Development

The GnuCash Project Needs Help

Benoit Grégoire has posted a plea for developer help for GnuCash, a popular open-source personal finance management application.

Apparently, the project developers added a few too many features too quickly, and now find themselves unable to cope with maintenance of the code and documentation.

• Lower the entry barrier for new developers.
• Build an up-to-date architecture and API reference.
• Put together a report writing HOWTO document.
• Fix some problems with the core capabilities of the GnuCash engine.
• Improve interoperability with new modules and other financial software packages.
• Improve the GnuCash developer environment and web site:
  • Add search capabilities for the mailing lists.
  • Open up web site write access to more developers.
  • Implement a Wiki system.
  • Deal with frequently asked questions more efficiently.

Certainly, GnuCash is much too important of a project to just let it fade away and die. Interested developers should consider lending a hand. This would be a good opportunity to show the skeptics how well the open-source development model works, even in the face of adversity.

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JACK Transport Design

A new document called the JACK Transport Design is available for JACK. "The JACK Audio Connection Kit provides simple transport interfaces for starting, stopping and repositioning a set of clients. This document describes the overall design of these interfaces, their detailed specifications are in <jack/transport.h>"

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Planet CCRMA additions

The Change Log for the Planet CCRMA audio packaging project lists the latest new additions to the collection.

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omniORB 4.0.2 and omniORBpy 2.2 released

New versions of omniORB and omniORBpy, which provide a CORBA ORB for C++ and Python, have been announced. Change information is in the source code.

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PostgreSQL Weekly News

The August 6, 2003 edition of the PostgreSQL Weekly News is out with more PostgreSQL database news. "Well, I've been talking about for a few weeks now, and it has finally happened: 7.4 has gone beta! The tar ball was wrapped up Monday night, and by now should be available from your local mirror."

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libgda/libgnomedb 0.91.0 released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for libgda/libgnomedb 0.91.0. "libgda/libgnomedb are a complete framewok for developing database-oriented applications, and actually allow access to PostgreSQL, MySQL, Oracle, Sybase, SQLite, FireBird/Interbase, IBM DB2, mSQL and MS SQL server, as well as MS Access and xBase files and ODBC data sources."

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New releases from gEDA

The latest releases from the gEDA project (GPL Electronic Design Automation) include new versions of the gwave waveform viewer and the Icarus Verilog electronic design simulation language compiler.

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XCircuit 3.1.18 available

Version 3.1.18 of XCircuit, an electronic schematic drawing package, is available. Change information is in the source code.

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ASSP Release 0.3.5 (SourceForge)

Version 0.35 of ASSP has been announced. "The Anti-Spam SMTP Proxy (ASSP) Server project aims to create an open source platform-independent SMTP Proxy server which implements whitelists and Bayesian filtering to rid the planet of the blight of unsolicited email (UCE). This release fixes two bugs."

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Macho 0.1 released

Version 0.1 of Macho is available. "The first public release of Macho, version 0.1, has been released by Miles Egan. It is "an email web archiving system, similar in scope to pipermail or mhonarc" written in Common Lisp. Among its features are the possibility of generating standalone web archives, reasonable performance, easy navigation of generated archives and support for type-ahead navigation."

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milter.org changes

New mail filter software on milter.org includes version 0.32 of milter-sender, and the initial release of MilterQuota.

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Quagga Routing Suite release 0.96

Initial version 0.96 of the Quagga Routing Suite, a fork of GNU Zebra, has been released. "This release contains many patches, from a variety of contributors, over the last GNU Zebra release, 0.93b (released over a year ago), in particular improving upon the OSPF protocol daemon ospfd. The 0.96 release of Quagga is a shakedown release, a prelude to releasing a 1.0 version at some (hopefully) not too distant stage in the future."

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GSview BETA 4.41 available

Version 4.41 Beta of GSview, a graphical interface for Ghostscript, is available. "Main changes are a fix to prevent the X11 version crashing on startup and to improve responsiveness when displaying on a remote X11 server."

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LinuxPrinting.org database addition

The latest addition to the LinuxPrinting.org printer support database includes improved docs for the Apple LaserWriter Pro 630 driver.

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Aegir CMS enters 1.0 feature freeze

The Aegir Content Management System (CMS) has reached the version 1.0 feature freeze. "Starting from Monday 11th we want to ask all of you to perform last bugfixes and heavy testing so that we could release 1.0 Stable on Monday 25th." Also, the licensing for Aegir CMS has been changed to the GPL.

