See also: last week's Development page.

Development projects

News and Editorials

A company known as dLoo, Inc has announced the release of an architecture for an extensible open-source peer-to-peer programming language that works in conjunction with its BlueBox browser.

BlueBox uses the concept of language structures called words which programmers can post on the net in a manner that is similar to posting web pages. BlueBox can compile the words that it receives from network sites into various languages such as C++, Perl, and Python. The plan is to have the words written for various problem domains such as mathematics, graphics, and art to name a few possibilities. People using the BlueBox browser can then tie various words together to build larger programs.

The BlueBox introduction documentation describes the goals of the system:

Most programming languages are statically defined when they are compiled. C++, Perl, Python, and other languages cannot become richer over time after their compilers or interpreters are compiled.

This model of building programming languages is pre-Internet, mirroring how books, magazines, and journals were published before the appearance of Web pages, dynamic content, and hyperlinking.

Instead of this model, however, imagine a programming language that was defined on the Internet and more importantly, became richer over time as more programmers added to it. This is the idea behind BlueBox, a browser that runs a scalable peer-to-peer programming language that we are releasing today.

BlueBox and the underlying words seem like a novel idea with many possible uses. The notions of tying multiple languages together across platforms and linking software together like web pages are fairly unique.

To get a better picture of some BlueBox issues, LWN asked Nile from the BlueBox project a few questions.

The BlueBox site claims that all of the advertised features are already functional. BlueBox is an open-source project that is being released under the GPL license.

Clusters

The Do-It-Yourself Supercomputer (Scientific American). Written by the people who created the Beowulf clustering software, this article explains how the Oak Ridge National Laboratory built a supercomputer out of discarded PCs and Linux. "We knew that obsolete PCs at the U.S. Department of Energy complex at Oak Ridge were frequently replaced with newer models. The old PCs were advertised on an internal Web site and auctioned off as surplus equipment. A quick check revealed hundreds of outdated computers waiting to be discarded this way. Perhaps we could build our Beowulf cluster from machines that we could collect and recycle free of charge. We commandeered a room at ORNL that had previously housed an ancient mainframe computer. Then we began collecting surplus PCs to create the Stone SouperComputer."

CORBA

Web services architect, Part 3: Is Web services the reincarnation of CORBA? (IBM developerWorks). Dan Gisolfi compares CORBA to web services in an IBM developerWorks article. "Even during these early stages of the evangelism of Web services, customers have already begun to ask how this technology differs from CORBA. Isn't it just another form of distributed computing? In this installment of the Web services architect, Dan Gisolfi offers a brief overview of the differences between SOAP, DCOM, and CORBA and suggests a value proposition for Web services within the distributed computing realm."

Documentation

Linux Documentation Project updates. The Linux Kernel and PHP HOWTOs have been updated at the Linux Documentation project, along with a a few others and the addition of the new Chroot-BIND HOWTO.

Education

SEUL/EDU Report for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 edition of the SEUL Linux in Education report is out. Topics include the use of Linux for teaching English, Linux in Columbian schools. Reviewed software includes the Liebnitz calculator and a Perl/Tk based searchable book database.

Electronics

New Icarus Verilog and ACS packages from gEDA. The gEDA project has announced new versions of the Icarus Verilog simulator and ACS, Al's Circuit Simulator.

Embedded Systems

Embedded Linux Newsletter for July 5, 2001 (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices.com has posted its weekly summary of the embedded Linux marketplace. This week's stories include a look at the CerfCube, a hand powered Web server running uClinux and the results of the ELC board of directors election.

BusyBox 0.52 released. Version 0.52 of the BusyBox cluster of common Unix utilities for embedded systems has been released. This version contains many "bug fixes, optimizations, and cleanups" and is reportedly very stable. New features include several cpio utilities and a few new shells. see the changelog file for all of the details.

Graphics

Sketch 0.6.12 released. Bernard Herzog has announced Sketch version 0.6.12. Sketch is a vector drawing program and this version fixes several bugs.

Interoperability

Samba 2.2.1. The Samba team has released Samba version 2.2.1. This is a stable source-only release, binary packages for major platforms are to be released soon.

Easy Steps to Samba: Linux Orbit HOWTO (LinuxOrbit). This quick reference piece aims to help new users get acquainted with Samba. "It should be noted that if you intend to share network devices on your Linux machine from Windows, you'll need to configure your Windows machine for "Client for Microsoft Networks" in your Network Neighborhood properties. This is not the default setting for many consumer Windows systems."

Mail Software

TMDA 0.22 Python anti-spam filter for qmail. Jason Mastaler has announced TMDA 0.22, a Python package for removing spam on systems using qmail. This version adds support for site-wide installations using qmail-relay rewriting, wild card pattern matching, and new installation options.

Printing Systems

KDEPrint slides from LinuxTag. Michael Goffioul, author of the new KDEPrint subsystem, has posted the slides from his presentation on this feature at the recent LinuxTag conference. The slides are available for download only at this time (no online viewing is available) in KPresenter format.

