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GNOME Summary, July 18-25


This is the GNOME Summary for  July 18-25.

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

 1)  gnome-core and gnome-pim
 2)  Gnomba
 3)  GnomeHack release
 4)  GConf
 5)  GTK+/Gnome Application Development goes to press
 6)  If you have a cvs.gnome.org account, read this
 7)  Dax Kelson RPM updates
 8)  WM Spec churning along
 9)  Report from IBM conference
 10)  Hacking Activity
 11)  New and Updated Software


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

 1)  gnome-core and gnome-pim

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


New releases of gnome-core and gnome-pim, updating your calendar, panel, and so on. 
Here's the announce, describing where to get them and what the changes are:

 http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-announce-list/1999-July/0035.shtml

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

 2)  Gnomba

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


A GNOME Samba browser appeared:

 http://www.pobox.com/~gandalf/proj/gnomba 
 
Looks nice, check it out. I think these guys have delinquently failed
to update the software map, however. ;-) Nudge, nudge, guys.

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

 3)  GnomeHack release

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


If you haven't tried GnomeHack, try it out. It works pretty well. I've
played several games without seeing bugs. (Of course, I suck and die
pretty fast. :-)

 http://www.xmission.com/~andersen/erik/gnomehack/gnomehack.html 

It's definitely nicer than moving a little @ character around.

Oooh, I just noticed that Erik is *also* a software map
delinquent. Bad Erik. ;-)

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

 4)  GConf

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


I'm playing around with a new configuration system (a replacement for
libgnome/gnome-config.h). This is like the Windows "registry," only
without the bad parts. :-)

If you're curious, look at gconf/doc/thoughts.txt in CVS; you might also be interested in 

  http://www.debian.org/~wakkerma/config6/

Not too much code yet. It will be Gnome-independent, thus the name
"GConf" instead of "GnomeConf".

Oh, the initial thread about this starts here:

  http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-devel-list/1999-July/0121.shtml

thoughts.txt in CVS is a revision of my mailing list post.

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

 5)  GTK+/Gnome Application Development goes to press

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


Several people have asked when my book is coming out; the pages were
finalized and sent to the printer on Friday. So, it will take about a
month to print and ship to stores. That is, expect the book in late
August, or thereabouts. The final page count was over 500 pages, a
good bit more than the planned 350; so this is a weighty tome on
Gnome. I promise it's only 50% filler. :-) (just kidding)

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

 6)  If you have a cvs.gnome.org account, read this

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


A post from Elliot about using this machine:

  http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-devel-list/1999-July/0120.shtml

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

 7)  Dax Kelson RPM updates

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


Bleeding-edge RPMs, read the announce here:

  http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-list/1999-July/0594.shtml

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

 8)  WM Spec churning along

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


Work seems to be progressing on the Gnome/KDE/etc. window manager
extension spec; at least, major players are talking without any flames
so far. You can read the archives here:

  http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/wm-spec-list/1999-July/

Please stick to lurking unless you're very sure you should post, we
want to keep the list on-track and undistracted.

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

 9)  Report from IBM conference

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


The following report was written by Peter Teichman <pat4@acpub.duke.edu>, who just returned
from the GNOME booth at the IBM Solutions '99 conference:

I have just returned from a week in Las Vegas, where IBM's Solutions
'99 conference was being held. Nat Friedman was there from Sunday
until Thursday, and Miguel de Icaza was there for Wednesday and
Thursday.

Solutions '99 was a conference for developers. The feel was definitely
one of supporting strong technologies, rather than marketing. IBM had
given a booth to the Free Software Foundation and the GNOME project,
and we went out to man the booth. The FSF was represented by Tim Ney,
who some of you may have met at other conferences recently.

It was very interesting to see IBM's stance toward Free Software and
GNU/Linux - it looks as if they are actually doing things right. They
are working on native ports of all their major applications, and
appear to be genuinely trying to release the source to anything they
can. Moreover, they are trying *not* to crowd the market. I was
initially skeptical about IBM's involvement in the community, but
talking in depth with several of their employees leads me to believe
that they have the right ideas about how to be involved in the
community.