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Archetypes 1.0 Released (SourceForge)

SourceForge has the announcement for version 1.0 of Archetypes, a framework for the development of new Content Types in Zope/CMF/Plone. "This new release includes a whole bunch of bugfixes, improved FTP support for BaseContent-based objects with the new RFC822Marshaller (made default), slight UI cleaning, fixed handling of error messages on form validation."

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Network programming with the Twisted framework, Part 3 (IBM developerWorks)

David Mertz continues his series on the Twisted Framework with part 3. "In the previous installment of this series, David looked at some higher-level techniques for writing Web services, including serving dynamic pages using the .rpy extension. In this article, he moves on to look at dynamic Web serving, and how to generate dynamic Web pages using the Woven application for templating pages."

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gmorgan-0.10 and 0.11 released

Version 0.10 of gmorgan, an organ synthesizer program with auto-accompaniement, is available. Changes include a new skin engine, new patterns, bug fixes, and more. Version 0.11 was released shortly afterward and features some bug fixes.

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gCAD3D 0.72 released

Version 0.72 of a Linux-based CAD/CAM system called gCAD3D is available. "State is preliminary. Dokumentation is mainly german !" Thanks to James Feeney.

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gDesklets - GNOME Desktop Applets (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDekstop.org looks at gDesklets. "gDesklets provides an advanced architecture for desktop applets - tiny displays sitting on your desktop in a symbiotic relationship of eye candy and usefulness. Populate your desktop with status meters, icon bars, weather sensors, news tickers... whatever you can imagine!"

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Scaffold 0.1 ''Bring on the scaffolding!'' (GnomeDesktop)

Version 0.1 of Scaffold has been announced. "The Scaffold team (formerly known as anjuta2) just released version 0.1 of the GNOME based Development Environment. Scaffold is a plugin-based IDE specifically designed for GNOME with the goal to provide an integrated development environment in which GNOME programs can be developed."

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KDE-CVS-Digest for August 8, 2003

The August 8, 2003 edition of the KDE-CVS-Digest is out. Here's the content summary: "The Kopete developers release a new version. Kmail message threading is improved. Knode, a news reader, is integrated into Kontact. Korganizer printing gets improved. Koffice uses the new version of WvWare for MSWord import. Juk playlists are improved. Plus many bugfixes."

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KDE Traffic #60

Issue #60 of KDE Traffic is online. KDE.News summarizes the contents: "Well, you asked for it and now you've got it, a very content-filled KDE Traffic has just been released. Covered items include KPilot, the KDE man page generator, a new KDE development book in the works, a new KInfocenter module for FireWire and proposed new features for KMail."

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KDE Traffic #61

Issue #61 of KDE Traffic is online. The KDE.News summary says: "KDE Traffic #61 has been released, with news about KGhostview, KCalc, KRandr inclusion, Qt 3.2 requirement, KMail, KProcess, and more. Now let's just wait for everything but the kitchensync. Anyway, get it here, if you dare. Muahaha."

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CK-Ledger v.0.7.1 released (SourceForge)

Version 0.7.1 of CK-Ledger has been announced. "New features include traditional Chinese translation, simplified Chinese translation, Postgresql 7.3.2 compatibility, enhanced payroll generation process and enhanced email advice when HR staff action on timesheet and leave application. Other enhancements and bug fixes are also included. CK-Ledger (with 15 modules, Ledger Admin, Ledger, Bank Reconciliation, Inventory, Service, AP, AR, PO, SO, Quotation, POS for Cashier, POS for Manager, HR, Staff Self Service, Payroll) runs on top of phpGroupWare."

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PCGen 5.3.3 is available (SourceForge)

Version 5.3.3 of PCGen has been released. "PCGen is a Java-based RPG character generator and maintenance program that works on all platforms (Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc). All datafiles are ASCII so they can be modified by users, and are available through the pcgendm project. An XML conversion is underway. We're very pleased to announce that with this release we now include Sword and Sorcery's Relics and Rituals!"

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New PyGame Tutorial

A new tutorial is available for the PyGame project. "Shandy Brown has been working on a large new tutorial. At this point it has become fairly mature, but is still looking for further review. Please read how Shandy describes the bigger picture of pygame game design."

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GIMP 1.3.18 Released

Version 1.3.18 of the GIMP is available. "After a hectic few weeks of pre-camp hacking there are a number of improvements that have been added recently. We decided that it was worthwhile commemorating the camp with a release. So here it is. Notably, the path tool has been improved, and we have several new edge detection algorithms available."

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Gimp-Print 4.3.19 (development) (SourceForge)

Version 4.3.19 of Gimp-Print has been announced.

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Fl_Scope version 0.0.2 released

FL_Scope is an oscilloscope widget for FLTK, the Fast Light ToolKit. Version 0.0.2 is available.

