See also: last week's Development page.

Development projects

News and Editorials

The database consists of nearly 400 stable applications. The News Forge article quotes OSD co-founder Steve Mallett: "'We're following the dmoz model', says Mallett. 'Put the directory information out there for any and everyone to use; not just at OSD. The chances that people will try and use a stable, open-source application increases with the amount of people/websites presenting it.'"

If your application could use such a software list, now is a good time to incorporate the feature. The O'Reilly xml.com resource sites page lists a large number of tools for helping to get the job done.

Audio

Alsa 0.9.0 beta 6 released. A new beta version of the Alsa sound card driver and library has been released. There is not much information on what fixes and features are included in this version besides a mention of some compilation bug fixes, but then, it's only a beta release.

WaveSurfer 1.0.4 released. Version 1.0.4 of the WaveSurfer multi-platform soundfile editor has been released. This edition adds Ogg/Vorbis support, Transcription support, localization, and new functionality for HTK/MLF files.

Browsers

Evolution 1.0 Beta 1 announcement. Ximian announced the release of Evolution 1.0 Beta 1. The Beta 1 preview release begins the countdown to the 1.0 release this fall. Check it out, and don't forget to send bugs to bugzilla.ximian.com!

Databases

Choosing a database management system (IBM developerWorks). Uchi Ogbuji looks at the issues involved in choosing a database in an IBM developerWorks article. "The study of databases is a battleground of ideas. The database community is one of the oldest in the computer world, and it is almost as famous as the application programming community for the diversity of its ideas and the sharpness of the debates between its gurus. Lately events have conspired to expose these concerns to a wider audience. For instance, the seemingly inexhaustible march of the Web revolution has exposed more and more developers to database issues because of the desire for ever more dynamic Web sites." The article provides a good overview of the current database technologies that are available, while avoiding discussion of specific databases.

Integrating database access into Linux applications (IBM developerWorks). Alex Roettler looks at the use of MySQL for a web based database application in an IBM developerWorks article. "This article describes MySQL, a useful tool for developing e-commerce and other complicated, dynamic Web sites that make use of third-party databases. MySQL is a fast, multi-threaded, and fully functional SQL server. In addition to describing the basic architecture of the MySQL system, this article offers simple examples in both Tcl and C++ that can start you down the path to developing database-aware Web applications."

Education

SEUL/Edu Linux in education report #49. The July 23, 2001 edition of the Linux in Education Report is available. This issue covers a discussion on how Microsoft anti-piracy measures are boosting Linux acceptance in schools. A bunch of new open source educational software is also reviewed.

Interoperability

Latest Samba News. The latest Samba news includes the addition of Motonobu Takahashi to the Samba team as the local Japanese language expert. Samba 2.2.1 and 2.2.1a are also discussed.

Mail Software

Gypsy Mail 0.6.3 beta released. Version 0.6.3 beta of Gypsy Mail has been released. Gypsy Mail is: " A Python clone of the well-known cgiemail script, with added features and flexibility. This script allows you to set up an HTML form on your website, to collect information from your site's visitors, and send a very nicely formatted e-mail to yourself, or other e-mail addresses." This version adds a customizable success page.

Science

The Open Source Operating System (MD Net Guide). MD Net Guide looks at Linux from a medical professional's point of view: "One problem with this philosophy comes immediately to mind: Just rewrite the code? Are you kidding? Who knows how to do that? While users with the technical know-how can certainly rewrite to their heart's content, most do not possess the necessary knowledge and abilities. Programmers all over the world, however, are constantly working on Linux software, creating a steady stream of updates. Users can also hire programmers to customize programs."

Standards

LSB-FHS2.2beta release. The Open Group has released beta 2.2 of the LSB-FHS test suite. The test suite exercises filesystem hierarchy aspects and is aligned with FHS version 2.2.

System Administration

Transitioning from Windows to Linux (IBM developerWorks). IBM has posted a 50 page technical FAQ on transitioning from Windows to Linux. The document is in PDF format and availble for free download.

