GNOME Summary April 13-25 (freedesktop.org, gnome-utils, gtk--, Sawmill name change, mini icons, Eazel funding, GTK news, Nautilus news, software releases)

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

This is the GNOME Summary for April 13-25, 2000.

=============================================================
  Table of Contents
-------------------------------------------------------------

 1)  freedesktop.org
 2)  gnome-utils release
 3)  gtk-- 1.2 released
 4)  Sawmill changes name
 5)  More releases
 6)  Articles and interviews
 7)  Eazel funding
 8)  mini icons
 9)  All systems stabilized
 10)  GTK+ news
 11)  Nautilus Update
 12)  Hacking Activity
 13)  New and Updated Software

==============================================================

 1)  freedesktop.org

--------------------------------------------------------------


I started up a small project to work on desktop cooperation, that may
be of interest to GTK and GNOME developers:

  http://www.freedesktop.org/

==============================================================

 2)  gnome-utils release

--------------------------------------------------------------


Some intrepid hackers are trying to bring the gnome-utils package back
from the dead; it became a bit obsolete at some point. 

The latest snapshot release updates some translations and docs; adds
gfloppy and gdict; breaks the spec file (don't try rpm -ta); and is
available here:
   
  ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/unstable/sources/gnome-utils/gnome-utils-1.1.0.tar.gz

==============================================================

 3)  gtk-- 1.2 released

--------------------------------------------------------------


gtk-- now has a stable release, synchronized with GTK+ 1.2; check out
the announcement here:

  http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-announce-list/2000-April/0025.shtml

gtk-- is a C++ library for writing GTK+ applications. It offers a
typesafe signal/slot system, widget derivation, C++ syntax and
namespaces, and all that fun stuff. If the lack of C++ support has
been scaring you away from GTK+, check out gtk--.

==============================================================

 4)  Sawmill changes name

--------------------------------------------------------------


It happens every day; some free software name turns out to 
be a trademark. Sigh. Now it's called "Sawfish."

  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956312032/index_html

==============================================================

 5)  More releases

--------------------------------------------------------------


Balsa:  

  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956170481/index_html

EOG:

  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956257225/index_html

gnome-core/gnome-applets:

  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956273342/index_html 

(Find the bugs! This one is getting near the final stable version.)

==============================================================

 6)  Articles and interviews

--------------------------------------------------------------


Tutorial on glib:

  http://www-4.ibm.com/software/developer/library/glib.html

Interview with Ettore:

  http://www.linuxpapers.org/show_article.html?INTERVIEW_ETTORE

GNOME and Palm Pilot: 
 
  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956611538/index_html

==============================================================

 7)  Eazel funding

--------------------------------------------------------------


Eazel announced substantial venture capital funding:

  http://news.gnome.org/gnome-news/956051807/index_html

This can only be good for GNOME, since they can afford more
hackers. ;-)

==============================================================

 8)  mini icons

--------------------------------------------------------------


We have mini-icon support for the task list; it interoperates nicely
with KDE applications even. Have a look here:

  http://www.gnome.org/~jberkman/tasklist-icons.png

To add support to your apps, see the docs for new libgnomeui API:

  http://primates.helixcode.com/~jacob/gnomeui-gnome-window-icon.html

Note that ISVs and such should NOT use this API for a while yet,
because no current Linux distribution ships with it. The next
generation of distribution versions will have it.

==============================================================

 9)  All systems stabilized

--------------------------------------------------------------


We've had all kinds of adventures with flaky mailing lists and bug
tracking systems; let's just say that they involved ancient versions
of Linux running ancient versions of qmail and smartlist, and that now
things have gone to Mailman/Postfix nirvana. i.e. it's all working
again.

==============================================================

 10)  GTK+ news

--------------------------------------------------------------


Owen spent all yesterday trying to get a snapshot of the new
GTK-with-Pango up for your previewing enjoyment; the snapshots even
come in RPMs that won't conflict with your existing GTK install!
Woo-hoo! 

This will let you edit bidirectional text in the new text widget and
in GtkEntry, flip your UI back and forth dynamically to match your
right-to-left language, and that kind of crazy stuff. You'll probably
have to install some Hebrew, Arabic, and Japanese fonts to get the
full experience (hint: 'xset fp rehash' after you install
them). There's also a little international keyboard applet that comes
with the panel, which you can use to make your keyboard output foreign
characters.

There's a new Pango status report:

 http://www.pango.org/status-000425

And the Pango downloads page is supposed to have the snapshot tarballs
and RPMs by the time you read this:

 http://www.pango.org/download.shtml

Jonathan continues to hack the tree widget, it's even in CVS now under
module 'gtree'; send comments and patches or forever hold your peace,
because if this gets in GTK+ it's the last one ever. (Third time is
the charm, I hope.)