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Create a VNC system with tclRFB (IBM developerWorks)

Cameron Laird writes about Virtual Network Computing (VNC) on IBM's developerWorks. "Suppose you have a graphical application running on a Linux box, and you've been instructed to port it to a Windows desktop or make it into a Web application. A nearly instantaneous answer is to feed the application display into a VNC server on the Linux host and rely on Windows- or Web-hosted VNC clients to view the application remotely. That achieves in an afternoon what might otherwise take weeks to port at the level of source code."

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Wine Traffic #182

Issue #182 of Wine Traffic is available. Topics include: CrossOver Plugin 2.0, Linux Mag Blurb, Disney Uses Wine, Beginnings of Microsoft Installer Support, Windows API DB, and DirectX / Operation Flashpoint.

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Evolution 2.0 weblog

For those of you interested in where Evolution 2.0 development is going, the Evolution Blog is now online. There's lots of information on development plans, along with the occasional screenshot. Among other things, it seems that 2.0 will have SpamAssassin built into it.

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FreeFrame 1.0 Release (SourceForge)

An announcement for FreeFrame 1.0 is on SourceForge. "Well after a lot of work, we're there - public release of FreeFrame 1.0 - the new realtime video effects plugin format for VJ software. FreeFrame allows plugin developers to develop one plugin that will work in a variety of video programs. Today's FreeFrame release coincides with the release of versions of VJamm and Resolume featuring native support for the standard. We are also releasing today plugin developer kits for C++ and Pascal developers, in addition to sample host code for application developers wishing to support the standard."

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Epiphany 0.8.3 released (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org looks at the 0.8.3 release of the Epiphany lightweight web browser. This version features lots of bug fixes and language translations.

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Independent Status Reports (MozillaZine)

The Mozilla Independent Status Reports for August 11th, 2003 are out. "The latest set of status reports includes updates from QuickNote, JS Console, HON, SmoothWheel, the Creating Applications with Mozilla book, mozdev and MultiZilla."

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AbiWord Weekly News

The August 10, 2003 issue of the AbiWord Weekly News has been published. "Dom announces the official calendar of releases until 2.0, while several peripherally Abi events occur. Within AbiLand, however, the Open Text Summarizer gets a dialogue, X/HTML gets extended, and just before 1.99.4, our SuSE builder and Documentation manager sod off for awhile! All that and a tutorial on how to summarise text in this week's AWN. "

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LilyPond 1.8 released

Version 1.8 of LilyPond, a musical engraving program, has been released. "This release is focused on internal and external cleanups: Scheme and LilyPond input can now be seamlessly mixed. Entry and layout of texts, chord names and chords has been revised and cleaned up entirely."

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PasswordSafe 1.9.2c released (SourceForge)

Version 1.9.2c of PasswordSafe has been announced. "Password Safe is a password database utility. Users can keep their passwords securely encrypted on their computers. A single Safe Combination unlocks them all. Release 1.92c is available for download. This is a maintenance release, fixing a few minor annoyances".

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Caml Weekly News

The August 5-12, 2003 edition of the Caml Weekly News has been published, take a look for new Caml language software.

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The Java Speech API, Part 1 (O'ReillyNet)

Mandar Chitnis and Lakshmi Ananthamurthy look at the Java Speech API in the first in a series of articles on O'Reilly. "Speech technology has advanced to the point where it's practical to consider speech synthesis and speech recognition in certain applications. In the first of two articles, Mandar Chitnis and Lakshmi Ananthamurthy explore JSAPI, an API for accessing various speech engines, building a simple application with speech synthesis."

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JGraphpad 2.2.2.1 'Whiteboard' released (SourceForge)

Version 2.2.2.1 of JGraphpad has been released. "This release offers whiteboard functionality, can print across multiple pages, comes with two new layout algorithms and remembers file paths and window positions from previous sessions. JGraph is the most powerful, lightweight, feature-rich, and thoroughly documented open-source graph component available for Java."

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ECL 0.9b released

Version 0.9b of ECL (Embeddable Common-Lisp) has been released. "This version features much improved ANSI compliance, the new special form C-INLINE for inserting C/C++ code where a Lisp form is allowed, improved FFI support, new filesystem access functions, better code inlining, the AUTOLOAD extension, and more. Support for the Sparc/Solaris and Alpha/Linux platforms has also been added." Thanks to Paolo Amoroso.

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This Week on perl5-porters (use Perl)

The August 4-10, 2003 edition of This Week on perl5-porters is available. "The bulk of the discussion, this week, was about platform-specific adjustments for the upcoming 5.8.1, and other testing feedback. However, don't miss the other interesting topics : v-strings (again), autoboxing, and the usual load of features and bugfixes."

