Development

Pyro: Python Robotics

Pyro, the Pyro AI and Robotics System, brings the Python language to Robotic control systems. This is not to be confused with the other pyro, Python Remote Objects.

"Pyro is a library, environment, graphical user interface, and low-level drivers to explore AI and robotics using the Python language.

Key features of Pyro include:

• Support for a number of popular robotics platforms.
• Designed for robotics research and development.
• Built-in robot simulators.
• Ability to run a given robot with a choice of brains.
• Support for Reactive Control, Planning and Reasoning, and Evolutionary algorithms.
• Support for range, bumper, and video sensor inputs.
• Built-in Vision Recognition Software.
• Built on the RedHat 7 and 8 Linux platform.

The Learning Pyro document is organized as a robotics course curriculum. The majority of the project documentation is within. The PyroWhatsNew document lists the project's history in detail, version 2.0.2 was just released.

For those of you who are interested in getting some hands-on experience with Pyro, the first Pyro Workshop will be held on August 3-5, 2003 in Lowell, Massachusetts at U-Mass. Pyro looks like a fun project to experiment with, installation instructions and software downloads are available here.

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Initial release of Soundmesh for Linux

The initial release of Soundmesh, an Internet2 audio streaming package, has been announced. "Soundmesh is a result of a collaborative work with Mara Helmuth. It originally started as an "Internet Sound Exchange" Internet2 project and has since grown to become a full-fledged audio streaming front-end. The sole purpose of this app is to provide a mechanism for streaming multiple CD-quality (or better) audio soundfiles via fast Internet2 connection, utilizing hacked version of the RTcmix v.3.1.0. Hence, Soundmesh provides for a unique "jamming" tool via Internet for a larger groups of participants."

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Planet CCRMA changes

The latest changes to the Planet CCRMA audio utility packaging project include the addition of Ardour version 0.9beta2-1. Ardour is an up and coming multi-track audio recording package.

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libgda/libgnomedb 0.90.0 released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.90.0 of libgda/libgnomedb, a framework for developing database applications under GNOME, has been released. "This release marks the beginning of the end of the normal development process, since this is one of the latest releases before the 1.0 beta testing cycle starts."

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Icarus Verilog snapshot 20030705 available

A new development snapshot of the Icarus Verilog electronic simulation language compiler has been released. See the release notes for change information.

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Xcircuit 3.1.16 released

Version 3.1.16 of Xcircuit, an electronic circuit drawing package, has been released. The change information is somewhat sparse at this time.

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MailBoxer 2.2.5 released (ZopeMembers)

MailBoxer 2.2.5 has been announced. "MailBoxer is a lightweight ZOPE-Product to run mailinglists, newsletters and mailarchives. Its main idea is to give you an extensible framework for building mailinglist-based applications with the power of ZOPE. Out of the box it provides a full featured mailinglist/ newsletter/ mailarchiving-framework." A number of bug fixes and new features are included in this release.

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LinuxPrinting.org news

The latest addition to the Foomatic printer database on LinuxPrinting.org is the Minolta Color PageWorks Pro L color laser printer.

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Zope 2.7.0a1 Released (ZopeMembers)

Version 2.7.0a1 of Zope has been released. "Zope 2.7.0 represents a concentration on software configuration and installation improvement over older versions. It requires Python 2.2.3."

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Epoz 0.5.1 released (ZopeMembers)

Version 0.5.1 of Epoz, a wysiwyg editor for Zope, has been released. Changes include bug fixes for bold text, a new timeout feature, a view/edit source switch, a French translation, a change of license to Zpl 2.0, and more.

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PortalTransforms 1.0a1 released ! (ZopeMembers)

The first alpha release of PortalTransforms is available for the Zope platform. "It provides two new CMF tools in order to make MIME types based transformations on the portal contents and so an easy to way to plugin some new transformations for previously unsupported content types. You will find more info in the package's README and docs directory."

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NewsMonster 1.0 Released (MozillaZine)

MozillaZine has an announcement for version 1.0 of NewsMonster, a cross-platform web log manager. "Come and get it gang! This build focuses on stability while we work hard on 1.1."

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A PHP Web Services Client (O'Reilly)

Adam Trachtenberg introduces SOAP and web services on O'Reilly. "Web services allow you to exchange information over HTTP using XML. When you want to find out the weather forecast for New York City, the current stock price of IBM, or the best-selling DVD according to Amazon.com, you can write a short script to gather that data in a format you can easily manipulate. From a developer's perspective, it's as if you're calling a local function that returns a value."

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EVMS 2.1.0 released (SourceForge)

Version 2.1.0 of EVMS, the Enterprise Volume Management System, is available. "This release is for the new EVMS design, which is based on user-space volume discovery and communication with existing kernel drivers, such as MD/Software-RAID and Device-Mapper."

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gmorgan 0.01 released

The first release of gmorgan has been released. "Gmorgan is a .. Rhythm Station, an organ with auto-accompaniment. Uses MIDI and the ALSA sequencer for play the rhythm patterns. Styles, patterns and sounds, the mixer settings, can be edited and saved."

