See also: last week's Development page.

Development projects

Browsers

NSS 3.1 Beta 1 Release 15. Mozilla.org has announced the release of NSS 3.1, a set of libraries for security enabled applications. The crypto code has been unencumbered thanks to recent licensing changes. NSS 3.1 is a complete open-source implementation that includes the recently opened RSA code. The Mozilla Crypto FAQ has all of the details spelled out. Open crypto software fills in a critical capability that had been missing from Mozilla.

Mozilla Training Videos are now available. Mozilla has made a set of SeaMonkey BrownBag Training Series videos available for download. The videos are in Real Video format and range from 15MB to 36MB in size.

Databases

Using MySQL's Built-In Replication To Maximize Availability (Php Builder). Php Builder has run an article by Michael Tanoviceanu on using MySql in a master-slave configuration. The process of setting up redundant database servers is explained in detail.

Documentation

Linux Documentation Project change. The Linux Documentation Project is planning on publishing an index of current HOWTOS to comp.os.linux.answers. Work is under way to improve the feedback path from the readers to the authors of the HOWTOS.

Electronics

Icarus Verilog 20000917 snapshot available. The gEDA project has announced a new snapshot of the Icarus Verilog compilation system.

Games

WorldForge looking for game developers. WorldForge is building a new game infrastructure platform called Stage, and is seeking developers for the project. If you have an interest in working with game software, these folks would really appreciate a helping hand.

Interoperability

Wine Weekly News for September 20, 2000. The latest version of the Wine Weekly News is available. News includes the WineHQ cutover to a new mail server and wine portability issues.

Network Management

OpenNMS Update for September 19. Here is the OpenNMS update for September 19, covering the latest developments in the Open Network Management Software project.

Office Applications

AbiWord 0.7.11 released. The first AbiWord release in three months is out. Many new features have been added, among them are PalmDoc exports, better Gnome support, improved dialogs, and additional RTF font support. See the announcement for details and get the latest version at the AbiSource homepage.

Evolution 0.5 (Salamander) Released. Version 0.5 of the "Evolution" mail / calendar / address book application from Helix Code has been announced. It includes a rather substantial list of new features. A bug fix version for Evolution 0.5 has just been released. Here is the announcement for version 0.5.1, which is available for download.

Nautilus needs testers. The Nautilus file manager for Gnome will be going through a second preview release in the next few weeks. The project is looking for testers to help locate bugs and verify fixes for resolved bugs.

What's New in GIMP 1.2? (O'Reilly). O'Reilly news has run an article by Sven Neumann about What's New in GIMP 1.2. The article discusses the many new features in the upcoming Gimp 1.2 release

On the Desktop

Final KDE2 beta released. The fourth and final beta release of KDE2 has been announced. Here's your last chance to find problems and help the KDE team produce a solid 2.0 release.

The people behind KDE: Lauri Watts. The "people behind KDE" series continues with this interview with Lauri Watts, KDE's "documentation reviewer." "I guess you'd call that 'Help File nitpicker'. I help review the documentation for various things including sgml markup, typos, completeness. Closest to a real world job would be a copy-editor, but I try to stay out of editorialising the actual text unless it's not making sense. That's rare, the doc writers are doing a wonderful job."

GNOME Documentation Project Status Report. The GNOME Documentation Project Status Report for September 15 is out. The GDP folks look like a busy crowd.

Alan Cox releases GnoRPM 0.95. Linux kernel Hacker Alan Cox has lent a hand to the GnoRPM project by fixing a number of bugs and releasing GnoRPM 0.95. The notice states: "So if you ever had any troubles with GnoRPM before, rest assured that from here on, it is as stable as the kernel itself."

Gnome Libs 1.2.5 test release. Miguel de Icaza has announced a test release of Gnome Libs. Numerous bug fixes have been included.

Printing

CUPS v1.1.3 released. A new version of CUPS, the Common Unix Print System is available for downloading. Many improvements have been added, bugs have been fixed, and new documentation is available. CUPS is reported to be a big help for those dealing with multiple UNIX platforms and network printers.

