOD, The Perl 6 Parser, LXR - Source code indexing, Thoughts on Infant Mortality, Objects, Finally (try 1), The Benchmarking Problem, Meanwhile, in perl6-language, Array Questions, L2R/R2L Syntax, "Disappearing" code, Who's Who in Perl 6:Steve Fink, and more.
PHP
PHP Weekly Summary
Topics on this week's PHP Weekly Summary include: Dual PHP installations, GD 2.0.11 compatibility, Using PHP with Make, Spring International PHP Conference, SNMP additions, and PEAR is release quality.
Python
Python-dev Summary
The Python-dev Summary for January 1 to 15 is out; it looks at the Minimal Python project, extensions to divmod(), cross compiling, and several other topics.Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for January 20, 2003
The Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for January 20, 2003 is out, with news and links, for the Python community.The Daily Python-URL
This week's Daily Python-URL article topics include: Jason Orendorff on path 1.0, A conversation with Guido van Rossum, part II: Python's design goals, Andrew Dalke on EUtils, Mark Paschal on PyFunk, Python success stories, Py 1.3, the Minimal Python project, Prototype Python package registry based on PEP 301, and more.
Ruby
The Ruby Weekly News
Topics on this week's Ruby Weekly News include: sorting with the Swartzian transform, Yet Another Test First Example ... in Ruby, ruby-dev summary 19198-19345, Unit Testing in dynamic environments, Automating Perl -> Ruby translation?, Using the Ruby DBI Module, and ruby-dev summary 19346-19379.New Ruby software includes: ruby-sumo-2003.01.08 and MacOSX package, FoxTails 0.1 for FXRuby, saprfc - Ruby extension for RFC calls to an SAP R/3 System, Ruby SunOS Packages, FXRuby API Documentation - Preview, dbi-dbrc 0.2.0, SOAP4R/1.4.8 with WSDL4R/0.0.2, Ruby/Google 0.5.0, and YAML.rb 0.49.2 -- YPath.
Tcl/Tk
This week's Tcl-URL
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL for January 22 is available with the latest from the Tcl/Tk development community.
XML
Creative Comments: On the Uses and Abuses of Markup (O'Reilly)
Kendall Grant Clark comments on some unusual practices being used with RDF. "The issue I want to raise here is the increasingly widespread practice of embedding information -- mainly using, but not limited to, RDF -- intended for machine consumption in a format, HTML comments, which is intended for human consumption. When I realized people were embedding RDF in HTML comments, claiming that the resulting document is part of the Semantic Web, I was confused."
Miscellaneous
Jext ProjectMaster 1.3
Version 1.3 of ProjectMaster, a plugin for the Jext programmer's editor, has been released. "ProjectMaster, the successor of CodeMaster, is a fully featured project manager for Java. You can either use it as separate frame or dock it in Jext interface. This plugin allows to compile projects very easily. It also supports ANT compiling tool."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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