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DevelopmentGnuplot 4.0.0Gnuplot is a time-tested data plotting utility that is useful for both interactive and automated generation of mathematical plots:
Gnuplot is a portable command-line driven interactive datafile (text or binary) and function plotting utility for UNIX, IBM OS/2, MS Windows, DOS, Apple Macintosh, VMS, Atari and many other platforms. The software is copyrighted but freely distributed (i.e., you don't have to pay for it). It was originally intended as graphical program which would allow scientists and students to visualize mathematical functions and data. It does this job pretty well, and in addition it serves as non-interactive plotting engine for miscellaneous portable third-party applications, like Octave.
Gnuplot features a high level command interface, as demonstrated in the screen shots page. The program can be used to generate both 2D and 3D plots, it can plot mathematical formulas as well as raw numeric data. Gnuplot supports output to a variety file formats including PostScript, pdf, png, and svg. An X11 output mode is available for interactive viewing of plots. A long time ago, in a job far, far away, two LWN editors put together a set of online weather stations using Gnuplot and Perl. Version 4.0.0 of Gnuplot - the first major release in over a decade - was announced this week. Some of the new features in this release include a new 3d plotting style, mouse interactivity in the X11 display, new output drivers, support for true-type fonts, improvements to the arrow plots, and more. The official version 4.0.0 What's New document explains the new features in greater detail. The Gnuplot code is available for download here.
System Applications Audio Projects Planet CCRMA ChangesThe latest changes from the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project include updated versions of Speex, liblrdf, libfishsound, and liboggz.
Backup Software ext2/ext3 Dump 0.4b36 releasedDump 0.4b36 is available. This version improves interoperability with other versions of dump, provides unlimited dump levels, and more.
Database Software libgda/libgnomedb 1.0.4 releasedVersion 1.0.4 of the libgda/libgnomedb framework for database applications is out. "libgda/libgnomedb are the base of the database support in the GNOME Office application suite, providing database access for many features in both Gnumeric and Abiword. This is a bugfix release, containing fixes for various bugs found by users in the 1.0.3 release."
Improved ODBC support for CLSQLCLSQL, a Common Lisp interface to SQL databases, has a new ODBC layer. "The backend "has been tested on CMUCL, SBCL, OpenMCL, AllegroCL, and Lispworks on Linux using unixODBC as well as on Windows platforms"."
Filesystem Utilities Samba 3.0.3rc1 availableThe Samba Project has announced the first Samba 3.0.3 release candidate. Among other things, 3.0.3 includes support for local nested groups via winbindd and the ability to specify options to be passed directly to CUPS.
Libraries libcroco 0.5.1 releasedVersion 0.5.1 of libcroco has been announced, it fixes several bugs.
Mail Software Clam AntiVirus 0.70 release (SourceForge)Version 0.70 of Clam AntiVirus, an anti-virus toolkit for UNIX systems, has been announced. "On April 24th, a new functionality level will be introduced in the database. There are a few signatures which can't be used by pre-0.70 scanner engines, so we need you to upgrade immediately to 0.70."
Networking Tools BIND 9.3 releasedISC has announced the release of BIND 9.3. This version includes DNSSEC support and a number of new administrative features. ISC is also launching commercial support services for BIND.
Web Site Development Migrating to Velocity (O'ReillyNet)O'Reilly is running an article that shows how to switch to the Velocity web templating engine. "Velocity offers a compelling way to develop web applications, but converting an existing JSP-based project is no simple task. Jason Briggs shows how he used Velocity servlets to ease the transition."
Miscellaneous Introducing Cfengine (O'ReillyNet)O'Reilly has published an introduction to Cfengine. "Automation is the most important skill an administrator can develop. Learning tools that make automation easier usually pay off greatly. Luke A. Kanies claims that Cfengine may be the most important tool in your toolbox and introduces its use and design."
SC-Track Roundup 0.6.9 is outMaintenance release version 0.6.9 of the Roundup issue tracking system is out with several bug fixes.