And as always, I'll plug the TODO list (we've had a number of patches
coming in on gtk-devel-list, which is promising):

  http://developer.gnome.org/status/

==============================================================

 11)  Nautilus Update

--------------------------------------------------------------


For those who don't know yet, Nautilus is a graphical shell/file
manager planned for GNOME 2.0. Here are some of the new features that
were added since the last nautilus update.

* Special pseudo home directory for `Novice' user level. (Andy)

* Convert Nautilus from GOAD to OAF. This will eventually enable
  nautilus to support a much wider range of view components. (Maciej)

* Mozilla component for Nautilus; very preliminary and requires
  Mozilla source to build right now (this was mentioned in the last
  Nautilus summary but now it's actually checked in). (Ramiro, Chris
  Blizzard)

* Improved preferences, including new preferences like click policy
  and using GConf instead of gnome_config (Ramiro)

* Files appear in new location when moved or copied with Drag and Drop
  (Pavel)

* Greatly improved icon layout (Darin)

* Installer prototype (Shane)

* Initial support for URI links (both gmc-style and a newer kind)
  (Andy)

* Rename files in-place (Gene)

* More icons for common file types. (Andy [stolen from gmc])

* Numerous bug fixes (everyone)

==============================================================

 12)  Hacking Activity

--------------------------------------------------------------


Module Score-O-Matic:
 (number of CVS commits per module, since the last summary)

 147 evolution
 110 nautilus
  87 gnome-utils
  72 gnome-core
  71 gnome-applets
  65 gnome-games
  59 gimp
  54 balsa
  51 gnumeric
  46 gedit
  38 gnome-db
  32 gnome-media
  30 gtkhtml
  29 gfloppy
  29 desktop-docs
  20 gnome-libs
  20 bonobo
  16 mc
  16 gnome-vfs
  15 sodipodi
  15 gtk--
  15 gnome-pim

User Score-O-Matic:
 (number of CVS commits per user, since the last summary)

 135 pablo
  67 kabalak
  50 ahyden
  43 danw
  38 darin
  35 itp
  35 barreiro
  33 frob
  32 ettore
  30 rodrigo
  30 jirka
  29 martin
  26 dcm
  24 neo
  24 dmueth
  23 zucchi
  23 alves
  21 peterw
  20 jody
  19 kmaraas
  19 jfleck
  19 acscherp

==============================================================

 13)  New and Updated Software

--------------------------------------------------------------


Software since the last summary. Jonathan kindly contributed this 
section again this week.

ZClock - Replacement for the default clock applet.
Everybuddy - Universal Instant Messaging client for linux.
MonitorSensors - Displays sensor data provided by the lm_sensors package.
gvn - Graphical virtual unix network.
Gnome Character Map - Program to select and use high ASCII characters.
KRunning - Database client that managea running events.
Etherape - Network monitor with ethernet, ip and tcp modes.
gts - A task scheduler (interface to at and cron).
grio_applet - Manages files on the Rio PMP300 portable MP3 player.
gmessage+ - Clone of xmessage.
Grecord - Simple program for recording and playing sound files.
gnome-core - GNOME panel and applets, and other essential GNOME utilities.
gnome-applets - Collection of applets for the panel.
Gnome UPS Monitor - Network UPS Tools package.
bug-buddy - Graphical bug reporting utility for GNOME.
MemoPanel - Memo applet for the GNOME panel.
Balsa - Email client for GNOME.
GtkExText - An alternative widget to the old GtkText widget.
hOpla - link XML files to database.
ToutDoux - ToutDoux aims to be the GNU "project".
GtkExtra - A useful widget set complementary to GTK+.
gedit - Lightweight text editor.
rCalc - Fast and light symbolic calculator.
Pybliographer - Tool for manipulating bibliographic databases.
Industrializer - Generates a wide variety of percussion samples.
gIPSC - IP subnet calculator.
gno3dtet - 3D Tetris-like game.
CodeCommander - Functional all-purpose editor.
Gnome Toaster - cd creation suite using cdrecord, cdda2wav, mkisofs.
GProc-applet - Displays the process list from the panel.
gcrontab - A crontab editor for the cron system.
Glitter - A newsreader for extracting binaries from newsgroups.
teatime - A tea-drawingtime-observer-applet for the panel.
X-Chat - A fully featured IRC client.
gob - A preprocessor for making GTK+ objects easily.
Sketch - A vector drawing program written almost completely in Python.
GnoSPaM - Slackware package manager for Gnome using libslaktool.
gtyping - A typing program.
Sarah - a new file manager.
Pan - A usenet newsreader.
Sodipodi - A vector drawing program.
Seahorse - A front end for GnuPG.
Jungle Monkey - A distributed file sharing program.
gnome-yahoo - A Yahoo! Pager clone for Gnome.
GnomePM - Simple portfolio management tool.
Gnome WebAds - Helps maintain banner ads on websites.

See the software map on www.gnome.org (or Freshmeat) for more
information about any of these packages.


===========================================================================

Until next week - 

Havoc