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JACK Rack 1.4.2 announced

Version 1.4.2 of JACK Rack has been released and features a Russian translation as well as some bug fixes.

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Musik 0.1.2 released

Musik is an open-source, multi-platform multimedia library that supports mp3 and ogg formats. "New features include: unicode support, threaded operation, smoother playback, faster mp3 and ogg tagging, better drag and drop support, less flashing, new selection schemes, new user interface preferences, a profanity filter, and the beginnings of a web based interface to "remote control" playback."

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Tkeca 2.0.0 Released!

Version 2.0.0 of Tkeca, the Tk GUI for Ecasound, has been released.

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GNOME Development Series Desktop 2.3.3: (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org covers the release of the GNOME Development Series Desktop 2.3.3. "This release is a feature-frozen, development series snapshot. It is used by developers and testers as their day-to-day working desktop, nd is ready for wider testing by our user community."

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GNOME Summary (GnomeDesktop)

Gnomedesktop.org has the announcement and feedback for the July 1-6, 2003 GNOME Summary. "So once again we are out with a new GNOME Summary, this time we look at some really cool new stuff like Nat Friedmans Dashboard and Jeff Waugh's new planet."

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KDE Traffic #57

The July 2, 2003 issue of KDE Traffic is out. Topics include: KDE Release Plan take 2, KDE 3.1.3, Hex Editor Widget, System Modules for Control Center, and Privacy Control Center Module.

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KDE-CVS-Digest

The July 4, 2003 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is out. "This week in KDE-CVS-Digest: News about a new patch collection in qt-copy module, the Darwin port of KDE and Quanta. Optimizations in KSVG, listview and iconview modes."

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SPTK 2.0 alpha 4 released

Version 2.0 alpha 4 of SPTK, the Simply Powerful ToolKit, has been released and features a number of bug fixes.

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Wine Traffic

Issue #177 of Wine Traffic is out. Topics include: Updated DLL Status Page, DirectShow / Quartz Patches, Fix For Kazaa Lite, Clipboard Problems, Wine Keyboard Handling, and Printing Out the Wine Version.

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Columba 0.11.0 (unstable) released (SourceForge)

Version 0.11.0 (Unstable) of Columba is available. "Columba is an email client written in Java, featuring a user-friendly graphical interface with wizards and internalionalization support. Its a powerful email management tool with features to enhance your productivity and communication."

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AbiWord Weekly News

Issue #151 of the AbiWord Weekly News is out. The summary says: "Tomas expands the clipboard capabilities, MailMerge to become a new animal, Windows gets several big boosts and Beta2 soon to arrive. Also, one of the more productive weeks for the user discussions, on our mailing list and at FootNotes."

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OpenOffice.org Newsletter

Volume 1 of the OpenOffice.org Newsletter has been published. Take a look for the latest OpenOffice.org development news.

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StarDict 2.2.1 released (GnomeDesktop)

Versions 2.2.1 of StarDict, an international dictionary for GNOME, has been announced.

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Mozilla Status Update

The July 4, 2003 Mozilla Status Update has been published. Topics include: Mozilla 1.4, Mozilla Thunderbird, Mozilla Firebird, Mozilla Calendar, Relicensing Scripts, CSS3 Support, Tree Status, and Staff Meeting Minutes.

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Mozilla Independent Status Reports

The latest round of Mozilla Independent Status Reports are out. The MozillaZine summary says: "The latest set of status reports includes updates from mozdev, Mnenhy, Mozex, MessageID-Finder, Tinderstatus, XULMaker and NeedleSearch."

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ReciteWord-0.8.2 released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.8.2 of ReciteWord is available. "reciteword is education software developed using GTK 2 to help people study English and recite English words. It has a very beautiful interface to make reciting words an interesing thing. It can change skins, and comes with many sound events, including over 400 books for you to choose. It also includes a dictionary, which can also run separately."

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Terminal Server Client 0.116 Released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for version 0.116 of Terminal Server Client. "A new release of Terminal Server Client, a frontend for rdesktop and other remote desktop tools, has been unleashed. Version 0.116 fixes a lot of bugs that have been reported."

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gnome-jabber v0.1.0 released! (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for a new version of gnome-jabber. "Anonymous George writes "The first ever version of gnome-jabber has now been released making full use of Gnome2 and GTK2. Gnome-jabber is an Instant Message Client for Gnome using the Jabber Protocol (which supports all major IM protocols, like ICQ, MSN, AIM, etc)."

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Gossip 0.3 released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for version 0.3 of Gossip. "Imendio is proud to announce the first release of Gossip, an easy to user Jabber client for the magnificent GNOME platform. What is Gossip? Gossip aims at making Jabber easy to use and tries to give GNOME users a real user friendly way of chatting with their friends."

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Caml Weekly News

The July 1-8, 2003 edition of the Caml Weekly News is out with the latest Caml language news.

