See also: last week's Development page.

Development projects

News and Editorials

Pros
Users could access maps, weather information, and news from anywhere. Businesses could benefit from having better connected employees. With appropriate server software, the cell phone could become a very powerful remote control device. Such toys would have a large cool-factor and would inspire geek-envy in the office and at trade shows.

Cons
Images would look bad on a monochrome low-resolution screen. Pages requiring user input would be difficult to use. It would be difficult to view many web pages. Browsing through page translator engines would probably be slow. Specially formatted web pages would be required for best results. Imagine the road-hazard factor of a driver browsing the web.

With most new technologies, previously unheard of applications come about as soon as the base technology is made available. It is unlikely that web browsers with tiny screens will be able to displace full screen browsers, but the portability aspect could bring about many interesting capabilities. It will be interesting to watch this technology evolve and mature.

Browsers

Galeon: The Little Browser That Could (Linux Today. Linux Today has reviewed the Galeon browser. "Galeon is at version 0.7.3, and while it is still a bare bones browser similar to KFM in KDE 1.1.2, the fact that Galeon uses the Mozilla rendering engine gives it a whole degree of complexity that similar small, fast browsers do not attempt to have."

Mozilla Theme Builder. Alphanumerica Inc has released a beta version of the Theme Builder for Mozilla. "This beta version of the tool gives users the ability to apply new graphic designs to the browser without changing its functionality. Individuals can use the tool to create their own personal themes while companies can "brand" the browser with their company colors and logo." Theme Builder has been released under the MPL license.

Databases

BerkeleyDB 2.9.1 released. A new version of the BerkeleyDB Python module has been released. Numerous bug fixes have been added as well as a new test suite.

Education

SEUL/edu Linux in Education Report. The SEUL/edu Linux in Education Report for August 28 is available; it covers the Math Teachers Guide, a new Authenticated User Community release, thoughts on cafeteria management software, and more.

Interoperability

Wine Weekly News for August 28, 2000. The August 28, 2000 edition of the Wine Weekly News is out. This week's WWN includes a report from the recent LinuxWorld conference.

Network Management

OpenNMS update. The latest OpenNMS update is available, with coverage of what has been going on with the Open Network Management Software project. Don't miss the link at the bottom to the Britney Spears guide to semiconductor physics.

Office Applications

XEmacs/GTK released. Those of you waiting for a themeable, GTK-based XEmacs need wait no further: William M. Perry has completed his project (sponsored by BeOpen) to bring XEmacs into the GNOME world. It is downloadable now, and there are some screenshots available.

On the Desktop

X11R6.5.1 available for download. X11R6.5.1, the latest X release from the Open Group, was announced on August 15. It is now available for download, one day ahead of the original schedule.

The return of the GNOME Summary. Here, after a prolonged absence, is the GNOME Summary for July 21 to August 28. It covers, of course, the GNOME Foundation announcement; there is also information on the 1.4 release process.

Science

IST Funds Many Health Related Projects (Linux Med News). Linux Med News has run an article on the European Information Society Technology's funding of health care software projects. "It seems as though the Europeans continue to be out in front of the US in adopting open source in healthcare: Information Society Technology (IST) is an executive organization consisting of 15 European countries that among other things funds healthcare technology projects, part of which are required to be in the public domain."

Web-site Development

Zope 2.2.1 released. Digital Creations has announced the release of Zope 2.2.1. This is a bugfix release; among other things it includes the fixes to the security problems that have come out in the last couple weeks.

ZCVSMixin, Zope meets CVS. ZCVSMixin 0.1.4 has been released. ZCVSMixin allows management of Zope objects with CVS. ZCVSMixin has been released under the ZPL license.

Midgard Weekly Summary. Here is the Midgard Weekly Summary for August 24. It contains an interview with Ron Parker, who is working on documentation, and other Midgard development news.

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

Project Links
Gnome
High Availability
ht://Dig
KDE
MagicPoint
Midgard
Mozilla
YAMS
Wine
Worldforge
Zope

More Information
AppWatch
Freshmeat
LinuxDev

Programming Languages

Java

Swank 0.6 Java GUI toolkit released. Version 0.6 of SWANK has been released Swank is a GUI toolkit written in Java that is similar to TK.

Perl

Damian Conway Talks Shop (O'Reilly). O'Reilly's Joe Johnson has interviewed Dr. Damian Conway, author of Object Oriented Perl. ".Programming is a Dark Art, and it will always be. The programmer is fighting against the two most destructive forces in the universe: entropy and human stupidity. They're not things you can always overcome with a "methodology" or on a schedule."

Perl6 mailing lists (Perl News). Perl News has published a list of current Perl 6 mailing lists with subscription information and list archives.

PHP

PHP 4.0.2 released. PHP 4.0.2 has been released. "The new version features new functions, many bug fixes, and increased performance."

Python

This week's Python-url. Here is Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for August 28. It covers the latest in Python development news, including the new Python license FAQ.

comp.language.python.announce resurrected (Deja.com). Deja.com reports that the comp.language.python.announce newsgroup is being resurrected. The newsgroup is also being made available as a mailing list.

decompyle gets a new home. Decompyle, a python byte-code to source code decompiler is being maintained by a new volunteer, Hartmut Goebel. The current version of decompyle is pre-alpha 0.4.

Programming with Python Part 1: Baby Steps. Linux.com has put up the first in a series of Python tutorials. As can be inferred from the title, the first installment is of a highly introductory nature. Among other things, it contains a number of comparisons with Perl syntax.

Tcl/tk

This week's Tcl-URL. Here is Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL for August 27. It leads off this week with the selection of the Tcl Core Team, which contains many familiar names.

TLS 1.4 SSL extension for TCL announced. A new version of TLS has been announced. TLS provides Secure Socket Layer support for TCL programs. Version 1.4 has a more robust test suite and bug fixes.

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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