Development
The XMMS2 "Dr. Doolittle" release
Version 0.1DR2.2 of XMMS2, the X(cross)platform Music Multiplexing System, was announced this week. The project is still in the early stages of development.
This release is forged by the wormholes of
Stargate, Swedish schlager music, Chilean beaches and a lament for a
loved one. DrDoolittle is a minor-feature-addition and bug-fix
release instead of the expected major-break-the-world release. We
decided that enough critical fixes and small features were available
to make a release. You can watch the new Roadmap in order to see
what's going on with future releases.
XMMS2 is a redesign of XMMS, the popular X Multimedia System music player.
XMMS2 is a redesign of the XMMS (http://www.xmms.org) music player. It features a client-server model, allowing multiple (even simultaneous!) user interfaces, both textual and graphical. All common audio formats are supported using plugins. On top of this, there is a flexible media library to organize your music.
Your editor, who only recently started using XMMS, decided to see what XMMS2 had to offer. A handy Ubuntu "Breezy Badger" package set was available for download. The XMMS2 and dependent packages installed with no trouble. Firing up xmms2 for the first time yielded some mysterious error messages. A little digging around on the XMMS2 web site yielded the Using the application document, which showed the way to making xmms2 work. It is first necessary to fire up xmms2d, the xmms2 daemon, before running xmms2.
Unlike the old XMMS GUI, xmms2 is a simple command line tool. Running xmms2 yields a list of possible command line options. One must first select a file or top-level directory where the audio files reside. The xmms2 radd directory command, followed by xmms2 play started the player. The xmms2 next command aborts playing of the current track and moves to the next one. The xmms2 stop commands stops playing and xmms2 quit shuts down the xmms2d process.
The basic installation works fine with .wav files, but an attempt to install the xmms2-flac decoder produced a dependency error. It seems that libflac6 is required by XMMS2, but the Synaptic package manager reports that the package is uninstallable.
The command line interface is sufficient for basic testing, but leaves the user wanting a GUI. There is a long list of GUI clients available, but none were included with the basic XMMS2 packages. At this point, XMMS2 is currently not an exact replacement for XMMS.
XMMS2 can perform the basic music playing function, but it is still a bit early in its development to consider it prime-time software. Your editor is looking forward to future developments on the project.
System Applications
Database Software
Firebird 2.00 Beta 2 for AMD64 released
Version 2.00 Beta 2 of the Firebird database, including a Classic kit for AMD64 Linux, is available for testing.Firebird Developer's Journal
A new Firebird database Developer's Journal has been launched. "Well, after many months of thinking about this idea, we are finally starting this journal. It's intended to provide you with all the necessary news about the Firebird development process. So if you cannot (or just don't want to) follow the development mailing lists closely, this is your chance to still be informed about the progress."
PostgreSQL Weekly News
The March 26, 2006 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with new articles and resources.
Embedded Systems
BusyBox 1.1.1 announced
Version 1.1.1 of BusyBox, a condensed collection of command line utilities for embedded systems, is out. "The new maintainer is Rob Landley, and the new release is BusyBox 1.1.1. Expect a "what's new" document in a few days."
Filesystem Utilities
Radmind 1.6.1 available (SourceForge)
Version 1.6.1 of the Radmind tools are available for download. Radmind is: "A suite of Unix command-line tools and a server designed to remotely administer the file systems of multiple Unix machines. For Mac OS X, there's also a graphical interface. At its core, radmind operates as a tripwire. It is able to detect changes to any managed filesystem object, e.g. files, directories, links, etc. However, radmind goes further than just integrity checking: once a change is detected, radmind can optionally reverse the change."
SICM v0.95 has been released (SourceForge)
Version 0.95 of SICM is out with support for Perl 5.8.8 and improved documentation. "SICM is a tool to monitor, graph and alert the capacity of computing devices and applications. SICM runs on a Windows or Linux device on your network, 24 hours every day and constantly records the capacity parameters of any networked device using snmp, ping or custom modules. The recorded data is stored for later reference via a user friendly menu-driven web browser. E-mail alerts are raised if a user determined number of queries fail."
Interoperability
Announcing Samba 4.0.0TP2
Version 4.0.0 TP2, the second technology preview of Samba 4, is available for testing. "Samba 4 is the ambitious next version of the Samba suite that is being developed in parallel to the stable 3.0 series. The main emphasis in this branch is support for the Active Directory logon protocols used by Windows 2000 and above."