Desktop Applications Audio Applications MuSE 0.9 has been released (and MusE 0.7)Version 0.9 of MuSE, an audio mixer, encoder, and network streamer, is out. Here is a summary of the changes: "Spotlights on the large rewrite of Engine parts, especially the Input and Encoder channels, the tightening of the FIFO Pipe mechanism, many speed improvements and full documentation of the API. There is a revamped GTK-2 interface now featuring drag&drop capability, Language translations and much better Profile and Playlist handling, a new libSnd (wav player) input channel during the hackmeeting, full support of Icecast2 streaming both with OGG and MP3 and yet more CLI flexibility."Just to add a bit of namespace confusion, version 0.7 pre 1 of MusE (note the different capitalization), a music editor, is also out with lots of changes.
Rhythmbox 0.8.0 releasedVersion 0.8.0 of the Rhythmbox music management system has been released. "If I had to summarize the development since 0.6, I would say it's just like Rhythmbox, only better :) From stuff like Ogg support for internet radio, ReplayGain support, and automatic playlists based on rating, what we've done is just generally try to flesh everything out. We are also showcasing GStreamer's cool features like metadata reading."
Desktop Environments Bug Buddy 2.6.1 releasedVersion 2.6.1 of Bug Buddy, a bug reporting tool for GNOME, has been released. "This is a stable release of the GNOME bug reporting tool for the GNOME 2.6.1 release, so please, try it a lot, and of course, reports bugs using itse[lf]! Only a bug fix and translation updates (trasnlators, you rock!!!)"
gconf-editor 2.6.1 is outStable version 2.6.1 of gconf-editor is available. "Only bug fixes (but important bugs!) and translation additions in this release. The funny stuff will be on cvs HEAD and 2.7.x releases."
GNOME Platform Bindings 2.6.0 (GnomeDesktop)Version 2.6.0 of the GNOME Platform Bindings has been announced. "As scheduled, we now have API/ABI-stable bindings for the GNOME 2.6 Development Platform, for C++, Java, and Perl. That means you can seriously consider those programming languages (and others) when developing GNOME-based applications, and you can be confident that your applications will not break when future versions of these bindings are released."
GNOME Terminal 2.6.1 is availableVersion 2.6.1 of the GNOME Terminal, a terminal emulator, is available with improved translations.
Crystal Sources United! (KDE.News)KDE.News reports on an effort to organize the KDE Crystal icon set. "Sources for the Crystal icon set are everywhere. They are at many places in KDE's CVS, so many, it's hard to download them. Artists more skillful with sketchbooks than CVS, will be gladly surprised that Frans Englich wrote a script which collects them all, and that Philip Scott provided a high speed server for the resulting zip."
KDE 3.2.2 is ReleasedThe KDE project has announced the immediate availability of KDE 3.2.2, a maintenance release with lots of bug fixes since KDE 3.2.1.
KDE-CVS-Digest (KDE.News)The April 16, 2004 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest has been published. Here's the summary: "KJSEmbed adds shell calls and now builds with QT. KDevelop has a new documentation viewer, with bookmarks, printing, plugins and full text search. KSVG2 ecma support added. KNotes is now network enabled. Konqueror gets an enhanced version of caret mode. Kopete supports KIMproxy, the generic IM interface. Many bugfixes in Juk, Kate, Umbrello and others."
KDE TrafficThe April 16, 2004 edition of KDE Traffic has been published. "After a long break, KDE Traffic is back. KDE Traffic #76 includes tons of news about KMail, KOffice, Konqueror, K3b, KolourPaint and more of your favorite KDE apps."
Xfce 4.0.5 is outVersion 4.0.5 of Xfce, a light weight desktop environment, is out. "As usual, this is a maintenance release, aimed at bug-fixing; no new features are being added to the 4.0 branch. The main purpose of this release is compatibility with the recent GTK+ 2.4.x release along with other fixes."
Accessibility gnopernicus 0.9.0 releasedVersion 0.9.0 of gnopernicus, a GNOME screen reader for the visually impaired, is out following two other releases this week. Changes include improved table presentation, translation work, and more.
GOK 0.10.2 is here!Version 0.10.2 of GOK, the GNOME Onscreen Keyboards Suite, has been announced. This version adds a number of new capabilities.
