Development

The XFce 4.0 Lightweight Desktop Environment

Version 4.0 of XFce, a lightweight desktop environment, has been announced.

XFce creator Olivier Fourdan sums up the goals of the project:

The full XFce 4.0 press release indicates that this version has substantial changes from version 3.

Furthermore, the press release sums up these new capabilities:

It will be interesting to see if XFce 4 can gain a substantial following in the landscape of available Linux desktop environments. A lighter system may be able to carve out a decent sized niche on systems that don't require all of the capabilities of KDE and Gnome.

Comments (8 posted)

System Applications

Audio Projects

Alsa 0.9.7 released

Version 0.9.7 of the Alsa sound driver and associated utilities is available. Change information is in the source code.

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Planet CCRMA Changes

The latest changes to the Planet CCRMA audio packaging project include new versions of Snd, Noteedit, Lilypond, and Qjackctl.

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Speex 1.0.2 Released

Version 1.0.2 of the Speex speech codec has been released. "Just a bugfix release. This update adds soundcard support for Solaris and the BSDs as well as minor bugfixes and a documentation update."

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Database Software

Gedafe 1.2.0 released

Version 1.2.0 of Gedafe, the Generic Database Front-End, is available. "The idea behind Gedafe is to put all the application logic into the database, along with meta-information on how to present the data. The front-end then gathers this information and uses it to build the user interface. This approach greatly reduces development time since you only have to develop the application at the database level and the web front-end comes for free."

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pgAdmin III v1.0.0 Released

Version 1.0.0 of pgAdmin is available for download. "The pgAdmin Development Team are pleased to announce the first stable release of pgAdmin III, an Open Source management and administration tool for the PostgreSQL Object Relational Database Management System."

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PostgreSQL Weekly News

The September 26, 2003 PostgreSQL Weekly News is out with the latest PostgreSQL database news. Topics include 7.4 Beta testing, JDBC fixes, bug fixes, and documentation updates.

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Mail Software

Mailman 2.1.3 released

Verson 2.1.3 of Mailman, the GNU Mailing List Manager, is available. "Version 2.1.3 is a bug fix release which also contains support for four new languages: Ukrainian, Serbian, Euskara (Basque), and Danish. This release also contains a fix for a cross-site scripting vulnerability, as well as improved queue runner performancey."

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Announcing milter-date/0.2 (beta)

Milter-date 0.2 beta, a date-based spam filter, has been announced. "How many times have you seen spam thats from the future, or is older than the world wide web, or looked at message headers and wondered why a message should take 30 days to go from one hop to the next?"

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Building an Advanced Mail Server (O'Reilly)

Joe Stump writes about the process of putting together an email server in the first part of an O'Reilly series. "All Linux distributions that I know of come with an MTA of some sort. The most popular is Sendmail. Other popular MTAs include Exim, postfix, and Qmail. This article discusses how to build an advanced mail server which sports all of the latest mail protocols, checks all incoming mail for spam, and scans all incoming and outgoing mail for viruses."

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Networking Tools

Announcing Divmod Quotient 0.6

Divmod Quotient 0.6 has been announced. "Quotient is multi-protocol (SMTP, POP, IMAP, SIP, HTTP, Q2Q) server that helps with all your online conversations be they over email, IRC, IM, mailing lists or voice over IP. It is written in Python on the Twisted framework and uses Lupy and SpamBayes".

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Printing

LinuxPrinting.org news

The latest news from LinuxPrinting.org includes improved support for the HP LaserJet 1010, 1012, and 1015 and the HP DeskJet 5150, the 5652 printers. Also, it is now possible to access the Epson inkjet memory card readers.

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Web Site Development

mnoGoSearch 3.2.15 released

Version 3.2.15 of the mnoGoSearch web site search engine is available. See the history document for change information.

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mod_caml 0.8.0 announced

Version 0.8.0 of mod_caml, the Objective CAML bindings for Apache, is out. "This is an interim release for testing. The main change is that some API functions which previously returned 'string option' ('None' meaning that the C string was NULL) have been changed to return just 'string', and to raise 'Not_found' if the C string is NULL."

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Adding Search Functionality to Perl Applications (O'Reilly)

Aaron Trevena illustrates web site searching techniques on O'Reilly. "If you are building a small, simple database-backed web site with only a couple of hundred records, then relatively simple SQL should be all you need. It would be trivial to add a simple and Foo_Name like '%keyword%' to the queries being used. When your needs go beyond this, there are three ways you can proceed: you can use native database full-text searching, an external search engine, or you can roll your own."