Latest Samba preview launched (ZDNet)
ZDNet reviews the latest preview release of Samba. "Vernooij said the second test version of Samba 4 was aimed at "allowing users, managers and developers to see how we have progressed and to invite feedback and support." The development team has made more than 80 modifications to the software since the initial release, including better internal application programming interfaces and code quality in Samba's client-side application."
Mail Software
Mailman 2.1.8b1 released (SourceForge)
Version 2.1.8b1 of GNU Mailman, a mailing list manager, has been announced. "This is a beta test release, which includes security enhancement and bug fixes in 2.1.7. It is highly recommended that all sites update to 2.1.8b1."
Sendmail 8.13.6 released
Version 8.13.6 of Sendmail, a mail transfer agent, has been announced. "Sendmail, Inc., and the Sendmail Consortium announce the availability of sendmail 8.13.6. It contains a fix for a security problem discovered by Mark Dowd of ISS X-Force. Sendmail thanks ISS for bringing this problem to our attention and reviewing the patch for it. sendmail 8.13.6 also includes fixes for other potential problems, see the release notes below for more details."
Printing
CUPS 1.2 rc1 announced
Release candidate 1 of the CUPS 1.2 printing system has been announced. "The first release candidate of CUPS 1.2 is now available for download from the CUPS web site. We are also providing binary packages for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 (32-bit + 64-bit Intel), Fedora Core 4 (32-bit Intel), and MacOS X 10.4 (32-bit PowerPC + Intel) for your convenience."
Web Site Development
Bricolage 1.10.1 Released
Version 1.10.1 of Bricolage, a web content management and publishing system, is out. "This maintenance release adds a few new features, a number of improvements, and many bug fixes. Highlights include new SOAP modules, improved packaging support, and smother upgrades from 1.8.x versions."
KForge 0.10 Released
Stable version 0.10 of KForge has been released, it adds new capabilities and includes some bug fixes. "KForge is an open-source (GPL) system for managing software and knowledge projects. It re-uses existing best-of-breed tools such as a versioned storage (subversion), a tracker (trac), and wiki (trac or moinmoin), integrating them with the systems own facilities (projects, users, permissions etc). KForge also provides a complete web interface for project administration as well a fully-developed plugin system so that new services and features can be easily added."
TurboGears 0.9a2 released
Version 0.9a2 of TurboGears, a Python-based web framework, has been announced. "Weve had a whole raftload of feedback and contributions since the release of 0.9a1. 0.9 is becoming considerably more solid, but Im not going to upgrade it to beta until there are more docs. Be sure to read the upgrade instructions, because youll need to make some changes to come from 0.9a1 or 0.8 to this release."
Desktop Applications
Business Applications
Tina POS 0.0.15 released (SourceForge)
Version 0.0.15 of Tina POS has been released. "Tina POS is a point of sale application designed for touch screens. Supports ESC/POS ticket printers, customer displays and barcode scanners. Its multiuser and has a great backoffice with a product entry form, reports and charts. This new release adds important changes to the code base of Tina POS, a lot of refactoring has been done."
Desktop Environments
40+ Suggestions for Better Desktop (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop.org points to an interesting article by Peter Chabada in improving the desktop. "An article "40+ Suggestions for a Better Desktop" discusses how to extend recent desktops to improve their usability. Ideas in this article cover a wide range of desktop applications, e.g. Nautilus, multimedia, spreadsheets, mail clients, configuration, security..."
GNOME Software Announcements
The following new GNOME software has been announced this week:- Glom 1.0 (new features)
- gparted 0.2.3 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- GShowTV 1.0.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- gyrus 0.3.6 (new features, bug fixes and translation work)
- LDTP 0.4.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- Tracker 0.0.3 (new features and bug fixes)
KDE 3.5.2 Released (KDE.News)
KDE.News looks at the release announcement for the K Desktop Environment 3.5.2. "This second update release in the KDE 3.5 series brings an improved user experience and stability by focusing exclusively on translations and bug fixes."
