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Development

LIRC - the Linux Infrared Remote Control project

LIRC, the Linux Infrared Remote Control project interfaces common IR remote controls to a Linux system. It is being produced by this group of developers.

The software's description states:

[LIRC]

The most important part of LIRC is the lircd daemon that will decode IR signals received by the device drivers and provide the information on a socket. It will also accept commands for IR signals to be sent if the hardware supports this. The second daemon program called lircmd will connect to lircd and translate the decoded IR signals to mouse movements. You can e.g. configure X to use your remote control as an input device. The user space applications will allow you to control your computer with your remote control. You can send X events to applications, start programs and much more on just one button press. The possible applications are obvious: Infra-red mouse, remote control for your TV tuner card or CD-ROM, shutdown by remote, program your VCR and/or satellite tuner with your computer, etc. I've heard that MP3 players are also quite popular these days.

The list of supported devices shows the hardware that will work with LIRC, this includes audio, TV card, MIDI, Bluetooth and USB interfaces, TV cards, some radio remote controls and even a few PDAs. For the hardware hacker, documentation is available for constructing a number of serial port receivers, serial port transmitters and a bidirectional parallel port interface. Colin McGregor has put together a Linux Journal HOWTO article on building an LIRC interface.

The LIRC FAQ and HOWTOs document has both hardware and software build/install information and the online manual explains how the system works in detail.

LIRC is used by a number of higher level projects such as the Rhythmbox and XMMS music players, the PulseAudio sound server, Fluendo's Elisa Media Center and the MythTV PVR project.

Version 0.8.1 of LIRC was recently announced, the previous release came out about a year ago. Changes include new support for USB-UIRT, transmitter support for newer versions of the Windows Media Center transceiver and support for the Iguanaworks USB IR Transceiver.

If you want to add an IR remote control to your favorite Linux project, take a look at LIRC. The LIRC software is available for download here.

Comments (7 posted)

System Applications

Database Software

Firebird 1.5.4 released

Version 1.5.4 of the Firebird DBMS is available. "This sub-release introduces a number of bug fixes backported from the Firebird 2.0.x branches. These test builds are available for Windows and Linux 32-bit platforms."

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MySQL Community Server 5.0.33 released

Version 5.0.33 of MySQL Community Server has been announced. "MySQL Community Server 5.0.33, a new version of the popular Open Source Database Management System, has been released. The release is now available in source form from our download pages at"

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New update released for all PostgreSQL versions

PostgreSQL versions 8.1.6 and 8.2.1 have been announced. "Releases 8.1.6 and 8.2.1 fix a number of error issues with versions 8.1 and 8.2, including several issues that can cause unexpected aborts in 8.2. Further, all versions have been updated for the new Australian and Canadian daylight-saving time rules."

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PostgreSQL Weekly News

The January 7, 2007 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is online with the latest PostgreSQL DBMS articles and resources.

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PyDbLite 1.9 announced

Version 1.9 of PyDbLite has been announced. "PyDbLite is a small, fast, pure-Python, in-memory database management program. The database object supports the iterator protocol, so that requests can be expressed with list comprehensions or generator expressions instead of SQL."

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SQLite 3.3.9 released

Version 3.3.9 of SQLite, a light weight DBMS, is out. "Version 3.3.9 fixes bugs that can lead to database corruption under obsure and difficult to reproduce circumstances. See DatabaseCorruption in the wiki for details. This release also add the new sqlite3_prepare_v2() API and includes important bug fixes in the command-line shell and enhancements to the query optimizer. Upgrading is recommended."

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Mail Software

Exim 4.66 released

Release 4.66 of the exim mail transfer agent is out. "This is a bug fix and features release in the 4.xx series of releases - see the download pages. Documentation was updated for 4.66."

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Postfix 2.4 snapshot 20070107 released

Snapshot 20070107 of the Postfix mail transfer agent is out. Changes include "Cleanup: eliminate the Linux/Solaris "wait for accept()" stage from the queue manager to delivery agent protocol. This alone achieves 99.99% of the Linux/Solaris speed up from the preceding change. The pending connection pipeline takes care of the rest. Tested on Linux kernels dating back to 2.0.27 (that's more than 10 years ago)."

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Desktop Applications

Audio Applications

Ardour 2.0 beta 10 released

Version 2.0 beta 10 of Ardour, a multi-track audio recording system, has been released. "Hot off the winter presses for a new year comes 2.0 beta 10 source release. For Mac OS X users here is the universal binary. We plan for beta 11 to be the last set of code changes before we switch to the “release candidate” pattern, so get your bug reports in to the tracker ASAP."

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Das_watchdog 0.3.1 announced

Version 0.3.1 of Das_watchdog is out with several new features. "Whenever a program locks up the machine, das_watchdog will temporarily sets all realtime process to non-realtime for 8 seconds. You will get an xmessage window up on the screen whenever that happens."

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ewa 0.62 released

Version 0.62 of ewa has been announced. "Ewa (East-West Audio) is a GPL server program that dynamically adds intros and outros to mp3s on the basis of user-defined rules. With ewa, internet audio publishers can periodically rotate the promotional content in their mp3 downloads without remastering."

