GNOME Summary 22 July - 28 July 2001

[Steve George <gnome-summary gnome org>]

This is the GNOME Summary for 2001-07-22 - 2001-07-28
    
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Table of Contents
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1. GNOME 2.0 API Freeze
2. Martin Baulig steps downs
3. Comments sought on the RFP system
4. Minutes of the GF Board Meeting (July 24, 2001) by Dan Mueth
5. Evolution Beta period
6. GNOME Programming in Linux using GTK+ by Subhasish Ghosh
7. Joining the Round Table: How to get started developing for the Linux
desktop
8. gIDE 0.3.5 available
9. DevHelp 0.1.1 released
10. Procman 0.8 released
11. Hacker Activity
12. New and Updated Software

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1. GNOME 2.0 API Freeze
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The API freeze for GNOME 2.0 started to take place over the last few days.
While not completely set in stone the idea is that with the API's frozen
application developers will be able start porting to the new development
platform. Everyone expects masses of bugs to turn up but it's an important
step in the release cycle. 

        http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-2-0-list/2001-July/msg00181.html

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2. Martin Baulig steps downs
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Martin has stepped down as GNOME 2.0 Release Co-ordinator. His college studies
finally had to take precedence so he had to make this choice. He's left the
new platform in a much better state than he was and everyone appreciates his
work - lets hope his studies go well! 
 
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-hackers-readonly/2001-July/msg00192.html

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3. Comments sought on the RFP system
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As GNOME has become more complex and the number of particapents has grown
making considered technical decisions has become more difficult. Consequently
this year has seen a number of arguments blow up amongst the hackers
concerning important design decisions. Conferences such as GUADEC and the
Foundation has helped but a more targeted system for making specific decisions
is being sought. The main options are an enhancement procedure similar to
Python or a technical review board. Some hackers feel the RFP system would be
too bureaucratic so Havoc wrote up the proposed policy and is asking for
comments. 

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/foundation-list/2001-July/msg00013.html

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4. Minutes of the GF Board Meeting (July 24, 2001) by Dan Mueth
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Not a lot of movement on the Foundation issues has taken place recently,
probably due to focus on the GNOME 2.0 release. The employment of a full time
Foundation employee looks to be coming close which will no doubt push things
forward. 

http://lists.gnome.org/archives/foundation-announce/2001-July/msg00002.html

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5. Evolution Beta period
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Evolution the groupware application being built by Ximian entered it's beta
period. Encompassing email, calendaring, to-do lists and news feeds it is one
of the most advanced applications using GNOME technology. The major
development phase is over with stabilisation and bug-fixing the order of the
day so everyone is encouraged to download and pound on it! 

        http://www.ximian.com/apps/evolution.php3

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6. GNOME Programming in Linux using GTK+ by Subhasish Ghosh
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This article covers the core GNOME technologies for application programmers,
particularly focusing on GTK+. It's a good introduction to GTK+ if you want to
be a GNOME programmer and the final links section provides for further study. 

        http://linux.com/develop/newsitem.phtml?aid=12482&sid=1&page=3

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7. Joining the Round Table: How to get started developing for the Linux desktop
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Starting out as a hacker can seem like a mountainous task. Tina Gasperson
seeks to dispell the fears and provide some pointers in this concise article:
good stuff for those thinking about strapping on their coding water-wings. I
personally think that every single person can make a significant contribution
whether that be coding, documents, testing or whatever - every little bit
helps. For budding GNOME coders don't forget the Gnome-love project which is
specifically designed to help people down the right path. 
 
        http://www.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=01/07/11/185221
        http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-love/index.html

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8. gIDE 0.3.5 available
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An often repeated complaint is that GNOME has no specific IDE: the reply has
always been that there are a plethora of solutions, and anyway anyone who
can't master the Zen of emacs is a wimp! Perhaps some developers tendinitis
will shortly be soothed as gIDE continues it's path towards completion. Dave
Camps announced a development release following completely redesigning it to a
Bonobo basis. For some interesting screenshots follow the link and change the
number from gide2 through to gide6.
 
        http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-devtools/2001-July/msg00017.html
        http://primates.ximian.com/~dave/gide6.png

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9. DevHelp 0.1.1 released
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Devhelp is a small helper application for programmers who need to reference
documentation. While early in development it has a number of features that
look really useful so check it out! 
 
        http://people.codefactory.se/~micke/devhelp/

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10. Procman 0.8 released
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Kevin Vandersloot announced a new version of this process viewer and system
monitor. Some discussion has ensued about making this the default in future
releases of GNOME. 
 
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-announce-list/2001-July/msg00036.html
http://lists.gnome.org/archives/gnome-packaging-list/2001-July/msg00041.html

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11. Hacker Activity
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Thanks for Paul Warren for these lists.

Most active modules:
 200 SashMo
 173 SashWDE
 144 evolution
 120 gnome-control-center
 73 galeon
 59 ximian-setup-tools
 55 gimp
 41 gtkhtml
 39 control-center-plus
 38 gail
 34 mc
 30 nautilus
 30 gnumeric
 27 pan
 25 web-devel-2
 24 libgda
 22 bonobo-extra
 20 libbonobo
 20 eel
 19 libxslt
[101 active modules omitted]

Most active hackers:
 72 chema
 68 dkc
 67 tyeler
 58 martin
 56 hovinen
 53 jcorwin
 50 ajshankar
 49 leonardl
 45 chatham
 37 pablo
 33 mpeseng
 32 minmax
 31 michael
 31 unammx
 29 proskin
 28 rodrigo
 27 darin
 27 hestgray
 27 fejj
 25 chyla
[122 active hackers omitted]


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12. New and Updated Software
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Paleta  - Personal diary application
Gabber  - Open Source instant messaging Jabber client.
Encompass  - Light weight Web browser.
ldif_to_vcard  - Netscape to GnomeCard address converter.
Althea  - MAP e-mail client
CD-Rom Control  - CD automounter.
gbonds  - Savings bond inventory application
Audio File Library  - API for accessing a variety of sound formats.
gmmusic  - Database front-end to store music collections
BEAST/BSE  - Graphical audio synthesis framework.
GNOME Photo Collector  - Tool to classify images.
GNOME SmsSend  - Graphical SMS messaging tool.
GCO  - Comic collection database application.
galeon  - Gecko browser with native GNOME look.
gxsm  - Graphical interface to 2D data acquisition methods.
Terraform  - Interactive fractal terrain former.
PortableGUI  - C++ framework for developing GNOME applications.
gnocl  - Tcl extension of GTK+/GNOME widgets.
Overflow  - Visual programming environment.
Scigraphica  - Technical graphics and data analysis application.
Glimmer  - All-purpose editor.
Watchdog  - Service activity monitor.
vlc  - A DVD and MPEG player.
bond  - RAD system.

For more information on these packages visit the GNOME Software map: 
http://www.gnome.org/applist/listrecent.php3

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Until next time,

Steve
gnome-summary gnome org