GNOME Summary, August 1-8

[Havoc Pennington <hp redhat com>]

This is the GNOME Summary for August 1 - August 8. Remember to stop by the
GNOME booth if you're at LinuxWorld!

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  Table of Contents
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 1)  GNOME Window Manager
 2)  LinuxWorld contest
 3)  CVS checkins and CVS access
 4)  LinuxWorld
 5)  Hacking Activity
 6)  New and Updated Software

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 1)  GNOME Window Manager

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There was a big thread on wm-dev and gnome-hackers about a GNOME
default window manager. Initially someone proposed basing the GNOME
default on WindowMaker, but the discussion broadened a bit. You can
read it here:

 http://www.windowmaker.org/lists/wm-dev/

This is the thread start:

 http://www.windowmaker.org/lists/wm-dev/wm-dev00399.shtml

And Alfredo's eventual statement to wm-user about using WindowMaker:

 http://www.windowmaker.org/lists/wm-user/wm-user02027.shtml
 
Jay Painter continues to hack on gnome-wm, which is in GNOME CVS under
that module name. I compiled it and tried it out, and it looks
promising.

It probably wouldn't hurt to have several GNOME window manager
efforts; gives us choices, and it will encourage specifications.

Flamers read this first: 
  
   *** You will still be able to choose your window manager if you
       want. The GNOME window manager will be a _default_ only. ***

   *** WindowMaker will still continue in its current form, even 
       if it's also used as a GNOME wm. Read Alfredo's posts. ***

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

 2)  LinuxWorld contest

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


Lots of GTK+, GNOME, and GNU applications are nominated in
LinuxWorld's Editor's Choice contest. In particular, GNOME itself and
the GNOME ICU instant messaging client. Here's the URL:

 http://www.linuxworld.com/linuxworld/lw-1999-07/lw-07-finalists.html

It looks like they're going to pick GNOME or KDE as their editor's
choice; I don't envy them the resulting flame-fest. :-) But it will
probably get them a lot of page views.

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

 3)  CVS checkins and CVS access

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


Tom Tromey mailed gnome-hackers last week because people committed to
his libunicode module without asking. Tom shouldn't have had to do
that.

If you have CVS access, these are the rules:

 - In any module with a HACKING file, read that file and do what it
   says. If it says don't commit, don't commit. If it says ask 
   a particular person before committing, then ask them.

 - If there is no HACKING file, then the default policy is that you
   send patches to the person in AUTHORS rather than simply committing
   to CVS. The default policy is also that you have to write a
   ChangeLog entry and you have to conform to the code indentation
   style of the module.

That is: CVS access does not give you permission to write to any
module. It gives you permission to write to your own modules, and 
any module whose maintainer tells you you may write to it. You can
also write to any module if its HACKING file says you can.

3If we keep having problems, we'll probably implement access control
lists on the modules. But it would be better if people just followed
the rules.

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 4)  LinuxWorld

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


If you're at LinuxWorld, check out the GNOME booth! Also, it looks
like there will be some kind of GNOME-KDE linkup; if you're a
developer, ask at the GNOME or KDE booth and see if they've come up
with a time and place.

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 5)  Hacking Activity

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


Module Score-O-Matic:

  46 gtk--
  38 gnumeric
  35 gnome-core
  35 control-center
  25 gnome-mailer
  23 mc
  22 gb
  20 gimp
  17 gnomeicu
  17 gnome-libs
  17 dryad
  14 xpdf
  14 libunicode
  13 gnome-chess
  11 gnome-games
  11 gnome-db
  11 bonobo
  10 gphoto
  10 gconf

User Score-O-Matic:

  43 pablo
  37 unammx
  35 sopwith
  31 martin
  26 jody
  22 glaurent
  19 bertrand
  17 mmeeks
  17 hp
  17 andersca
  16 kenelson
  15 jwise
  12 zana
  11 kmaraas
  11 jamesh
  10 rbrady
   9 sipan
   9 jberkman
   8 jrb
   8 hvr
   8 cgabriel

The usual suspects are moving forward: Gtk--, Gnumeric, etc. Good bit
of gnome-mailer progress. A GnomeICU release is coming soon, according
to Jeremy. As usual there's lots of work on the various IDE/debugger
modules, and Bonobo. gnome-core and control center got some tweaks and 
enhancements as well (I think the UI Properties capplet may now be
usable, thanks to Jonathan.)

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

 6)  New and Updated Software

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gnome-python - Python bindings
libglade - Runtime loading of Glade XML files (like OpenStep GUI files)
Bulb - "warning service" applet; lights up when conditions are met
Xwhois - Whois database frontend
HTTPD Version Checker - Info about remote web servers
gXiao - Organize "albums" of images or other documents
GNOME Transcript - SQL client
wxWindows - cross-platfrom toolkit, GTK+ is one platform
V/Gtk - another cross-platfrom toolkit, GTK+ is one platform
RPM explorer - browse files, annotated with info from RPM database
gaddr - very simple address book
Pan - interesting new newsreader application
GIntMon - monitor interrupts on your system
gStratego - Stratego game
Animator Applet - show animated gifs, etc.
GNews - another newsreader
screem - web site editing/maintenance application
GSnes9x - Nintendo emulator
gBasic - Visual Basic compiler 
GameStalker - Quake server browser
Gnomba - Samba browser
GProc - process list (similar to top)

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Until next week - 

Havoc