Development

TownPortal 0.1

An interesting new open-source project called TownPortal is under development. The first release, version 0.1 has been announced.

"The alpha release is mostly feature-complete, but lots of tuning will still be needed for installation and user interfaces. Midgard experience is required for installing and using the package."

TownPortal provides a dynamic content-driven site structure that is managed with the Aegir CMS content management system, it works under the Midgard open source application server. TownPortal is organized as a Linux, Apache, MySQL and PHP (LAMP) system.

The system currently has the following features:

• Support for community information pages.
• Home Pages for people and groups.
• News capabilities.
• Support for photo galleries with management features.
• An event calendar.
• Support for registered users.
• Personalized user features including user calendar.
• Support for Finnish and English user interfaces.
• A localization tool for adding new languages.
• A fully-configurable portal layout.

TownPortal is licensed under the GPL, it may be downloaded here. The screenshots page shows the system in action. If your town or group needs a new web site, TownPortal looks like a nicely organized system.

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System Applications

Audio Projects

JACK 0.50.0 released

Version 0.50.0 of JACK, the Jack Audio Connection Kit, has been released with a number of new capabilities.

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LADCCA 0.3.0 available

Bob Ham has released version 0.3.0 of LADCCA. "LADCCA, the session management system for jack and alsa sequencer applications on linux is now at version 0.3. After about a month of gentle fiddling, it now seems to work quite well. As an example, I managed to run muse, 2 standalone copies of iiwusynth and 2 copies of jack rack, save it with the server, close all the apps and restore it nearly perfectly (I say "nearly" as muse likes to control alsa ports and connections.) It's certainly coming along."

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Database Software

PostgreSQL 7.3.2 Released

PostgreSQL 7.3.2 has been released. "This release addresses several overrun and memory leak issues that were found in recent weeks, so it is highly recommended that those running the 7.3.1 branch upgrade at their earliest convience. This release is backwards compa[tible] to the previous v7.3.x releases, and does not require a dump/restore to upgrade."

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Education

Linux in Education Report

Issue #89 of the Linux in Education Report is out. Topics include two conferences on open-source software in education, one in the UK and another in Texas, the Blue Crane College for art, science and ecological studies' open source development centre, CD Repositories for Indian cities and towns, a new Red Hat program for educators, and more.

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Electronics

gEDA news

The latest new releases from the GNU Electronic Design and Analysys (gEDA) project include Icarus Verilog snapshot 20030208 and GTKWave 2.0.0 pre3.

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XCircuit 3.1 revision 3 released

Release 3 of XCircuit 3.1, an electronic schematic drawing package, has been announced. "As of revision 3 (February 10, 2003), the Tcl interface appears to be stable and duplicates all of the features available under the last non-Tcl-based version."

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Mail Software

Mailman 2.1.1 Released

Mailman 2.1.1 has been released. This version of the GNU Mailing List Manager fixes many bugs found in Mailman 2.1 final, and updates language support. It also fixes a cross-site scripting vulnerability. It is recommended that all Mailman 2.1 sites upgrade to version 2.1.1.

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Printing

ESP Ghostscript 7.05.6 available

The CUPS project has released version 7.05.6 of ESP Ghostscript. More information on ESP Ghostscript is available here.

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Web Site Development

mod_security 1.4.2 released

Version 1.4.2 of mod_security is available. "Mod_security is an Apache module whose purpose is to protect vulnerable applications and reject human or automated attacks. It is an open source intrusion detection and prevention system for Apache. In addition to request filtering, it also creates Web application audit logs. Requests are filtered using regular expressions." This version now runs without patching Apache for POST request filtering.

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AxKit 1.6.1 Released (use Perl)

Use Perl has an announcement for AxKit 1.6.1, a Perl-based web site system. This version features bug-fixes and minor features.

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Zope Members News

The most recent headlines on the Zope Members News include: MyMediaManager 1.1 released, DCOracle2 1.3 beta available, Silva 0.9.1 beta released , Zope 2.6.1 Released, DZUG ZOPE meeting in Berlin, March 28-29th, CMFPortlets 0.5.2 released: Portlets get interactive CJKSplitter 0.1 Released, PropertyObject & PropertyFolder 1.3.1 released, Groupware Suite for CPS, Developer Preview, and ZChecker 0.1 Released.

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Zope Newbies

New article topics on Zope Newbies include: reStructuredText and Shipping the Prototype.

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Miscellaneous

POE 0.25 Released (use Perl)

Use Perl reports on the release of POE version 0.25. "cwest writes "Version 0.25 of the award-winning POE networking and multitasking framework has been released. This version is mainly a bug fix release.""