Web-site Development

Midgard installfest on Aug 14th 2001. Nemein Solutions has organized a Midgard installfest for August 14th, starting at 17:00, in Finland.

Zope 2.4 released, and Digital Creations changes name. The company formerly known as Digital Creations has announced the release of Zope 2.4. Check out the announcement for the list of new features.

In keeping with its focus on Zope, Digital Creations has also announced that it has a new name: Zope Corporation.

Zope Weekly News for July 20, 2001. The July 20, 2001 edition of the Zope Weekly News is available. This issue covers a new CVS update, a new Zope Book, a Zope Developer's Guide beta release, and more.

Apache: Aid From APR (ZDNet). ZDNet examines the Apache Software Foundations library of C functions called APR (Apache Portable Runtime). "These programs will run equally well on Apache on any platform. CGIs written in C will run faster than scripts in languages such as Perl or Python because C programs are precompiled, while Perl and Python must be interpreted on the fly."

Miscellaneous

Sony survey for U.S. based PS2 Linux developers. Sony has posted a very short survey on their PS2/Linux site to gauge interest from U.S. developers.

Nemein names new board member. Nemein's, a Midgard solutions provider, has named Timo Syrjänen to their board of directors.

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

Application Links
GIMP
Mozilla
Galeon
High Availability
ht://Dig
mnoGoSearch
MagicPoint
Wine
Worldforge
Zope

Open Source Code Collections
Berlios
Freshmeat
OpenSourceDirectory
Savannah
Le Serveur Libre
SourceForge
Sweetcode

Programming Languages

Lisp

Gnu CLISP 2.27 released. Version 2.27 of Gnu CLISP is available. "This version adds a SETFable EXT:GETENV, optional hostname resolution in EXT:SOCKET-STREAM-PEER and EXT:SOCKET-STREAM-LOCAL, new arguments to EXT:SOCKET-STATUS and more ANSI-compliant pathname handling. It also fixes some FFI and binary I/O bugs."

cCLan News for July 18, 2001. The July 18, 2001 edition of the cCLan News has been announced. This issue contains a list of new and updated packages and covers the effort to add cCLan support to OpenMCL.

PHP

PHP Weekly Summary for July 23, 2001. The July 23, 2001 edition of the PHP Weekly Summary is out. Topics include bug system changes, an SID/gzip bug, revisiting the autocasting bug, new XSLT extensions, an SRM beta, and a fix to the cURL extension.

Python

Python 2.1.1. Guido van Rossum has announced the release of Python 2.1.1. This release fixes bugs from 2.1; it also features a GPL-compatible license.

PyWebLib 1.0.4 released. Version 1.0.4 of PyWebLib has been announced. This version features several bug fixes.

PyChecker 0.7.5 released. Another release of PyChecker, the Python language code checking program has been announced. This version adds the ability to suppress various warnings, has several new command line options, and fixes several bugs.

Last File Manager 0.4. A replacement for Midnight Commander in Python/curses has been released. LFM (Last File Manager) is usable but still under development.

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! (Jul 25). This week the Python world covered discussions on using Python with XML (and WSDL), how Python fits in a .Net world, and issues with combining Python with C++. See Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for more details.

Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL!, July 23. The Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! for July 23, 2001 points readers to ActiveState's release of ActiveTcl, the TSIPP Workbench and back to LWN for Conectiva's security advisory on Tcl's default runtime library.

Miscellaneous

Combining Python and C++ (O'Reilly). Stephen Figgins looks at various tools for combining C++ and Python programs in an O'Reilly ONLamp.com article. "Python and C++ easily compliment each other. Python gives you rapid development and flexibility, C++ gives you speed and industrial strength tools. While there is no standard tool for extending Python with C++, there are many Python wrappers to C++ libraries, particularly GUI toolkits. The developers of these interfaces haven't just given us the wrappings, they have given us the wrappers as well, tools to give any C++ object a Python interface."

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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