Christophe Geuzaine and Jean-François Remacle have authored
a graphics utility known as
Gmsh.
Gmsh is an automatic 3D finite element mesh generator (primarily Delaunay)
with build-in CAD and post-processing facilities. Its primal design goal is
to provide a simple meshing tool for academic test cases with parametric
input and up to date visualization capabilities. One of its strengths is
the ability to respect a characteristic length field for the generation of
adapted meshes on lines, surfaces and volumes, and to mix these meshes with
simple structured grids.
Gmsh is built around four modules: geometry, mesh, solver and
post-processing. The specification of any input to these modules is done
either interactively using the graphical user interface or in ASCII text
files using Gmsh's own scripting language.
Some of the available Gmsh documentation includes the online
reference manual and
FAQ.
The overview section of the documentation
mentions a number of possible applications for Gmsh.
As with most graphical software, the
screenshots
give you a good idea of the software's capabilities.
Some interesting electrical, mechanical, and fluid engineering
drawings are included.
Version 1.44 of Gmsh has been released.
Changes include new documentation and PNG support, see the
VERSIONS file
for more information on the project's history.
Gmsh is a cross-platform project, it runs on Linux, various flavors
of UNIX, and Windows.
Gmsh has been licensed under the GPL, downloads are
available here,
tarballs and RPMs are available.
Dependencies include the OpenGL libraries, GSL (>1.2), and FLTK 1.1.X.
Comments (3 posted)
System Applications
Clusters and Grids
Version 2.2.1 of OSCAR
has been announced.
"
The OSCAR working group is pleased to announce the release of
version 2.2.1
of the Open Source Cluster Application Resources (OSCAR) toolkit. This
release offers full IA-64 support with the inclusion of updated SIS and
Kernel_Picker packages. OSCAR (Open Source Cluster Application Resource) is
a snapshot of the best known methods for building, programming, and using
clusters. It consists of a fully integrated and easy to install software
bundle designed for high performance cluster computing."
Comments (none posted)
Database Software
Joao Prado Maia
writes about Pear::DB and Smarty on O'Reilly.
"
It can be difficult to separate business logic and formatting in PHP. There
are several good templating solutions, though, including the popular and
powerful Smarty. Joao Prado Maia demonstrates how to use Smarty with a
database back end through the PEAR::DB library."
Comments (none posted)
Education
Issue #94 of the
Linux in Education Report is out. Topics include
a genetic algorithm/evolutionary program, the Schoolforge UK status,
an interview with David Trask on
Linux at the Vassalboro Community School, the
DistrictDNA administrative software package,
some updated Linux training curricula, the
YOUTH Technology Summit in Pittsburgh, PA,
a new academic helpdesk application, and more.
Comments (none posted)
Printing
Version 1.1.19rc2 of
CUPS, the Common UNIX Printing System,
has been released with a number of bug fixes. See the
Release Notes
for more information.
Comments (none posted)
Web Site Development
Geoffrey Young
writes about
Apache 2.0 and mod_perl on O'Reilly.
"
One of the more interesting and practical features to come out of the Apache 2.0 redesign effort is output filters. While in Apache 2.0 there are all kinds of filters, including input and connection filters, it's output filters that are most interesting to me - mostly because 2.0 discussions make a point of saying that it's impossible (well, really, really hard) to filter output content in Apache 1.3, despite the fact that mod_perl users have been able filter content (to some degree) for years."
Comments (none posted)
Standards
Kendall Grant Clark
covers
the latest progress from the W3C's Technical Architecture Group (TAG).
"
For a geeky journalist, or for anyone who cares about the infrastructure of the Web broadly conceived, watching the TAG can be an incredibly efficient use of one's time. Some of the most engaging, vital technical issues regularly fly over the TAG's transom--often in volumes which, or so I have suggested in the past, threaten to swamp TAG members. In short, if you want to take the technical pulse of the Web, surveying the lines and directions of its future development, watching the TAG at work is ideal."
Comments (none posted)
Miscellaneous
SourceForge has
an announcement for a new version of Etherboot.
"
Etherboot is Open Source code for creating boot ROMs for network booting x86
platforms. It is also a coordination point for information about free
software related to network booting. eepro100 users should give this release
a try, hopefully it deals with the issues that caused the driver to be broken
after 5.0.7."
Comments (none posted)
Desktop Applications
Audio Applications
SourceForge has
an announcement for version 1.0.0 of Glame.
"
Glame 1.0.0 is the first release of the stable series 1.0 that will be the
last Gnome 1.x based one. Compared to the 0.6 series improvements were made
to multitrack recording and speed. GLAME is targeted to be the GIMP for audio
processing. Currently we support non destructive multitrack editing and
recording, undo, redo, cut&paste and even realtime effects with OSS/ALSA."
Comments (1 posted)
Desktop Environments
GnomeDesktop has
an announcement for a new release of the
Bitstream Vera Fonts.
"
There are four monospace and sans faces (normal, oblique, bold, bold oblique) and two serif faces (normal and bold). Fontconfig/Xft2 can artificially oblique the serif faces for you: this loses hinting and distorts the faces slightly, but is visibly different than normal and bold, and reasonably pleasing."