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

Audacity 1.2.0-pre2 released

Version 1.2.0-pre2 of Audacity is available. "Audacity 1.2.0-pre2 is a public test release of the free Audacity sound editor. This version fixes all of the known major bugs in 1.2.0-pre1, and we anticipate very few changes between this version and the final 1.2.0 release in a few more weeks."

Comments (none posted)

Tkeca 3.0.0 Released

Version 3.0.0 of Tkeca, a GUI interface to the Ecasound audio tool, is out. "I strongly advice to upgrade to this version! I think that Tkeca is becoming in a serious recording tool."

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Desktop Environments

Second KDE 3.2 Alpha 'Tereza' Released

KDE.News reports that KDE 3.2 Alpha 2 is available. "As the first Beta was delayed to finish more PIM features, we're proud to present the second Alpha release of KDE 3.2. The first Alpha was already seen as a very strong release and the second one is even better (1374 bugs closed in the last 31 days). The major changes are the import of ksvg and kpdf into the KDE distribution, along with a major rewrite of the window manager."

Comments (none posted)

KDE-CVS-Digest

The September 26, 2003 KDE-CVS-Digest is available, here's the summary: "Quanta visual editor makes progress. Khtml gets text selection optimizations and immediate repaint from Safari. Kontact, KMail, KAddressbook get work on settings, time cards, drag and drop, plus many bug fixes."

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Desktop Publishing

Alambic 1.0.2 available

Version 1.0.2 of Alambic, a PDF creation and distribution utility, has been announced. Changes include: "Minor fixes and enhancements for version 1.0.2. Added German localization provided by Kai-Steffen Jens Hielscher."

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LyX 1.3.3 released

Version 1.3.3 of LyX, a GUI frontend to the TeX typesetting system, is out.

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Electronics

Covered 20030925 available

Release 20030925 of Covered, a Verilog code coverage analyzer, is available. "This release contains the first working FSM code coverage portion in Covered."

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Financial Applications

Roadmap to GnuCash 1.10/2.0

Linas Vepstas has sent out a roadmap for GnuCash 1.10/2.0 development. "The reason I'm sending this note is because I'm impatient and I want to write more code during the next month, and I have to pick what I will be working on."

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Games

Monkey Bubble, a bust'a'move clone released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for Monkey Bubble version 0.1.5. "tcataldo writes "A few days ago, the first release of Monkey Bubble landed on the internet. It is a fully functional bust'a'move clone with a few nice features : vector graphics based on librsvg, frozen bubble level support, two player games,..."

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Graphics

The vtkFLTK bridge library

Version 0.4.1 of vtkFLTK is available. "vtkFLTK is a small C++ class library easing development of FLTK event-driven interfaces for use with VTK. vtkFLTK allows composition of complex graphical interfaces to complex visualization facilities by bridging disparities between FLTK and VTK event and windowing system handling." Change information is in the source code.

Comments (none posted)

Instant Messaging

Gaim 0.70 released

Version 0.70 of Gaim, an instant messaging client, is available. "Our friends over at Cerulean Studios managed to break my speed record at cracking Yahoo authentication schemes with an impressive feat of hackery. They sent it over and here it is in Gaim 0.70."

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Interoperability

DOSEMU 1.2.0 RC1 available

Version 1.2.0 RC1 of DOSEMU, the DOS emulator, is available. "Since Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Bart Oldeman has become coordinator/maintainer of DOSEMU, while the former coordinator Hans Lermen remained responsible in the background as a 'backup facility'. For the same reason Hans would still maintain the stable releases (currently 1.0.x), so Bart can concentrate on the development tree (currently 1.1.x). However, because of personal reasons Hans is no longer able to maintain 1.0.x now, and 1.0.x is without a maintainer. We hope to stabilize 1.1.x into a 1.2.0 release later this year (2003)."

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Samba 3.0 is released

Samba version 3.0 has been released. "Samba 3.0 contains the first Open Source/Free Software implementation of Windows NT Primary and Backup Domain Controller functionality. Customers can transparently migrate their existing Windows NT domains to Samba 3.0 whilst keeping their existing user and group account databases. This enables significant cost of ownership savings over a Windows NT4 domain as a Samba 3.0 Domain Controller does not require client access licenses."

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Wine Traffic

Issue #189 of Wine Traffic has been published. Take a look for the latest Wine development news.