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jack_mixer version 2 released

Version 2 of jack_mixer is out with a new meter scale, documentation improvements and bug fixes. "jack_mixer is GTK (2.x) JACK audio mixer with look similar to it`s hardware counterparts. It has lot of useful features, apart from being able to mix multiple JACK audio streams."

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Business Applications

webERP version 3.05 released (SourceForge)

Version 3.05 of webERP, a suite of accounting modules for business administration, has been announced. "This is the first release for just over a year and incorporates all the development over that period including: Weighted Average Inventory Costing - previously only standard costing was available, Integrated SQL report writer - exports to CSV as well as producing PDF reports, Wiki integration option - to provide the basis for a structured company knowledge-base and numerous enhancements, options and bug fixes."

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Desktop Environments

GNOME Software Announcements

The following new GNOME software has been announced this week: You can find more new GNOME software releases at gnomefiles.org.

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KDE Software Announcements

The following new KDE software has been announced this week: You can find more new KDE software releases at kde-apps.org.

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The Road to KDE 4: New KOffice Technologies (KDE.News)

KDE.News looks forward to KDE 4, and KWord 2.0 in particular. "All manner of objects are being converted to the new Flake library, for instance KFormula elements, so you can insert nicely rendered math into your documents without any trouble. This support could make KWord as exciting to use for page layouts as KPresenter, as you are no longer restricted to dull, square document shapes. These changes should enable KWord 2 to behave as a respectable basic desktop publishing application."

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KDE Commit-Digest (KDE.News)

The , 2007 edition of the KDE Commit-Digest has been announced. The content summary says: "Sonnet, the natural language checker, continues to develop and can now discriminate between more than 70 different languages. More work on the "konsole-split-view" branch to add split/merge functionality to the KDE 4 console. Support for filesystem labels in the "mountconfig" Guidance configuration module. Large developments in the "mailtransport" KDE-PIM work to enable code sharing between users of the common "emailing" action. Support for background text colours in Konversation. Further work in the "Papillon" MSN Messenger connection library, with support for Xtraz status and notifications in Kopete. Gradient editing tool introduced across KOffice. Better support for PDF presentation files in Okular. Improved AI in the recently-imported game KSquares. "Sublime", the new user interface library for KDevelop 4 is imported into KDE SVN. The initial code for KRunner, the KDE 4 replacement for the "Run Command" dialog, is imported into KDE SVN. The RSS Konqueror sidebar plugin is removed from KDE SVN, along with dcoprss and librss, which will both be replaced by libsyndication in KDE 4."

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Xorg Software Announcements

The following new Xorg software has been announced this week: More information can be found on the X.Org Foundation wiki.

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Educational Software

Kanatest 0.4.0 released

Version 0.4.0 of Kanatest, a Japanese kana (Hiragana and Katakana) simple flashcard tool, is out. Changes include: Kanatest now uses fonts instead of images for kanas, Kana chart has been added, New and powerful statistics, Enhanced options, A new logo and icon and Completely rewritten code and a lot of gui improvements.

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Games

Open Yahtzee 1.6 released (SourceForge)

Version 1.6 of Open Yahtzee has been announced. "Open Yahtzee is a full featured Yahtzee game. Open Yahtzee is written in wxWidgets and is cross-platform. Open Yahtzee 1.6 features couple of enhancements to the game play such as the ability to undo moves such as accidental scoring (you can't undo rolling dices of course). Another new feature is a new icon set for the program and ability to check for updates via the web."

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Interoperability

Wine 0.9.29 released

Version 0.9.29 of Wine has been announced. Changes include: "More work on the new Direct3D state management, Debugger support for Mac OS, Many OLE fixes and improvements, Audio input support on Mac OS and Lots of bug fixes."

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Video Applications

LiVES 0.9.8.2 released

Version 0.9.8.2 of LiVES is available. "LiVES began in 2002 as the Linux Video Editing System. Since it now runs on more operating systems, LiVES is a Video Editing System. It is designed to be simple to use, yet powerful. It is small in size, yet it has many advanced features." See the CHANGELOG file for details on this version.

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Miscellaneous

od2txt 0.2 released

Stable version 0.2 of od2txt, "A simple (and stupid) converter from OpenDocument Text to plain text", has been announced.

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Languages and Tools

Assembly Language

AsmIDE 0.9.22 released

Stable version 0.9.22 of AsmIDE is out. "This release includes a new debugger, source code generator, disassembler, updated reference tool, library expansion and numerous other changes. AsmIDE is a collection of program to support assembler development on Linux. It runs in a terminal and the library supports terminal programs."

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C

GCC 4.1.2 Status Report

Mark Mitchell has written a GCC 4.1.2 Status Report. "I've decided to focus next on GCC 4.1.2. After GCC 4.1.2, I will focus on GCC 4.2.0. At this point, I expect GCC 4.3 to remain in Stage 1 for some time, while we work on GCC 4.1.2 and GCC 4.2.0."

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Caml

Caml Weekly News

The January 9, 2007 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with new Caml language articles.