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The Caml Light / OCaml Hump

The latest Caml language additions on the Caml Light / OCaml Hump include CDuce: A strongly typed higher-order functional programming language for XML documents, IBAL: A general-purpose language for probabilistic modeling, parameter estimation and decision making, Fresh Objective Caml: An extension of OCaml with facilities for correctly manipulating object-language syntax involving alpha-convertible names and binding operations, and Flow Caml: A prototype implementation of an information flow analyzer for the Caml language.

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G95 x86-linux binaries available

Linux binaries of GNU Fortran 95 (G95) are available. "These include a complete FORALL implementation and some support for internal IO, amongst other things."

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Java-GNOME Bindings 0.8 Released (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.8 of Java-GNOME Bindings has been announced. This version features support for GTK+ 2.x and GNOME 2.x.

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JDO Architectures (O'ReillyNet)

O'Reilly has published an excerpt from the book Java Data Objects. "In this excerpt from Java Data Objects, authors David Jordan and Craig Russell provide a high-level overview of the architectural aspects of JDO, as well as examples of environments in which JDO can be used."

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Enhance the accessibility of your GUIs (IBM developerWorks)

Yannick Saillet covers GUI accessibility issues on IBM's devloperWorks. "One of the main characteristics of the JFC/Swing framework is its ability to use pluggable look-and-feel designs. The same application can be run with different look-and-feel designs without requiring any modification. In this article, Software Engineer Yannick Saillet explains the mechanism behind the Metal look and feel -- one of the standard look and feel designs provided with the J2SE platform -- and demonstrates how to modify it into a universal, customizable look and feel to accommodate special user needs, such as high contrast or large fonts for the visually impaired."

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PerlBugAthon (use Perl)

Use Perl has announced the PerlBugAthon. "cwest writes "There are currently around 1450 open tickets in the perlbug database. Many of these are years old. Others are already resolved in current versions of perl. Some might not be bugs at all.The goal of the PerlBugAthon is to reduce the number of open tickets by 500. We have a week to make it happen."

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This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)

The June 30 - July 6, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is online. "As the next maintenance release of perl is getting closer, the porters are still fixing bugs. Among the subjects that have been investigated this week, we can remember some hash-ordering-dependent bugs, process name problems, and more syntactic issues."

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This week on Perl 6 (O'Reilly)

The July 06, 2003 edition of This week on Perl 6 is out with lots of Parrot information.

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Project Ponie: Perl On New Internals Engine (use Perl)

UsePerl reports on Larry Wall's new Ponie project. "acme writes "Today at his State of the Onion speech during the 2003 O'Reilly Open Source Convention, Larry Wall announced the Ponie project (somewhere within his legendary humorous presentation). Ponie involves rewriting central parts of the Perl 5 interpreter to run on Parrot, the Perl 6 virtual machine, including a C API emulation layer to make existing XS code work."

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PHP Weekly Summary for July 7, 2003

The PHP Weekly Summary for July 7, 2003 is out. Topics include: PHP 5 beta 1 comments, TODO list for Beta 2, Reflection API, Renaming php4* to php5*, PCRE extension changes, No official PHP 5 documentation yet, SQLlite and sessions.

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Python 2.3b2 (SourceForge)

SourceForge has an announcement for Python version 2.3b2. "Python 2.3b2 has been released (29-Jun-2003). We encourage you to test your applications with this release, as we plan on a final Python 2.3 release by early August."

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Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!

The July 7, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! is out with the week's Python language development news.

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Ruby/Java Integration Through JNI

Dmitry Borodaenko has sent us an announcement for a project called RJNI that involves mapping the JNI API as an extension to Ruby. "Combining the vast set of Java libraries with the power of Ruby language has all the potenti[al] to become a serious breakthrough in application development."

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Scheme Weekly News

The July 7, 2003 edition of the Scheme Weekly News is out with the latest Scheme language developments.

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Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The July 7, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! is available for your reading pleasure.

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XML Publishing with Cocoon 2, Part 1 (O'ReillyNet)

David Cummings and Collin VanDyck introduce Cocoon in part 1 of a 2 part series on O'Reilly. "Apache Cocoon is an XML-publishing framework that allows you to uild powerful applications from customized components. Yeah, that's a mouthful. Collin VanDyck and David Cummings demonstrate Cocoon's sitemap and XML generation capabilities."

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XML Data Bindings in Python, Part 2 (O'Reilly)

Uche Ogbuji continues his series on XML Data Bindings in Python with part 2. "In my last article I started a discussion of data bindings for Python with a close look at generateDS.py. This time I'll look at another package, gnosis.xml.objectify from David Mertz's Gnosis Utilities."

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Debunking SAML myths and misunderstandings

Frank Cohen writes about SAML on IBM's developerWorks. "At the beginning of 2003, the OASIS group approved the Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) specification. With 55 individuals from 25 companies participating, one would think SAML does everything and would be well understood. Instead, misconceptions about SAML exist in the software development community. In this article, Frank Cohen details and debunks many of the myths and misunderstandings surrounding SAML."

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