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Music Applications

Jamboree 0.3 released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for Jamboree 0.3. "Jamboree is a music player with an iTunes like interface that utilizes gstreamer. The first public release, dubbed 0.3 contains: Browse mode, smart and normal playlists, OGG/MP3 support, lightning speed."

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Ladspavst v0.1.4 available

Version 0.1.4 of the vst ladspa plugin has been released.

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LilyPond 2.0 released

Version 2.0 of LilyPond, a musical typesetting system, is out. "For this version, we have dramatically simplified many parts of the syntax, making it easier to use than ever before. Other improvements include quarter-tone accidentals, and conditional inclusion of music fragments."

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Office Applications

Chandler 0.2 available

Version 0.2 of the Chandler Personal Informantion Management (PIM) system is out. "Our 0.2 release is an architectural release, where we focus on building Chandler as a platform. The 0.2 release was triggered by the clock as opposed to any functional or feature milestone. We want to show that we are making progress at regular intervals even though we might not have the loose ends all tidied up." For more information on the Chandler project, see the Chandler Status Update Number 9.

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Office Suites

KOffice 1.3 Beta 4 Released

KDE.News mentions the release of KOffice 1.3 Beta 4. "This release sports tons of bugfixes made during the KDE developers' conference in Nové Hrady, Czech Republic (see KOffice Developers' Meeting Report). It is the last beta in the 1.3 series according to the revised KOffice 1.3 release schedule which plans the final release now for November 12, 2003."

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OpenOffice.org 1.1 RC5 is ready

Version 1.1 Release Candidate 5 of OpenOffice.org has been released."The build includes bug fixes and is speedier and more robust. No new features have been introduced since RC4. Just bug fixes. We thank you for helping us find and fix them; the work the user community has done has been invaluable."

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OpenOffice.org 1.1 released

It's official: OpenOffice.org 1.1 has been released. Click below for the announcement, or see the features list for an idea of what has been added this time around. "This build has, as we have learned, many new features that no other office suite has yet to think of."

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Science

GRAMPS 0.9.4 released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.9.4 of GRAMPS, the Genealogical Research and Analysis Management System, has been announced.

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NAMD 2.5 (Parallel MD) Release

Version 2.5 of NAMD has been released. "The Theoretical and Computational Biophysics Group at the University of Illinois is proud to announce the public release of a new version of NAMD, a parallel, object-oriented molecular dynamics code designed for high-performance simulation of large biomolecular systems."

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The Vision Egg 0.9.9 is here!

Version 0.9.9 of Vision Egg, a Python-based system that generates stimuli for vision research experiments, has been released. "There is nothing more I intend to add before I release Version 1.0 -- this is a release candidate subject to final testing and bug fixing, so I would appreciate all the abuse you can put it through. In particular, test/conform.py runs many tests on your system and reports the output."

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Web Browsers

Mozilla 1.5 Release Candidate 2 Out (MozillaZine)

Mozilla 1.5 Release Candidate 2 has been announced. "This new test build contains around twenty fixes that were not in Release Candidate 1, including a new preference for specifying whether opening a bookmark group should replace the existing tabs or append the new pages to the current set."

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Mozilla Links

Issue #3 of the Mozilla Links Newsletter has been published. Take a look for the latest Mozilla browser news.

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Minutes of the mozilla.org Staff Meeting (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine points to the September 22 Mozilla.org staff meeting minutes. "Issues discussed include Mozilla 1.5 final, Mozilla 1.4.1, Talkback, Mozilla Thunderbird, the September 30th deadline, the Roadmap, the Mozilla Foundation employees mailing list, localisation and moving the web and mail servers."

Comments (none posted)

Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3 Release Candidates (MozillaZine)

GnomeDesktop.org has a multiple announcement for Mozilla Firebird 0.7 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.3. "Like Firebird, Thunderbird 0.3 will come from the 1.5 branch, with developers hoping for a simultaneous release of Mozilla 1.5 and Thunderbird 0.3."

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Word Processors

AbiWord Weekly News

Issue #163 of the AbiWord Weekly News is online. "RTF import capability has been sped up like you wouldn't believe, thanks to Johnny Lee. The BeOS port verges on oblivion; get the word out; one week to find a maintainer. Languages with accented characters are known to be having issues on Win32. And!, assuming I can get this to work, we have an important poll, or something Mark wants to know...."