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

Ardour developments

The latest release of Ardour, a multi-track audio recorder, includes the following changes: "gain faders once again move during automation playback, sessions can now live anywhere on your system, s/w RAID definition is now per-session, LADSPA plugin UIs significantly improved for plugins with output and toggle controls."

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JACK Rack 1.3.0 released

Version 1.3.0 of JACK Rack, a virtual audio effects rack, is available. New features include wet/dry controls for each plugin, logarithmic controls, a better file loader, and more.

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ALSA Patch Bay 0.5.1 released

Two versions of Alsa Patch Bay came out this week. Version 0.5.0 was released, and adds JACK support. Version 0.5.1 fixed a bug with version 0.5.0.

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Sweep 0.8.1 Released

Version 0.8.1 of Sweep, an audio editor and live playback tool, has been released. "This release contains performance improvements for basic editing operations, including reduced memory consumption during cut and paste insert. It also includes support for creation of new files on the command line, updated handling of raw file loading through libsndfile, and updated support for voice activity detection and intensity stereo coding features of the Speex speech codec."

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AlsaPlayer 0.9.74 is out

AlsaPlayer version 0.9.74 has been released. "This release has many new features including Icecast/Shoutcast support, CDDB lookup support and lots of other fixes. Check out the ChangeLog."

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Desktop Environments

FootNotes

Headlines on the GNOME desktop FootNotes site include: Gnome Gazette: An independent journalist's perspective on recent Gnome events, Evolution 1.3 (GTK2) snapshots available, XChat 2.0 is out!, The Free/Libre/Open Source Software Survey for 2003, Progress and Future of Mozilla the application suite, Ruby-GNOME2-0.3.0 is released!, New project: Gnoppix, Get involved with Gnome: Fix some Nautilus bugs!, Sodipodi 0.30 released, Dropline GNOME 2.2.0 is Ready for Consumption, Evolution 1.2.2 available, and more.

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KDE-CVS-Digest for February 7, 2003

The Febrary 7, 2003 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is available. "Work continues on the Kde Personal Information Manager and Koffice. Filters to interoperate with other applications and formats such as Outlook Express, OOImpress, MSWrite, rtf and ApplixGraphics were improved. Plus the continuing improvements to Konqueror, Kopete and many others."

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KDE 3.1: Desktop Sharing in Practice

KDE.News covers the new KDE 3.1 desktop sharing capabilities. "This new feature of KDE 3.1 allows a friend or administrator to fix problems on your computer, or you can use it to show your desktop to somebody else at a remote location."

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KDE 3.1: eWeek Review, More RPMs

KDE.News covers an eWeek review of KDE 3.1, and some places where KDE 3.1 binaries can be found.

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Kopete 0.6 available

KDE.News looks at the release of Kopte 0.6. "Kopete is KDE's all-purpose, modular and extensible chat client, which currently supports the MSN Messenger, ICQ, AIM OSCAR, Jabber and IRC protocols. A sampling of the great new features includes sophisticated (HTML) text rendering, signing / encrypting chats and sending SMS messages to mobile phones, as well as chat tabs, translucent windows and web presence notification."

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Graphics

GSview 4.31 beta test is now available

A beta version of GSview 4.31, a graphical interface for the Ghostscript PostScript interpreter, is available. Changes include support for the AFPL Ghostscript 8.00 security updates, the inclusion of Catalan and Slovak languages, support for the UTF-8 character set under Linux, and bug fixes.

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GUI Packages

FLTK Developments

The latest new software for FLTK, the Fast, Light ToolKit includes: fl_connect 0.99, Log 0.91, and Fltk 1.1.XX utf-8 patch.

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Interoperability

Kernel Cousin Wine

Issue #156 of Kernel Cousin Wine is out. Topics include: Cross-compiling Windows Apps, Threading Problems with glibc 2.3 (cont'd), RPC Data Marshalling (cont'd), Paypal Link, Wineconf 2003?, ReactOS v0.1, Windows API Database (cont'd), and GDI Performance.

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Samba 2.2.8pre1 released

Version 2.2.8pre1 of Samba is available for testing. " This is a non-production preview release provided for testing purposes. The full release notes and source code can be found on Samba mirrors."

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Office Applications

AbiWord Weekly News

Issue #130 of the AbiWord Weekly News is out, with the latest AbiWord word processor development news. "Dom and Hub add a little to their respective hackdowns. Hub's in particular refers to the re-opening of that annoying crash-on-zoom problem, while Dom does some bug spotting and decides it belongs in the 2.0 hackdown. Needless to say, with crash on zoom's return, so has its position in the top20."