Comments (2 posted)
According to
GnomeDesktop, a
status report has been published for Coaster, a cd burning utility
for GNOME.
"
One of the last pieces missing in GNOME 2 is a really nice cdburning
application. Sure the nautilus-burner is very nice, but it
doesn't really tackle the full spectrum of our burning needs ;)".
Comments (none posted)
Here is the GNOME Summary for March 30 - April 19, 2003. This week's
topics include; Desktop docs in more languages; Alleyoop plugs those
memleaks; GStreamer 0.6.1 and incoming developments; Bitstream Vera fonts
released; Running GNOME on your Laptop; Wrap GObjects in Python; The future
of Rhythmbox; Java and GNOME; GNOME in Hindi; Abiword and Evolution closing
in on GNOME 2; and much more.
Full Story (comments: none)
A project called Heartbeat, a server and service monitoring system
for GNOME,
has been announced.
Unfortunately, this creates a name collision with
the other heartbeat, part of the
Linux High Availability Project.
Comments (none posted)
The April 18, 2003 edition of the
KDE CVS Digest
is out.
"
We can now do bash scripting in KDevelop. KGhostview gets command line switches and some bug fixes. Konqueror tab delay fixed again, Safari fixes to v68 (current is v73) merged. Kicker docking and Kwin crash bugs fixed."
Comments (none posted)
Games
New Python-based game software on the
Pygame site includes:
Bubbrothers 1.0 and Sulk .27.
Comments (none posted)
GUI Packages
GnomeDesktop
has announced the release of
Glade 2.0.0,
a user interface builder. Enhancements and bug fixes are included.
Comments (none posted)
Interoperability
Issue #166 of
Wine Traffic is out. Topics include:
WineX 3.0, TransGaming Updates, Interview with Marcus Meissner,
Updated To Do List, Updated Starcraft Patch,
Making Windres Similar to WRC, Patch Submission and Acceptance Issues,
and What It Would Take To Just Link With -lwine.
Comments (none posted)
Multimedia
Version 0.6.1 of
GStreamer, a streaming multimedia
framework, has been released.
"
The GStreamer team is proud to announce an updated version in the
ABI-stable 0.6.x series, which features many bugfixes and some feature
improvements over the previous 0.6.0 release.
At this point in time GStreamer is fully functional for creating
audio-based applications, as shown by applications such as
gnome-sound-recorder, net-rhythmbox, sound-juicer and nautilus-media."
Full Story (comments: none)
Office Applications
Issue #140 of the
AbiWord Weekly News is out, with the latest AbiWord word processor
development news.
"
In case you missed the major change to the development series...it's gone to 1.9.0! Martin's continued to work on the future Nautilus View for Abi while the Macintosh port, happy with its progress in Cocoa, has discontinued the Carbon porting. On that note, it would be nice if someone familiar with Cocoa might consider taking up some of its development with the AbiTeam. A usability point comes to light after last week's preview of the Win32 work for the format table dialogue with a counter-visual from GNOME 2. Sinitsyn Valentine continues work on mingw for Win32 users."
Comments (none posted)
GnomeDesktop
covers
the release of AbiWord 1.9.0.
"
The Abiword team is moving closer to Abiword 2.0 at top speed. In their
effort to beat Evolution in a race to be first to complete the GNOME 2 port,
they released the 1.9.0 development release today."
Comments (none posted)
A new version of the SQL Ledger accounting package
has been released.
Changes include support for balance sheet and income statement
subtotals, tightened security, updated translations, and more.
Comments (none posted)
Web Browsers
GnomeDesktop has
an announcement for two new releases of
Galeon, a minimalist
web browser.
"
1.2.10 is a simple bug fix and api sync update for the 1.2.x branch.
Tommi thinks I'm wierd for bothering anymore. :-)
1.3.4 is a pretty big release. We've restored all the
cookie/image/password handling capabilities that 1.2.x has".
Comments (none posted)
MozillaZine
mentions that a new Mozilla build is available.
"
Asa Dotzler writes in with news that release candidate builds of Mozilla
1.3.1 are now available. The main fix in 1.3.1 is the restoration of
XPInstall for Mac OS X but the release will also include a few other bug
fixes. Read Asa's message for full details and download links."
Comments (none posted)
The April 18. 2003
Mozilla status update has been published. Check it out for
the latest Mozilla development news.
Comments (none posted)
Miscellaneous
The first release of Chandler (the personal information manager system
being developed by Mitch Kapor's Open Source Applications Foundation) is
now available. It is an early (v0.1) release, aimed more at letting people
look at the code than providing a useful application.
Full Story (comments: none)
The April 17-22, 2003 edition of the
Mono Weekly News is out with the latest Mono project development
news.
Comments (none posted)
Languages and Tools
C
Pawel Leszek
shows how to work with C/C++ on the Eclipse Platform.
"
Get an overview of how to use the Eclipse Platform in your C/C++ development projects. Though Eclipse is mainly a Java development environment, its architecture ensures support for other programming languages. In this article, you'll learn how to use the C/C++ Development Toolkit (CDT), which is the best C/C++ toolkit available for Eclipse."