Financial Applications SQL-Ledger 2.2.6 releasedVersion 2.2.6 of SQL-Ledger, a web-based accounting system, is out. The changes include a fix for database backups, an Spanish translation, and more.
Games FreedroidRPG 0.9.12 released (SourceForge)Version 0.9.12 of FreedroidRPG, a cross-platform role playing game, has been announced. "Again we're offering Windows and Linux packages for download. The changlog is lengthly and lists improvements of all aspects of the game."
gnome-games 2.6.1 announcedVersion 2.6.1 of gnome-games is available. Here are the changes: "Bug fixes for mahjongg and blackjack. Translation updates for Hungarian and Gujarati. What more could you ask from a stable release ?"
GNOME War Pad 0.2.12 is availableGNOME War Pad 0.2.12, a VGA Planets strategy game client for GNOME, is out. "This game is being played since Fidonet times, and have lots of fans that still play on those old DOS clients, it's time for a GNU/Linux one :-)"
GTetrinet 0.7.6 and 0.7.7 are outTwo new versions of GTetrinet, a multi-player Tetris game, are available. "It's been a while since our last release. Most of the work is being done on our libtetrinet branch which will hopefully be ready soon, but in the meanwhile quite some translations had been updated in CVS. Dani also fixed another keyboard input bug and made it possible to resize the gtetrinet main window."
Monster Masher 1.5.1 is outVersion 1.5.1 of the action game Monster Masher is out. "A translation-update-and-bug-fix release. More translations than bug fixes, though."
GUI Packages Glade 2.6.0 announcedVersion 2.6.0 of Glade, a user interface builder for GTK+ and GNOME, is out with several bugs fixed.
PyGTK 2.3.91 unstable is outVersion 2.3.91 (unstable) of PyGTK, the Python bindings for GTK, is out. "It includes a number of changes since the last pygtk release; We'd really appreciate testing and bug reports on this release; please take the time out to download and test it to ensure it works for your application[s]."
A Taste of Qt 4TrollTech has published a document that lists some of the features of the upcoming Qt version 4. "With Qt 3.3.0 out the door, the Qt 3.x series is drawing closer to an end. Trolltech is now focusing on the next major release, Qt 4, to come out later this year. With Qt 4, we hope to make Qt programming faster, easier, and more powerful than it has ever been."
Imaging Applications GIMP 2.0.1 Released (GnomeDesktop)Version 2.0.1 of the GIMP is out. "GIMP version 2.0.1 is available for download from ftp.gimp.org and its mirrors. This is a bug-fix release in the stable 2.0 series. The CVS tree has been branched after the release was made, so that development can proceed towards GIMP 2.2 which is scheduled for this summer. Also released, the GIMP Animation Package, or short GAP, is a collection of plug-ins to extend the GIMP with capabilities to edit and create animations as sequences of single frames."
ImageMagick 6.0.0-2 (stable) releasedVersion 6.0.0-2 (stable) of ImageMagick, an image display and manipulation program, has been announced. See the News page for information on this version.
Superchick 0.3 is outThe PyGame site lists version 0.3 of Superchick. "Superchick is a program to view manga, that is, Japanese comics. It can also be easily used to view American comics, or any other collection of images."
Instant Messaging Silky 0.5.1 released!Version 0.5.1 of Silky, a secure chat client for GTK+, has been released.
Interoperability Wine TrafficIssue #219 of Wine Traffic is available for your reading pleasure.
Multimedia GStreamer 0.8.1 and GStreamer Plugins 0.8.1 released (GnomeDesktop)Version 0.8.1 of the GStreamer multimedia framework, and the associated plugins have been announced. Changes include improved internationalization, bug fixes, and the rework of several components.
PyMedia 1.2.0 releasedVersion 1.2.0 of PyMedia, a Python library for multimedia, is out. Features include audio and video decoding and encoding, access to sound devices and CDDA tracks, and cross-platform portability.
totem 0.99.11 releasedVersion 0.99.11 of Totem, a GNOME movie player, is out with lots of bug fixes and better translations.