Ghostscript gets a new maintainer. Raph Levien has announced that he is the new maintainer of Ghostscript. The announcement contains a lot of useful information on the Ghostscript project's upcoming directions. Mr. Levien has an ambitious list of tasks to accomplish, not the least of which is simplifying the licensing model. Congrats, Raph - we expect you're going to be busy... (Thanks to Andrea Fogazzi).

Science

RFC: Journal of Open Source Medical Software (Linux Med News). Linux Med News has an announcement about an RFC for the development of a scholarly journal on Open Source medical software. If you are working in that arena, check it out. Editorial board positions are available.

Ocularis: Leading the Way for Blind Linux Users (Linux News). Linux News has run an article on Ocularis, an open-source project using Linux that aims to create a "Seeing Eye Penguin" for the blind. "Eventually, Ocularis should be able to offer a variety of basic programs intended to allow visually impaired users to carry out certain core functions. 'The basic applications that Ocularis will possess are a word processor, calendar, calculator, basic accounting or finance application, file manager, Internet browser, and e-mail client,' the site explains. 'In addition, easy to use, all-purpose screen reading software will be included to provide access to nearly any console-based program.'"

Web-site Development

Midgard Weekly Summary for September 14. The Midgard Weekly Summary for September 14 is out, covering an admittedly "slow week" in the development of the Midgard application server.

Zope 2.2.2 released. Zope 2.2.2 has been released. It's mostly a bugfix release, but it should be of interest especially to ZEO users.

There is also a Zope 2.3.0 plan available which shows some of the things the developers are thinking of adding for the next major release.

Zope Weekly News. Here is the Zope Weekly News for September 20. It covers recent events in the Zope development world, and announces a Zope job available at a "Fortune 100 media company."

ZGDChart 0.4.2b released. Zope.org has released a new version of ZGDChart, a Zope based chart drawing facility. " ZGDChart is based on Michael Ray Steed's Python module gdchart, which in turn is based on Bruce Verderaime's GDCHART C library, which in turn is based on Tom Boutell's GD C graphical library. " ZGDChart can help you draw spiffy graphics with Zope.

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

C/C++

Common threads: POSIX threads explained, Part 3 (IBM). IBM's developerWorks has run the third and last article by Daniel Robbins on using Posix threads. This article covers condition variables. You may want to start with the first and second articles if you have not read them already.

Gtk-- 1.2.3 released. A new release of Gtk-- has been announced. Gtk-- is a C++ interface to the Gtk GUI library. This release contains mostly bugfixes. Gtk-- is distributed under the LGPL license.

Java

Java code samples (IBM). IBM's developerWorks has published a useful set of Java and JavaScript code samples. If you are thinking about getting into Java, this might be a good place to start. DeveloperWorks has also run an article on how to Acquire multiple locks in a fixed, global order to avoid deadlock in Java.

Perl

PerlMonth issue 11. Perl Month Issue 11 has a number of useful articles on using Perl. Topics include debugging Perl CGI scripts, searching LDAP servers, and using various HTML:: perl libraries.

Python

This week's Python-URL. Here is Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for September 19, covering what looks like a busy week in Python development.

Python-dev Summary for September 15. A.M. Kuchling's Python-dev Summary for September 15 is out. It covers the latest Python releases, licensing issues, and many other Python development topics.

PyQt/PyKDE Python Bindings for Qt and KDE. The Kompany has announced new versions of Sip, PyQt, and PyKDE, which are tools for binding Python to Qt and KDE. The software is available for download.

Charming Python: Curses programming (IBM). IBM's developerWorks has a new article by David Mertz on Curses programming in Python. The article walks you through the process of coding a Curses based application in Python.

Tcl/tk

This week's Tcl-URL. Here is Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL for September 19. It covers this week's happenings in the Tcl/Tk world, including the release of Expect 5.32.

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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