KDE Software Announcements
The following new KDE software has been announced this week:- anymeal 0.28 (new features and bug fixes)
- Eggibault 1.0 (new application)
- GamLetter 0.4 (new features)
- httpremote_amarok 0.0.2 (new features)
- Kamefu 0.1 beta1 (beta release)
- kAnyRemote 0.4 (unspecified)
- KBlogger 0.5 (new features, bug fixes and documentation work)
- kdesvn 0.8.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- KDevelop 3.3.2 (new features and documentation work)
- KeePassX 0.2.0 (new features and bug fixes)
- keurocalc 0.9.5 (new features and translation work)
- Kgraphviewer 0.2 (new features)
- KLinkStatus 0.3.1 (new features and bug fixes)
- Kmysignature 0.3 (unspecified)
- Knamer 0.9 (unspecified)
- KOffice 1.5.0rc1 (unspecified)
- Kopete 0.12 beta 2 (new features and bug fixes)
- Koppermine 0.2 Beta (unspecified)
- kovpn 0.1 (new application)
- KPowersave 0.5.11-rc5 (new features, bug fixes and documentation work)
- KWlan 0.2 (second alpha version)
- m3u manager 0.0-2 (bug fix)
- MusE 0.8.1 (bug fix)
- NetCARD Config 1.05 (new feature and bug fix)
- NetfilterStatsBuilder 1.5.1 (bug fix)
- Protoeditor Beta 0.9 (new features and bug fixes)
- PyQt 3.16 (improved interoperability)
- Qalculate! 0.9.3.1 (bug fixes)
- Quanta Plus 3.5.2 (new features and bug fixes)
- Samba Scanner / Mount / Umount 1.05 (bug fix)
- Scribus 1.3.2 (new features and translation work)
Desktop Publishing
Scribus 1.3.3 Released
Version 1.3.3 of Scribus, a cross-platform open source page layout application, is out. "The 1.3.3 release is the fourth development version working towards a new stable 1.4. Within this release period over 200 bugs and feature requests were completed mostly focused on useability and correctness."
Electronics
jtag-o-mat 1.2.5 released
Version 1.2.5 of jtag-o-mat, a cross-platform interface to JTAG test ports on embedded microprocessor devices, is out. "This program provides a simple but highly flexible interface to JTAG hardware. In opposite to similar projects, the focus is on running automatic JTAG sequences. The code has been kept intentionally simple to maintain portability and allow modification without the risk to spoil too many dependant parts."
Kicad 2006-03-28 released
Version 2006-03-28 of Kicad, a printed circuit CAD application, is available. Changes include wxWidgets 2.6.3 support and bug fixes.KJWaves Version 1.0.7 released
Version 1.0.7 of KJWaves is out. "KJWaves was written to be a cross-platform SPICE tool in pure Java. It aids in viewing, modifying, and simulating SPICE CIRCUIT files. Output from SPICE3 (ngspice) can be read and displayed. Resulting graphs may be printed and saved."
pcb-20060321 snapshot available
Development snapshot 20060321 of PCB, an printed circuit CAD application, has been announced. "I have made a new snapshot for pcb. It is anticipated that this is the last snapshot using only the GTK gui and that further releases will be based on the HID version of pcb."
Financial Applications
SQL-Ledger 2.6.8 released
Version 2.6.8 of SQL-Ledger, a web-based accounting system, is available. Changes include improvements to invoice batch printing, balance calculations, translations, and more.
Games
New PyGame Releases
The PyGame site lists several new game releases including GalaxyMage 0.3.0, Astrocrash 2.0, Legacy of Magic alpha-2 and more.Stendhal 0.47 released (SourceForge)
Version 0.47 of Stendhal, a multi-platform multi-player online adventure game, is available. "Stendhal features a new, rich and expanding world in which you can explore towns, buildings, plains, caves and dungeons. You will meet NPCs and acquire tasks and quests for valuable experience and cold hard cash. Your character will develop and grow and with each new level up become stronger and better. With the money you acquire you can buy new items and improve your armour and weapons. And for the blood thirsty of your; satisfy your killing desires by roaming the world in search of evil monsters! This release fix LOTS of bugs that we have recieve from and add some new interesting features like doors and keys, add two new big game areas: Wofol, the kobold's city that is suitable for team play of players around level 10-20 and N'mon, the lich fortress under the Orril castle, that is only for the most brave players."
GUI Packages
PyQt v3.16 Released (Python Language Bindings for Qt)
Version 3.16 of PyQt, the Python Language Bindings for Qt, is out. "The main benefit of this release is that it can be installed side by side with the soon-to-be-released PyQt v4 (for Qt v4)."
wxWidgets 2.6.3 released
Version 2.6.3 of wxWidgets, a cross-platform GUI toolkit, is out "This is a bug fix release. Notable improvements include Mac universal binary creation with the command-line tools, Windows Mobile 5.0 support, context menu and enhanced file selector support on Windows CE, AMD 64-bit compilation on Windows, better VC++ 2005 support, and more efficient paint handling on wxGTK."