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Release of GnuCash stable version 1.8.1

GnuCash 1.8.1 has been released. New features include automatic entering for scheduled transactions, a mortgage and loand repayment druid, new small business accounting features, OFX import, HBCI support, multi-currency transaction handling, redesigned menus, and improved documentation.

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LyX 1.3.0 is out

Version 1.3.0 of LyX, a GUI front-end for the TeX typesetting system, has been released. "One of the major projects that has been going on behind the scenes is the so-called GUI-independence project. We are glad to announce that version 1.3.0 shows the first results of this. LyX now comes in two flavours: Qt-LyX and xforms-LyX!"

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LyX Development News

The February 4, 2003 edition of the LyX Development News is out. Topics include the release of LyX 1.2.3, CJK LyX, and the translation effect.

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OpenOffice.org 1.0.2 Beta SDK

Version 1.0.2 Beta of the OpenOffice.org Software Development Kit is available for download. "The highlight of this SDK is the new Developer's Guide. This guide provides a detailed description of the OpenOffice.org API concepts, the OpenOffice.org UNO component model and how to use the API in the context of the different application areas."

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Web Browsers

Mozilla 1.3 beta released

Version 1.3 beta of Mozilla has been announced. New features include image auto sizing, the nearing completion of Mozilla Mail's junk-mail classification, dynamic profile switching, find as you type, a mozilla preferences panel for Chatzilla, an editable about:config preference list, and a new machine learning autocompletion feature. See the release notes for details.

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mozillaZine

The latest mozillaZine topics include: Andy Ihnatko of Chicago Sun-Times Still Prefers Mozilla, Review of Mozilla Composer, Mozilla 1.3 Beta Going Live as We Speak, Progress and Future of Mozilla the Application Suite, and Independent Status Reports.

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Miscellaneous

GNU nano 1.2.0 needs feedback

Testers are being requested to help work out the bugs in the GNU nano editor. "As you may know, the nano development team is readying the 1.2.0 release of GNU nano. If you haven't already tried a recent version of nano, we have eliminated a large number of bugs in the 1.1 series. Our most recent release, 1.1.99pre2, should be stable enough for everyday use."

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GNU Midnight Commander 4.6.0 released

Version 4.6.0 of GNU Midnight Commander is available, upgrades are recommended. "The difference from the last prerelease 4.6.0-pre3 is not very significant, but it's still recommended to upgrade because of a bug that could cause GNU Midnight Commander to remain in memory and eat CPU cycles after closing the terminal it's running on."

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Languages and Tools

Caml

Caml Weekly News

The Caml Weekly News for February 4-11, 2003 is out. Topics include the future of Camlp4, Support for Unicode, ocamlnet-0.95 released, Optimizing false polymorphic local functions, and the first release of Cstr.

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The Caml Light / OCaml Hump

This week, the new software on The Caml Light / OCaml Hump includes: Cstr; A full-featured charset and string library, GeoCaml; A tool allowing to handle easily euclidian geometry, and OCamlnet; A collection of modules for the Objective Caml language which focus on application-level Internet protocols and conventions.

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HTML

HTML to Formatting Objects (FO) conversion guide (IBM developerWorks)

IBM's developerWorks has published a guide that details the process of converting HTML documents to formatting objects. "Need help converting HTML documents to PDF? This reference guide shows by example how to use XSLT templates to convert 45 commonly used HTML elements to formatting objects (from the XSL-FO vocabulary) for easy transformation to PDF using XSLT. The examples assume that you're using the Java-based XSLT processor Xalan and the Apache XML Project's FOP tool, but most of the methods would work just as well with other tools."

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Java

Sun says 22% of JVM bugs left unfixed

According to this internal memo which was leaked from Sun, a number of known Java bugs have been marked as "will not fix". "Our experience in filing bugs against Java has been to see them rapidly closed as "will not fix". 22% of accepted on-duplicate bugs against base Java are closed in this way as opposed to 7% for C++." Thanks to Giorgio Zoppi.

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Using the Decorator Pattern (O'Reilly)

Budi Kurniawan talks about the decorator pattern in relation to Java Swing on O'Reilly. "This article explains the Decorator pattern and when to subclass and when to decorate."

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Automating EJB Unit Testing (O'Reilly)

JiRong Hu writes about performing unit testing on EJBs on O'Reilly. "Enterprise Java Beans, or EJBs, cannot be tested on their own as can plain Java classes. There are additional steps to deploy them to an EJB container before they can be tested. This means that our testing process must include the additional process of deployment and re-deployment of EJBs. The deployment must be automated as well."