Music Applications Ecamegapedal 0.4.4 releasedVersion 0.4.4 of Ecamegapedal, a real-time audio effects processor is out. "Minor bugs in JACK support have been fixed. Now Ecamegapedal makes sure it won't launch the JACK daemon by accident when probing for available devices on startup. The manual pages have been updated with some new sections."
Q 5.3 and Q-Midi 1.14 are outA bug fix release of the Q language and Q-Midi computer music application is out. "Q is an equational programming language based on term rewriting. Q-Midi is an add-on module for the Q language which provides an interface to MidiShare, Grame's cross-platform MIDI library. If you want to try out programming computer music applications in a high-level functional programming language, then these might be for you."
Radium 0.63 Alpha Linux PortThe initial Linux port of Radium, an Amiga graphical music editor, is available.
Science AISF and ASTRIX releasedAISF and ASTRIX are parts of an astronomical control system. "For the past few months the Virginia Astronomical Instrumentation Laboratory has been working on a piece of software to control its observing systems. These systems are built on the GNU/Linux Operating System. The system we have designed is a new form of modular instrument control. In the spirit of the GNU/Linux operating system we are making this framework open source."
PhpGedView 3.0 released (SourceForge)Version 3.0 of PhpGedView, an online genealogy viewer, is out. "PhpGedView version 3.0 adds several new features and fixes lots of bugs. You will definately want to upgrade. The phpGedView project, SourceForge.net's December 2003 Project of the Month, parses GEDCOM 5.5 genealogy files and displays them on the internet in a format similar to PAF. All it requires to run is a php enabled web server and a gedcom file."
Video Applications kdetv 0.8.0 Released! (KDE.News)Version 0.8.0 of kdetv has been announced. "After more than two years of development, the long anticipated successor of KWinTV has reached its first public release. kdetv is an application to watch TV using Xv or video4linux compatible video cards. With this release of kdetv, Linux users can now enjoy a user-friendly desktop TV viewing experience. Features of kdetv include three view modes, a channel scanner, the ability to import the channel files of three other TV programs, teletext and closed caption decoding, and an easy-to-use graphical user interface."
Xawdecode [xdTV] 1.9.1 released! (SourceForge)Version 1.9.1 of xawdecode, also called xdTV, has been released. Changes include: "A lot of xaw GUI adds and updates, BSD and non-i386/bigendian linux systems now supported, XviD 1.0 and FFmpeg 1032 build 4708 support added, xinerama support added, xscreensaver is now managed, better memory copy management, fullscreen switch mode fixed, Alevt with Hellenic set, Added option to edit/view record scripts....."
Web Browsers Epiphany 1.2.3 is availableVersion 1.2.3 of the Epiphany browser for GNOME has been released with code cleanup, bug fixes, and improved translations.
Tree Branches for Mozilla 1.7 (MozillaZine)The Mozilla 1.7 tree branch has happened. "On Monday, the new Mozilla 1.7 branch was cut from the trunk, in preparation for the final release of Mozilla 1.7 in mid-May. As well as 1.7, the branch will also provide the foundation for Mozilla Firefox 1.0 and several other Mozilla-based applications. Post-1.7, the new branch will replace 1.4 as the stable development baseline."
Mozilla Links NewsletterThe April 14, 2004 edition of the Mozilla Links Newsletter has been published. Take a look for lots of information on the Mozilla browser and related topics.
Miscellaneous Alexandria 0.1.2 releasedVersion 0.1.2 of Alexandria, a book management system for GNOME, is out. This version fixes a couple of bugs and adds a default to the add book dialog.
GGV 2.6.1 releasedVersion 2.6.1 "Quadlibet for Tender Feet" of the GGV PostScript viewer is available with bug fixes and some updated translations.
GtkSourceView 1.0.1 stable is outVersion 1.0.1 stable of GtkSourceView, a text widget that extends the standard Gtk+ 2.x GtkTextView, has been released. This version adds bug fixes, translations, C99 keyword highligting, and more.
Languages and Tools Caml Caml Weekly NewsThe April 13-20, 2004 edition of the Caml Weekly News is available for your reading pleasure.