CUPS v1.1.9 released. A new release of the CUPS printing system has been announced. The CUPS v1.1.9 release notes list a number of new features such as a revamped configuration script, AIX support, performance improvements and bug fixes.

Omni Printer Driver version 0.3.2 released. Version 0.3.2 of the Omni printer driver has been announced. The main change with this release is a fix for a compatibility bug with the 5.50 release of Ghostscript.

Science

GNU Medical Record Project. Linux Med News talks about the GNU Medical Record System that is being developed by Dr. O'Kane. The system is based on Mumps and PostgreSQL. The system includes a data entry system and a medical record browser application among other things.

Web-site Development

Zope Developer's Guide and new beta release. A new release of the Zope Developer's Guide is out. This is "the first polished draft of the guide," and it covers the upcoming 2.4.0 release.

Speaking of 2.4.0, the third beta release of Zope 2.4.0 is now available.

Zope Weekly News for July 6, 2001. The July 6, 2001 edition of the Zope Weekly News is out. Topics include CVS update news, the release of Zope 2.4 beta 3, CMF in intranets, and interoperability with other CMF systems.

Midgard Weekly Summary. The latest Midgard Weekly Summary has been published. Topics include the Midgard booth at Linuxtag, a server move, and notes from a Repligard class.

MnoGoSearch-php-3.1.3.5. A new release of the MnoGoSearch-php frontend has been announced. This version fixes a bug in the categories section.

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

Caml

Caml Weekly News for July 10, 2001. The July 10, 2001 issue of the Caml Weekly News is out. Topics this week include PXP, the polymorphic XML parser, E packaging O'Caml libraries in RPM format, a new O'Caml runtime environment, and a library for dealing with Java class files.

Java

Java 2 SE v1.3.1. The Blackdown team has released the Java 2 S v1.3.1-FCS package. No formal announcement is available, but the code can be downloaded from a Blackdown mirror site.

Magic with Merlin: Swing's new Spinner component (IBM developerWorks). John Zukowski explores new features from the Java 2 Standard Edition, version 1.4 SDK. in an IBM developerWorks article. "The most recent release of the Java 2 SDK, the 1.4 beta, adds two powerful new components to the JFC/Swing component set. One of them, JSpinner, allows a user to easily select a date, number, or choice from a pick list. (The other is JFormattedTextField for formatted input support.)"

If the shoe fits... (LinuxDevices). LinuxDevices is running a white paper by David Tannenbaum about using Java technology with embedded Linux. "The vast array of disparate hardware and software architectures present throughout the embedded market begs for a common language and platform with which to develop applications. It was to address this issue that Sun initially developed the Java technology platform."

Ten JSP technology books compared (IBM developerWorks). IBM developerWorks takes a look at ten JSP technology books in an article by John Zukowski.

Lisp

cCLan News for July 4, 2001. Issue number 2 of the cCLan News is out. Topics include building Debian packages, new Lisp packages, and a proposal for inline documentation.

Perl

Perl 5 Porters for July 7, 2001. The July 7, 2001 edition of the Perl 5 Porters digest is out. Topics include the upcoming Perl 5.7.2 release, a bug in grok_number, using asynchronous callbacks, and more.

PHP

PHP Weekly Summary for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 edition of the PHP Weekly Summary is out. Topics include more on the autocasting bug, PHP documentation in Arabic, a SAP R/3 extension, a YATS extension, and more.

Advantages of PHP Over Java (Zend). Dan Orzech and the Zend Staff offer some advantages in using PHP over Java in an article on the Zend site.

Python

Python Development Summary. The bi-weekly summary of the python development list has been posted. This issue includes the discussion on a draft of PEP 261 for wide Unicode characters, the "psyco" Python specializing compiler, IPv6 support, and more.

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for July 3, 2001. Here is Dr. Dobb's Python-URL for July 3. It includes, among other things, some interesting coverage of the rising concerns among Python developers that the language may be developing too many new features.

Dr. Dobb's Python-URL! for July 9, 2001. The July 9, 2001 Python-URL! is also available and includes talk of a sequence to CSV tool, discussions on installing modules, quibbles on standard libraries and the spectacular ways exec and eval can break.

PyWebLib: yet another web programming framework for Python. Michael Ströder has released version 1.0.2 of PyWebLib, a web programming framework for Python.

Ruby

Ruby Garden. The Ruby Garden site features a discussion of BlueBox, Ruby documentation in Portugese, and translation of a bowling score program from Java to Ruby.

Tcl/Tk

Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! for July 10th. Dr. Dobb's Tcl-URL! for this week includes discussion on the side effects of the byte code compiler, creating new widgets, and a tip-fest.

XML

Java and XML Week (O'Reilly). The O'Reilly onJava.com site features several articles on using Java and XML.

Namespace Nuances (O'Reilly). John E. Simpson answers several common XML Namespace Questions in an O'Reilly xml.com article.

Against the Grain (O'Reilly). Leigh Dodds discusses some recent threads on XML-DEV concerning XML and databases.

Miscellaneous

Section Editor: Forrest Cook

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