The main focus of our booth was giving GNOME demos and educating
people about the technologies involved in the project. Since this was
a conference for developers, most people were very interested in the
work that has gone into our infrastructure.

The biggest hits appeared to be Bonobo, the Canvas, and our reliance
on XML tools. The XML people from IBM (and their AlphaWorks projects)
were there in full force, and they seemed impressed that we have
standardized all our file formats on XML. Another big hit was found in
Gill, our rendering program for the World Wide Web Consortium's
Scalable Vector Graphics. We ended up showing Gill off quite a bit.

Overall, I think we interested many people in the GNOME project. I
think it was good to get the word out at a major industry conference
like this one, especially one where the conference attendees were
looking toward possible GNU/Linux ports of their software. Everyone we
talked to who was in that position now understands the strengths of
the GNOME framework for developing applications.

On Tuesday, Nat and I made the rounds through the conference floor. We
ended up evangelizing Free Software to the other software vendors. To
my surprise, no one there blew us off. Some companies had already been
considering the model, and some seemed interested once we described it
a bit. I don't think that we changed any minds, but we certainly made
headway. And these were some of the largest software vendors around:
 
  http://www.solutions99.ibm.com/html_docs/exhibitors.html

Wednesday afternoon there was a Linux BOF, which Nat and I attended. I
put in a plug for the Free Software Foundation's booth afterward, and
many people picked up our literature. I was hoping that some people
would come by the next day and see a GNOME demo, at very least.
Several groups sounded like they were interested in opening the source
to their products, and I also wanted them to come by for discussion.

We did end up having increased traffic the next day, and showed off
much of GNOME, like we had done the days before. It was nice for us
that this was a developers conference, as they were more interested in
the technical parts of GNOME that we consider so important. We were
able to talk more about our framework for building applications,
rather than just demo the Panel and existing apps.

Miguel gave a talk later on Thursday, where he described the major
structural parts of GNOME. He complained afterward that the talk
wasn't as funny as he would have liked, but I thought it was the best
technical introduction to the GNOME framework that I had heard.

The overall feel of the conference was that GNU/Linux and the GNOME
environment are finally making their way into larger markets. IBM
looks to have the right idea about their work in the area, and I think
it is good for them to be an ally.

Peter Teichman
pat4@acpub.duke.edu

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

 10)  Hacking Activity

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


Module Score-O-Matic:

  31 ggdb
  25 gimp
  24 gnumeric
  23 gnome-libs
  15 mc
  15 gtk--
  15 gtk+
  15 gnome-ddruid
  15 gnome-applets
  13 gill
  13 gconf
  12 web-devel-2
  12 gnomeicu
  11 nethack
  11 goose
  10 gxsnmp
  10 gnome-debug
  10 gnome-core
  10 gmf
   9 gnome-filer
   9 bonobo
   8 dryad

User Score-O-Matic:

  53 martin
  25 spapadim
  20 mmeeks
  18 msw
  18 hp
  16 sopwith
  15 kenelson
  14 hvr
  13 sipan
  12 vinc
  12 karsten
  12 hestgray

Notice the gnome-ddruid module, which is a spiffy disk partition editor msw is working on. 
It's quite nice. 

There's still a bunch of work on assorted IDE/debugger thingies, I
still haven't tried them. They must be nearing usability, I'd think.



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

 11)  New and Updated Software

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

  
  Mosquito
  gvsy
  GSnes9x
  gaspell
  Gnomba
  GNOME Weather
  GnomeTranscript
  vsa
  GnoMail
  GnomeHack
  gsrnd
  gx10
  teleGNOME
  gproc
  GnomePM
  Glacier
  GPeriodic
  GFlash
  Trinity
  gquest
  GIntMon
  irssi
  gnofin
  atilo
  gaddr
  ghost-edit
  gdiary
  gphoto      
  screem        
  gchbkgrd
  
Smart-ass comment: a couple authors have entries in the software map
with no web page, no tarball, no author's email address, no version
number, indeed, no information whatsoever. :-) You know who you
are. The map entries aren't very useful if they don't point to any
software.:-)

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

Until next week - 

Havoc
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