Java Java and Sound, Part 2 (O'Reilly)Part two of David Flanagan's series on Java and Sound is online. "Editor's note: This second installment in a two-part series of excerpts from Java Examples in a Nutshell, 3rd Edition follows on last week's (which showed how to play streaming sounds in both sampled audio and MIDI formats) with examples that show how to read a simple musical score and convert it into a MIDI sequence. Author David Flanagan also shows you how to make music by directly controlling a MidiChannel of a Synthesizer, thereby bypassing the need to play a Sequence of MIDI events through a Sequencer object."
JSP Automating Your Desktop with KJSEmbed (KDE.News)KDE.News points to a set of articles on KJSEmbed. "KJSEmbed is the KDE JavaScript engine with bindings for Qt/KDE. These bindings allow people to create scripts that can tightly integrate into KDE quickly with simple JavaScript. This article covers how to use the DCOP API from KJSEmbed and sports a simple demo script that shows off how to use this API."
Perl Apocalypse 12 releasedLarry Wall has posted Apocalypse 12, the next in his series of articles on the design of Perl 6. Yes, he has skipped a few apocalypses in the middle; one assumes he'll fill them in eventually. This one deals with the Perl 6 object model. "Usually in these Apocalypses, I discuss the design with respect to each of the RFCs. However, in this case I won't, because most of these RFCs fail in exactly the same way--they assume the Perl 6 object model to be a set of extensions to the Perl 5 object model. But as it turns out, that would have been a great way to end up with Second System Syndrome Done Wrong. Perl 5's OO system is a great workbench, but it has some issues that have to be dealt with systematically rather than piecemeal."
Perl 5.8.4 RC2 is Out (use Perl)Release Candidate 2 of Perl 5.8.4 has been announced. "This wasn't the plan, but testing has revealed that RC1 has unexpected surprises with suidperl (the set user ID perl binary which is not compiled by default). Apart from 2 CPAN module upgrades, RC2 differs from RC1 only in how suidperl is installed, so if you use suidperl you should check that RC2 is a drop in replacement for earlier 5.8.x."
This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)The April 18, 2004 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is out. "This was an RC-2 week, rich in events and discussions. Read about the little-known dualvars, the always popular version strings, the set UID perl, Unicode classes, and various other bugs."
PHP PHP 4.3.6 released!Version 4.3.6 of PHP has been released. "This is is a bug fix release whose primary goal is to address two bugs which may result in crashes in PHP builds with thread-safety enabled. All users of PHP in a threaded environment (Windows) are strongly encouraged to upgrade to this release. All in all this release fixes approximately 25 bugs that have been discovered since the 4.3.5 release. For a full list of changes in PHP 4.3.6, see the Change Log."
Python Dive Into PythonVersion 5 of Dive Into Python, a free, online Python book, is out. See the revision history for a list of changes.
Python-dev SummaryThe Python-dev Summary for March 16-31, 2004 is out with another summary of traffic on the python-dev mailing list.
Tcl/Tk Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!The Apr 18, 2004 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is out with the week's Tcl/Tk article links.
UML Gaphor 0.3.1 is availableVersion 0.3.1 of Gaphor, a Python UML modeling tool for GTK/GNOME, is out with a bug fixes in the installation procedure.
XML Release of libxml2 2.6.9Version 2.6.9 of libxml2 has been announced. "This release has one small new item, the implementation of xml:id draft, otherwise it is mostly bugfixes and small improvements".
Developing Wireless Content using XHTML Mobile (O'Reilly)Jean-Luc David works with XML and mobile devices on O'Reilly. "This article will show you how to create XHTML Mobile Profile documents that render on multiple devices. We will also demonstrate how set up an XML-based multiserving framework. Finally, we will show you can transform your XHTML to WML without having to make any changes to your XHTML code."
Python SOAP libraries, Part 5 (IBM developerWorks)Scott Archer and Uche Ogbuji present part five of their series on Python SOAP libraries. "As with its sister project, ZSI, SOAPpy has enjoyed a recent increase in activity and is now in version 0.11.3. This version includes WSDL support and many other improvements. Uche Ogbuji and Scott Archer try out this new version with the same complex Web service they tried accessing with ZSI 1.4.1 and ran into a different set of difficulties."
Page editor: Forrest Cook |
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