[Banshee-List] Banshee 0.9.13

[Aaron Bockover <abockover novell com>]

Banshee 0.9.13 is ready... sort of. There are some special things to
note about this release, so please read the important notes that follow,
*especially* if you maintain Banshee for a distribution.

This release mainly represents some architectural, under-the-hood
improvements. Read on for details. 

Please do not hesitate to file bugs against Banshee in GNOME Bugzilla
(http://bugzilla.gnome.org, component: banshee), or discuss Banshee on
this list or in #banshee on irc.gnome.org. The Banshee Wiki, open to
everyone for viewing and editing is located at
http://banshee-project.org.


IMPORTANT NOTES
---------------

This release should be considered somewhat interim and only for testing.
Distributors should probably not package this release for "stable"
channels. 

1. Due to the move to the new generic Digial Audio Player framework,
iPod syncing has been disabled in this build. The syncing logic needs to
be refactored slightly to implement the new DAP framework. It will be
re-enabled and improved in the next release. 

2. Not many user-visible features are in this build as most development
has been under the hood. Much of the code base has been reorganized.
There is now a global HAL layer, and the Audio CD core has been adapted
to take advantage of this. 

3. All iPod-specific code has been removed from the core program and has
been moved into its own optional assembly, Banshee.Dap.Ipod.dll, which
implements the new generic DAP layer, Banshee.Dap. configure will detect
whether or not iPod support can be built. To disable iPod support, pass
--disable-ipod to configure.


NEXT VERSION
------------

Banshee 0.10 will be released on Wednesday (not Thursday), December 7,
2005. This will be suitable for distributors to package.


NEW FEATURES
------------

# Base framework for "Universal DAP
Support" (http://abock.org/2005/11/21/we-must-have-universal-dap-support/). 

# iPod code refactored to implement new DAP (Digital Audio Player) model
(see notes below)

# ipod-sharp/libipoddevice is no longer a build requirement as DAP
implementations are optional and loaded at runtime

# New unified HAL layer based on hal-sharp; new DAP layer and Audio CD
layer now works off this HAL layer

# Multimedia Keys support 

# Danish translation by Lasse Bang Mikkelsen

# Show file name and encoding (bitrate, sample rate, etc.) information
in track properties dialog

# ID3 2.4 and WMA support

# Updated optimized tango bitmap iPod icons from Jakub Steiner


BUG FIXES
---------

# Remember window maximization state, remember state when restoring from
tray (BGO #316784)

# Better Notification Area Icon, will recover from Gnome Panel crashing.
Quit option now works again. (BGO #321684)


THE IMPORTANT LINKS
-------------------

Release Overview Page:
http://banshee-project.org/Releases/0.9.13

Banshee 0.9.13 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/banshee/banshee-0.9.13.tar.gz

ipod-sharp 0.5.11.1 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/ipod-sharp/ipod-sharp-0.5.11.1.tar.gz

libipoddevice 0.3.5 Tarball:
http://banshee-project.org/files/libipoddevice/libipoddevice-0.3.5.tar.gz

Banshee Wiki: 
http://banshee-project.org/


DEPENDENCIES
------------

- Mono 1.1.10 and full stack
- ipod-sharp 0.5.11; in turn requires libipoddevice 0.3.5
- gtk-sharp-2.0 (2.3.92)
- sqlite3
- GStreamer 0.8.11
- libmusicbrainz 2.1.1 or better
- libnautilus-burn 2.12
- GTK+ 2.6 or better
- HAL 0.5.2 or better


MORE NOTES
-----

- Mono 1.1.10 is now required. An internal 1.1.9.2 mcs compiler is no
longer shipped with Banshee as the 1.1.10 core library is now
necessary. 

- Bindings to the VLC libraries have been implemented and are available
as a Banshee Media Engine. To use the VLC engine, pass --enable-vlc to
configure. Additionally, libvlc.so must be copied to
banshee/mediaengines/vlc before running "make install". To build
libvlc.so, download and build Jon Lech Johansen's snd123:

http://nanocrew.net/2005/09/20/snd123/

Copy the resulting libvlc.so to the aforementioned build directory, and
proceed with building Banshee as normal. Keep in mind, VLC support is
optional. Banshee also supports GStreamer and Helix engines. GStreamer
is required, and Helix is optional, but will be automatically detected
and configured if your system is set up properly with either RealPlayer
or Helix Player. See http://helixcommunity.org/