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Groovy

Groovy 1.0 is there

Version 1.0 of Groovy has been announced. "Groovy is a dynamic language for the JVM that integrates seamlessly with the Java platform. It offers a Java-like syntax, with language features inspired by Smalltalk, Python or Ruby, and lets your reuse all your Java libraries and protect the investment you made in Java skills, tools or application servers. Groovy can be used for various purposes, from adhoc shell scripting leveraging Java APIs, to full-blown web applications built on Spring and Hibernate through the Grails web framework. It can also be integrated very easily in your applications to externalize business logic, create Domain-Specific Languages, or to provide templating capabilities, and much more. A lot of passion and energy has been put in this new version after two release candidates that have been tested against real-world projects: on a mission-critical insurance application, on the XWiki 2nd generation wiki engine, as well as on the RIFE framework and through the Spring 2.0 scripting integration."

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Haskell

Haskell Weekly News

The January 09, 2007, edition of the Haskell Weekly News is online. This week sees the release of more libraries and applications for the new year, and the Haskell Hackathon gets underway!

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Java

GCJ News

The Gnu Compiler for Java (GCJ) project has put out a new news report. "We've merged the gcj-eclipse branch to svn trunk. The merge changes gcj to use the Eclipse compiler as a front end, enabling all 1.5 language features. This merge also brings in a new, generics-enabled version of Classpath, including some new tools. This new code will appear in GCC 4.3."

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Discovering a Java Application's Security Requirements (O'ReillyNet)

Mark Petrovic discusses Java security issues in an O'Reilly article. "Java security manager policy files are powerful and flexible, but rather grueling and error-prone to write by hand. In this article Mark Petrovic employs a novel approach: a development-time SecurityManager that logs your applications' calls and builds a suitable policy file."

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Lisp

SBCL 1.0.1 released

Version 1.0.1 of Steel Bank Common Lisp (SBCL) has been announced. "This version supports the new platform FreeBSD/x86-64, adds more debugging information to compiled code, improves profiling and performance, and more."

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Python

Charming Python: Decorators make magic easy (IBM developerWorks)

David Mertz works with Python decorators in an IBM developerWorks article. "Python made metaprogramming possible, but each Python version has added slightly different -- and not quite compatible -- wrinkles to the way you accomplish metaprogramming tricks. Playing with first-class function objects has long been around, as have techniques for peaking and poking at magic attributes. With version 2.2, Python grew a custom metaclass mechanism that went a long way, but at the cost of melting users' brains. More recently, with version 2.4, Python has grown "decorators," which are the newest -- and by far the most user-friendly way, so far -- to perform most metaprogramming."

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Ruby

Abandoned Projects, Bus Proofing, and a Draft Directive (On Ruby)

Pat Eyler discusses abandoned projects in his On Ruby blog. "To me, running a project is both an opportunity and a responsibility. In starting several projects, I've taken on an obligation to the community, and if I just abandon a project I'm not fulfilling that obligation. (To me, while "Free as in speech" is more important than "Free as in beer", "Free as in puppies" is pretty important too.) I'd like it to be clear that I want my project taken over and maintained. The immediate parallel that comes to mind is a Living Will."

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Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited, Part 2 (O'ReillyNet)

O'Reilly presents part two of the series Rolling with Ruby on Rails Revisited by Bill Walton and Curt Hibbs. "Was it really two years ago when Curt Hibbs introduced Ruby on Rails to the world at large? In that time, Rails has grown up a lot. Curt and Bill Walton revisit the original tutorial to bring it up to date and show off how much easier it is to get started with the powerful Ruby on Rails web framework."

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Tcl/Tk

Tcl-URL!

The January 9, 2007 edition of the Tcl-URL! is online with new Tcl/Tk articles and resources.

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XML

The XQuery Chimera Takes Center Stage (O'Reilly)

Simon St. Laurent discusses the state of XQuery on O'Reilly's XML.com. "XQuery has pretty much always been about more than XML. For years, vendors have shown diagrams where XQuery provided a central cloud connecting all kinds of relational databases and XML databases -- and whatever else might be lying around -- into a single lovely XML stream. Connections with relational databases have been a key justification for XQuery's support of the W3C XML Schema type system and its heavily typed processing model. XQuery isn't meant to replace SQL, but it can certainly complement it, especially when relational databases are already supporting reporting results as XML."

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Libraries

RFIDIOt version 0.1k released

Version 0.1k of RFIDIOt, the RFID open source library, is out. "Over the Christmas break I did quite a bit of work on the code and have added a hardware abstraction layer that allows support for readers other than the ACG, and to test it I've added limited support for the Frosch Hitag reader. New features in this release: Program Hitag2 to EM4x02 / Unique, Reset Hitag2 to default state (Frosch only), Read German passports and Various tidy-ups and improvements."

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Urwid 0.9.7.2 released

Version 0.9.7.2 of Urwid, a command line user interface library for Python, is out. "This maintenance release significantly improves the performance of Urwid when run in UTF-8 mode. A UTF-8 input handling bug was also fixed."

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