Interoperability
Wine Weekly Newsletter
The March 24, 2006 edition of the Wine Weekly Newsletter has been published. Topics include: Wine 0.9.10, Fedora Packages Available, Windows Vista & Wine, Confusing Macros, Disabling Networking and Mech Commander 2 Source Available.
Digital Photography
Gallery 2.1 released (SourceForge)
Version 2.1 of Gallery, a web-based photo album organizer, has been announced. "This release is a substantial improvement over Gallery 2.0 in both features and performance. We've added 10 new modules supporting features like RSS, ratings, permanent links, Picasa and Google Sitemaps. We've made many changes to the core framework to reduce code size and improve our performance, and this release includes page level caching which can provide a profound performance increase in most situations. This release has also received a professional security audit."
Video Applications
Open Movie Editor 20060325 released
Version 20060325 of Open Movie Editor is available. "Open Movie Editor is designed to be a simple tool, that provides basic movie making capabilites. It aims to be powerful enough for the amateur movie artist, yet easy to use."
Miscellaneous
Maxima 5.9.3 released
Version 5.9.3 of Maxima, a computer algebra system written in Common Lisp, has been released. "This version provides a build system expanded for internationalization, many revised and expanded functions, improved documentation, new add-on packages, and fixes."
Nautilus Actions : Share your actions ! (GnomeDesktop)
GnomeDesktop looks at Nautilus-actions. "I'm happy to announce that it is now possible to share your actions created for Nautilus-actions on its web site. Nautilus-actions is an extension for Nautilus, the GNOME file manager. It allows the addition of arbitrary programs to be launched through the Nautilus popup menu on files that are selected."
Languages and Tools
Caml
Caml Weekly News
The March 21-28, 2006 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.
Java
Advanced Configuration of the Spring MVC Framework (O'ReillyNet)
Dejan Bosanac works with Spring configuration in an O'Reilly article. "In this article I will present some configuration tips for the Spring MVC framework that could help you manage multiple instances of your Spring-based web application. The configuration management topic is often neglected in the literature, but as we will see, it is very important for real-life web development. It is not directly related to any particular technology, so we will start by explaining the basic concepts of the problem. Next, we will focus on the Spring MVC framework and offer a few solutions for projects developed using this technology."
Lisp
SBCL 0.9.11 released
Version 0.9.11 of Steel Bank Common Lisp is available. "William Harold Newman has announced SBCL 0.9.11 on 26 March 2006. This version provides experimental support for x86/Darwin under MacOS X on Intel, performance improvements, and more."
McCLIM 0.9.2 released
Version 0.9.2 of McCLIM is available. "This version includes several changes such as a new installation process, improved backends, new documentation and examples, and more. McCLIM is an open-source implementation of the CLIM 2 (Common Lisp Interface Manager) specification. CLIM is "a powerful Lisp-based programming interface that provides a layered set of portable facilities for constructing user interfaces"."
Python
Python 2.4.3, release candidate 1 is available
Python version 2.4.3, release candidate 1 has been announced. "Python 2.4.3 is a bug-fix release. See the release notes at the website for details of the more than 50 bugs squished in this release, including a number found by the Coverity Scan project. Assuming no major problems crop up, a final release of Python 2.4.3 will follow in about a week's time."
Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!
The March 27, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is online with a new collection of Python article links.
Tcl/Tk
Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!
The March 28, 2006 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.
XML
Understanding XForms: The Model (O'Reilly)
Kurt Cagle introduces XForms in part two of an O'Reilly Xml.com series. "What I wanted to look at in this particular article is a much simpler walk through to put together an XForm based application that illustrates that it really isn't that difficult to create an XForm - you just have to have an understanding of what exactly XForms really are."
IDEs
eric3 3.8.2 released
Version 3.8.2 of eric3, an IDE for Python and Ruby, has been announced: "this is to let all of you know about the release of eric3 3.8.2. This version fixes a compatibility bug with the latest PyQt release (PyQt 3.16). Eric3 is a Python and Ruby IDE with batteries included."
Page editor: Forrest Cook
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