Comments (none posted)
Caml
The April 15-22, 2003 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out
with current Caml language news.
Full Story (comments: none)
COBOL
New documentation is available for
TinyCOBOL.
"
There's a spanish translation of the introduction to Tiny Cobol by Juanjo and a new FAQ by Ronald."
Comments (none posted)
Java
O'Reilly has published
an excerpt from the book "Java Extreme Programming Cookbook".
"
In this first sample recipe from O'Reilly's Java Extreme Programming Cookbook (from Chapter 5 on "Ant"), you'll learn how to set up an efficient development environment using an Ant buildfile. In the coming weeks, we'll offer sample recipes from the book on Mock Objects, JUnitPerf, and XDoclet, so check back here over the next few weeks to sample the latest recipes."
Comments (1 posted)
Brian Goetz
looks at Java performance issues on IBM's developerWorks.
"
Unfortunately, many pointers and tips about Java performance tuning are a lot like urban legends -- someone, somewhere, passes on a "tip" that has (or had) some basis in fact, but through its continued retelling, has lost what truth it once contained. This month, Brian Goetz examines some of these urban performance legends and sets the record straight."
Comments (none posted)
Perl
The April 14-20, 2003 edition of
This Week on perl5-porters is out.
"
Not a good week to stop smoking ! Test-wise, that is. In this week's
summary, read about configuration changes, language proposals, and the
usual amount of bug fixes."
Comments (none posted)
The April 13, 2003 edition of
This week on Perl 6 has been published.
Topics include: Support for true and false properties,
PMC elements() inaccessible from the assembler?,
Parrot on Win32, Dan's Blog, and Meanwhile over in perl6-language.
Comments (none posted)
PHP
Topics on this week's
PHP Weekly Summary include:
PHP in CVS, Status of 4.3.2 RC 2, building for hosting, get_class() for ZE2, stream filter patch, and broken array pointer.
Comments (none posted)
Python
The April 21, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is available
with the usual assortment of Python stories and links.
Full Story (comments: none)
David Mertz
writes about Python metaclass programming on O'Reilly.
"
Classes and objects are simple, right? Once you really get it,
isn't that all there is? Well, no--there's a whole class of advanced
object-oriented techniques to make your code simpler, stronger,
and more elegant. This week,
David Mertz explains metaclasses--the building blocks of classes.
Though the
examples are in Python, the ideas translate to many other languages."
Comments (none posted)
Ross Burton
discusses the wrapping of GObjects in Python.
"
Learning how to wrap GTK+ C modules for use in Python will enable you to use a C-coded GObject in Python whenever you like, whether or not you're especially proficient in C."
Comments (none posted)
Ruby
The March 21, 2003 edition of the
Ruby Weekly News
is out. Topics include the latest ruby-dev summary, Ruby's history,
and Ruby in a university course.
Comments (none posted)
Scheme
The April 21, 2003 edition of the Scheme Weekly News is out
with the latest Scheme language news.
Full Story (comments: none)
Tcl/Tk
The April 21, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! has been published.
Check it out for the latest Tcl/Tk news.
Full Story (comments: none)
Version 1.6.0b2 of Visual Tcl
has been released.
"
This release fixes
problems seen with the img package on tck/Tk 8.4.2, hanging vTcl on startup
or with broken image links. More simple tutorials have been added, and
support for creating and reusing megawidgets enhanced. Easy implementation of
modal dialogs can be done with the toplevel alias command."
Comments (none posted)
XML
Mark Pilgrim
examines what will be dropped in XHTML 2.
"
Last month I promised an article on the venerable <img> tag, which has been dropped from XHTML 2.0. It was supposed to be a gentle introduction to "stuff we lose in XHTML 2.0, and what we gain in return". However, during the course of researching, I realized that it was turning out to be not so introductory after all. So you'll have to wait another month for that.
There are several key elements and attributes that are slated to be dropped from XHTML 2."
Comments (none posted)
Miscellaneous
KDE.News has
an announcement
for version 3.0 Alpha 4a of
KDevelop, a C/C++ IDE
for KDE.
"
The KDevelop team announces the availablility of KDevelop 3.0 Alpha 4a (yes, 4a).
In the more than 3 months since the last release, many new features
have been added, bugs have been squashed, and existing features have been
refined and polished."
Comments (none posted)
Sourceforge has
the announcement for version 0.8rc1 of Treebeard/Fangorn.
"
Treebeard is an XSLT IDE written in Java; a text editor that allows the
loading and editing of an XML document and an XSLT document at the same time.
It also can apply the XSLT to the XML and display the output for further
editing/saving. Plugable XML and XSLT parsers. The new 0.8rc1 version fixes
several bugs from the 0.7 version, it also adds the ability to save your
desktop, and has look and feel support."
Comments (none posted)
SourceForge has
an announcement for version 0.1.5 of CUTE, a Qt-based programmer's
editor. "
With
this release, key mapping can now be done with map python function. There is
also a dialog for shortcut manipulation. Began to implement ctags support."
Comments (none posted)
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