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Miscellaneous

Axiom released as open-source software

Axiom, a common Lisp based computer algebra system, has been released as open-source software under a BSD-style license. "The project started in 1971 at IBM as a research system named Scratchpad. Scratchpad was renamed to Axiom in the 1990s and sold to NAG, which distributed it as a commercial product until 2001. Axiom is a powerful system, which in the current state "represents about 30 years and 300 man-years of research work""

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Monitor Calibration Tool 0.1.1 released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org mentions the release of a new version of Ross Burton's GammaarRRr monitor color calibration tool. "This tool features Black point calibration, per-Display gamma calibration for arbitrary target gamma values, a graphical editor for calibrating the gamma and a GNOME applet to select gamma corrections quickly."

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Languages and Tools

Caml

Caml Weekly News

The September 23-30, 2003 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with the week's Caml language developments.

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The Caml Light / OCaml Hump

New software on The Caml Light / OCaml Hump includes new versions of the GODI source-based O'Caml distribution, the Why software verification tool, Schoca: an implementation of the Scheme language, the Extlib small standard OCaml library, and the mod_ocaml Apache binding.

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Java

Readable Java 1.5 (O'ReillyNet)

Stephen Jungels writes about Java 1.5 on O'Reilly. "The Java 1.5 proposal offers programmers a false choice between desirable new features and readability. In fact, all of the proposed new features for 1.5 can be represented by clear, unambiguous, and readable constructs without breaking backwards compatibility. In the rest of this article I will illustrate this point by describing three alternative syntaxes I am proposing."

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Lisp

Chio string processing library

A Common Lisp string processing library known as Chio is available.

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Perl

Perl 5.8.1 Has Been Released (use Perl)

Use Perl has the initial announcement for Perl 5.8.1. "Jarkko has released perl 5.8.1, and it has propagated to CPAN. Thanks for all the hard work! Changes include randomizing hash orders for security (they were never supposed to be reproduceable, anyway), module updates, and Unicode updates." See the Perl 5.8.1 official announcement for more information.

Comments (none posted)

This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)

The September 22-28, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters has been published. "Perl 5.8.1 was released. 'Nuff said."

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This week on Perl 6 (O'Reilly)

The September 21, 2003 edition of This week on Perl 6 is out, take a look for the latest Perl 6 developments.

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Announcing the Phalanx Project (use Perl)

The Plalanx project has been announced. "Andy Lester writes "Phalanx is a Perl QA project created to provide a solid testing base for Ponie, the next version of Perl 5 that will be based on the Parrot virtual machine. By increasing the test coverage of Perl modules and Perl itself, we will make Ponie be the best-tested version of Perl ever"

Comments (none posted)

Getting Started With Parrot Development

Mike Scott has written a new Getting Started With Parrot Development document that's available on the Parrot Wiki.

Comments (none posted)

gtk2-perl "muppetman" available

A new release of the gtk2-perl Perl bindings for Gtk+ 2.x is available.

Comments (none posted)

PHP

kses 0.2.1 released

Version 0.2.1 of kses, an HTML/XHTML filter written in PHP, has been released. "The 0.2.1 release adds a new object-oriented version of kses, three new attribute value checks (minlen, minval and valueless), a work-around for an Opera "feature" that treats chr(173) as whitespace, and some other minor changes."

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PHP 4.3.4RC1 released

Version 4.3.4RC1 of PHP has been announced. "This release candidate contains only bug fixes, so it should be quite stable. Please test this release as much as possible, so that any remaining issues can be uncovered and resolved prior to the final release. "

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Python

Python 2.3.2 RC 1 released

Python 2.3.2 RC 1 has been made available. "Python 2.3.2 is a bug-fix release, to repair a couple of build problems and packaging errors in Python 2.3.1. Assuming no major problems crop up, a final release of Python 2.3.2 will follow later this week."

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secsh: SSH2 protocol for python

The secsh project aims to implement an SSH2 client and server for Python. Currently, only the client is available. "Secsh is a module for python 2.3 that implements the SSH2 protocol for secure (encrypted and authenticated) connections to remote machines."

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Wax primer: A simple editor

A new primer is available for Wax, a layer on the wxPython GUI system. "This document illustrates some of the basics of Wax. As an example program, we're going to make a simple editor. I'm going to build it step by step; you are encouraged to apply the changes incrementally and run the code after every step."

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Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The September 29, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with lots of links to useful Tcl/Tk articles and info.

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