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Perl Design Patterns, Part 2 (O'Reilly)

O'Reilly has published part two of Phil Crow's series on Perl Design Patterns. "This is the second in a series of articles which form one Perl programmer's response to the book, Design Patterns (also known as the Gang of Four book or simply as GoF, because four authors wrote it)." You may want to start with part one first.

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PHP Weekly Summary for August 11, 2003

The PHP Weekly Summary for August 11, 2003 is out. Topics include: 4.3.3 RC 3, PHP compiler, Java-like archive, cleaner HTML errors, imlib extension.

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PHP 4.3.3RC3 released

Version 4.3.3RC3 of PHP has been announced. "This is should be the last release candidate prior to the final 4.3.3 release. Please test this release as much as possible, so that any remaining issues can be uncovered and resolved." See the NEWS file for change details.

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Python-dev Summary

The July Python-dev Summary is available. It inaugurates a new format, and looks at the Python 2.3 release, the deprecation of string exceptions, CVS issues, startup times, and more.

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Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!

The August 7, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! has been sent out. Take a look for links to many Python articles.

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Dr. Dobb's Python-URL!

The Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for August 12, 2003 is out. Discussions covered this week include Python's supposed lack of proper Symmetric Multiprocessor scalability and much more.

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SPE (Stani's Python Editor)

Version 0.15 of spe, Stani's Python Editor, has been released. "Spe is a Python IDE for Blender with with syntax checking, autoindentation, autocompletion, interactive shell, call tips, locals and Blender browser, drag&drop, customizable menus and toolbar,...It requires a full Python installation and www.wxPython.org".

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The Standard Python Library

Fredrick Lundh is writing an ongoing series that explores various components of the Standard Python Library.

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Ruby-GNOME2-0.6.0 Has Been Released! (GnomeDesktop)

GnomeDesktop.org has an announcement for version 0.6.0 of Ruby-GNOME2, the Ruby language bindings to GNOME. "New bindings include GnomeVFS and GtkHtml2. Integration with the Ruby-GStreamer project has also been successfully completed. A lot of new code in this version so, please, give it a good run through to weed out any bugs introduced."

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Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The August 8, 2003 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL has been published. Take a look for the latest Tcl/Tk development news.

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Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!

The August 12 edition of Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL is out with another week's worth of Tcl/Tk development news.

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Make the most of Xerces-C++, Part 1 (IBM developerWorks)

Rick Parrish writes about Xerces-C++ on IBM's developerWorks. "This two-part article offers an introduction to the Xerces-C++ XML library. Part 1 explains how to link the library into applications written in Linux and Windows. Ample code demonstrates parsing with the SAX API, and a sample application shows you how to create a bar graph in ASCII art. In Part 2, I'll demonstrate how to load, manipulate, or synthesize a DOM document, and you'll see how to create the same bar graph using Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG). C++ programmers who read these articles should be able to easily add XML parsing and processing capabilities to their applications."

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Extensible 3D: XML Meets VRML (O'Reilly)

Len Bullard writes about X3D on O'Reilly. "The Virtual Reality Modeling Language is very much alive and being used to solve real problems. In this article, we will examine the new VRML standard, Extensible 3D (X3D), as well as software and other resources available to support it. Examples and a short tutorial on the new X3D XML-format are provided."

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New and Improved String Handling (O'Reilly)

Bob DuCharme shows some techniques for dealing with strings using XSLT 2.0. "In my June column last year, I discussed XSLT 1.0 techniques for comparing two strings for equality and doing the equivalent of a "search and replace" on your source document. XSLT 2.0 makes both of these so much easier that describing the new techniques won't quite fill up a column, so I'll also describe some 1.0 and 2.0 functions for concatenating strings."

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Boa Constructor - 0.2.6 in CVS (SourceForge)

Version 0.2.6 of Boa Constructor, a cross platform Python IDE and wxPython GUI Builder, has been announced. "Since the 0.2.3 release, the following major features were added (and are available in CVS): Sizers; Support for sub-menus and separators; Alternative image handling with wxPython.tools.img2py modules; Support for BicycleRepairMan; Help projects; and Improved plug-in preferences/settings handling."

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Advanced Weblications with SashXB (IBM developerWorks)

Wing Yung writes about SashXB on IBM's developerWorks. "This article is intended for developers who are familiar with SashXB. It covers several advanced topics, such as callbacks, GTK widget manipulation, and the use of several common SashXB extensions, using code examples from an LDAP-based Intranet directory navigation and search tool written for SashXB. In an earlier article, John Corwin and I gave an introduction to the architecture and use of SashXB, an open source, Linux application environment that gives JavaScript programmers access to native functionality."

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