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A JSTL primer: The expression language (IBM developerWorks)

IBM's developerWorks has an article by Mark A. Kolb on the use of JSTL tags. "The JSP Standard Tag Library (JSTL) is a collection of custom tag libraries that implement general-purpose functionality common to Web applications, including iteration and conditionalization, data management formatting, manipulation of XML, and database access. In this first installment of his new series on developerWorks, software engineer Mark Kolb shows you how to use JSTL tags to avoid using scripting elements in your JSP pages."

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Lisp

OpenMCL 0.13.4 released

Version 0.13.4 of OpenMCL, an open-source Common Lisp implementation, has been released. "OpenMCL 0.13.4 is a maintenance release, containing bug fixes and minor feature enhancements relative to 0.13.3."

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Perl

The Perl Journal

The February, 2003 edition of The Perl Journal has been published. Topics include: Using PerlObjCBridge to Write Cocoa Applications in Perl, Parsing MIME & HTML, Home Automation with Perl, Amazon.com Wish Lists by brian d foy, Other People's Arguments by Simon Cozens, And including a review of Practical Python.

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This Week on perl5-porters

The February 3-9, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is out. Topics include: Maintenance releases, Reducing op size, Seeking a safe signal test, and more.

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This week on Perl 6 (O'Reilly)

The February 2, 2003 edition of This week on Perl 6 is out with the latest Perl 6 news. Topics include: Parrot Objects (noun, not verb), The packfile patches, an ongoing saga, Securing Parrot ASM, Parrot Developer World Map, Coroutine context patch, Multiple code segments and the interpreter, Parrot run loop problems, More Array Behaviours, Spare Brackets, Arrays: Default values, Damian Takes a Sabbatical, and more.

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PHP

PHP Weekly Summary

Topics on this week's PHP Weekly Summary include: Recommendation engine testers, Non-command prompt PHP, CVS confusion, Solaris build issues, NSAPI changes, php.NET?, servlet SAPI, and Timezone functions.

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Working with Permissions in PHP, Part 1 (O'Reilly)

John Coggeshall discusses Unix file permissions under PHP on O'Reilly. "In the past few columns, I have been discussing using PHP's file I/O capabilities for manipulating both files and directories. This week, we'll take a slight detour from a strictly PHP-related subject and discuss file permissions in Unix systems."

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Python

The Daily Python-URL

This week's Daily Python-URL article topics include: David Mertz on reStructuredText, A conversation with Guido van Rossum, part V: Strong versus weak typing, The Java Problem, Interview with Dennis Ritchie, Shipping the prototype, pypy-dev List Summary, exchange4linux, Alpha of Kapor's open-source PIM due in spring.

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This week's Python-URL

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for February 10 is available with the latest news from the Python development community - including a proposal to add a ternary operator to the language at last.

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Python for Freenet

A Python-based API has been made available for the Freenet anonymising/encrypting publishing and file-sharing network.

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Ruby

The Ruby Weekly News

Topics on this week's Ruby Weekly News include: Embedding Ruby in C code, locana, SVG, cross-platform GUI meanderings, Blogging software, The way of the Gentoo, Relative performance of Ruby templating systems, and ruby-dev summary 19457-19539.

New Ruby software includes: ZenWeb 2.15.0 Released, sys-uname 0.4.0, Text::Format 0.61, Digest::CRC32 0.1.0, bdb, FXRuby-1.0.19 Now Available, plruby, math-const 1.0.0, Ruby-GNOME2-0.3.0, MIME::Types 1.005, and ruby syntax file for GNU Source-highlight.

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Scheme

Scheme Weekly News

The February 10, 2003 edition of the Scheme Weekly News has been published. Check it out for the latest Scheme news.

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Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobbs' Tcl-URL!

The February 10, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with lots of Tcl news and links.

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XML

Managing Enumerations in W3C XML Schemas (O'Reilly)

Anthony Coates covers XML controlled vocabularies on O'Reilly. "In this article, we will discuss how controlled vocabularies can be managed when using W3C XML Schemas, since this is the dominant XML schema format for data-oriented XML. Note that the "vocabularies" we refer to are enumerated lists of element-attribute values. This differs from other contexts where "vocabularies" are sets of XML element names."

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BrownSauce: An RDF Browser (O'Reilly)

Damian Steer describes his BrownSauce RDF browser on O'Reilly. "BrownSauce is an RDF browser. It attempts, armed with no more than a knowledge of RDF and RDF Schema, to present all RDF data as intelligibly as possible."

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