GNOME Summary, May 24-31

[Havoc Pennington <rhp zirx pair com>]

Hi,

This is an informal summary of exciting GNOME events and discussions from
the past week. If it's useful perhaps I can manage to write such a summary
every week. :-) Then it will be the "GNOME Weekly News Summary." But let's
not be premature.

White Papers Online
===

The Gnome "White Papers" web site went up, with short documents describing
key pieces of Gnome technology. This can be found at:

  http://www.gnome.org/white-papers/ 

In particular, Dave Mason wrote up a document describing the entire 
Gnome application development framework:

  http://www.gnome.org/white-papers/gtg/gtg/

International Gnome Support
===

Several Gnome hackers are forming a company to support Gnome and write
custom Gnome software. Extend Gnome for your local installation, get your
pet bug fixed, or ship a customized Gnome to your customers.

 http://www.gnome-support.com

The Future of gmc
===

The Gnome file manager continues to be a hot discussion topic on the Gnome
mailing lists. A couple weeks ago Ettore Perazzoli announced his intention
to begin work on an enhanced file manager as his thesis project; Miguel
also has plans to hack on the next-generation file manager. The future
looks promising on this front, and something will probably appear in CVS
soon.

gnome-status CVS module
===

There is now a 'gnome-status' CVS module. It contains:
 - per-hacker files describing what people are working on
 - per-module TODO lists describing what needs to be done

If you want to get involved in Gnome programming, have a look. If you are
involved, please add files for yourself and your projects.

Gnome Workshop Logo
===

Tigert drew a modified version of the Gnome logo for Gnome Workshop; you 
can see it on the Gnome Workshop site:

 http://www.gnome.org/gw.html

Debian Packages
===

The latest Debian packages have been rebuilt for Debian 2.1/slink, so
people not running the unstable distribution can still get the latest and
greatest Gnome. Also, Debian added a number of "meta" packages; these are
empty packages that simply depend on a list of other packages. You can
install or upgrade your Gnome by simply installing these meta
packages. 

The Debian packages appear to be on ftp.gnome.org,  in 
/pub/GNOME/gnome-1.0/debian/, and are also somewhere on the Debian servers
but I lost the announcement. :-)

Hacking activity
===

Hacking activity that I happened to notice: it looks like George is making
the panel/applet size configurable, in response to many "my panel is too
high" complaints; Nat and Matt are hard at work on Bonobo; Miguel fixed
bunches of bugs; Damon is adding Gnome support to the Glade GUI builder;  
there were many commits to the white-papers and web site modules;
Elliot's Gnome Media Framework seems to be well underway. There were lots
of other things too, but I don't have time to read hundreds of commit
messages.:-)

John Carmack likes Gnome
===

We learned that John Carmack thinks the Linux GUI is halfway useable,
thanks to Gnome. Post to gnome-list on this:

http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-list/1999-May/1372.shtml

It was also on /. and Linux Today.

Gnome PPP discussion
===

I've noticed a lot of talk about Gnome PPP, its future directions, and
possible integration with the modem-related panel applets. Sounds 
like cool stuff is in store.

The start of one thread is here:

http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-list/1999-May/1289.shtml

Is a Multilingual Gnome Too Much Work?
===

Gtk-- developer Guillaume Laurent brought up some of the difficulties that
arise with language bindings in a LinuxToday feature; most of the
resulting comments were interesting. Especially check out 
a post from James Henstridge, author of the Python bindings, and a nice 
recently-added "Can't we all just get along" post at the bottom of the
page:

 http://features.linuxtoday.com/stories/6298.html

Matt Loper's Secret Tutorials
===

Matt Loper has useful info on CORBA and the automake/autoconf tools on his
home page - worth checking out. I haven't seen any links or announcements,
but perhaps I just missed them. :-)

Go here:
 http://sand.loper.org/~mmlop/

Bonobo name change
===

Speaking of Matt, he is renaming GNOME::Component to GNOME::BonoboObject.
He's fixing everything in CVS, but owners of Bonobo-using modules should
be aware of the change. 

Mozilla happenings
===

The GtkMozilla widget has appeared, thanks to Alexander Larsson who is
also the author of the lovely Visio-like program, Dia. This immediately
inspired some hacking on a Bonobo embeddable Mozilla component; it turned
out to be trickier than hoped, but several people are hard at work.

Someone should Gnomify AbiWord
===

The AbiSource guys have said they want to Gnomify, and even use the Bonobo
architecture eventually; a volunteer should check this puppy out of CVS
and send them a patch or two.

 http://www.abisource.com

Gnome Books?
===

Miguel sent out an announcement and started a mailing list to discuss
writing free books; there was lots of discussion on this list, including
several posts from Tim O'Reilly of O'Reilly publishing fame. Tim says that
he'll publish free books if authors want to write them, and he's eager to
work with the community on this issue.

Miguel's post is here:

 http://www.gnome.org/mailing-lists/archives/gnome-list/1999-May/1018.shtml

For people who want to start working immediately, there's always the Gtk
Reference Documentation Project, at:

 http://www.gtk.org/rdp/

And the Gnome documentation task list Federico has compiled:

 http://www.gnome.org/devel/docs/TODO/todo.html

New/Updated Applications
===

New stuff on the Gnome Software Map over the last week:

Gfax, screem, GnomeSentence, Gnocatan, GNOME Portfolio Manager, GSokoban,
Guppi, gnofin, SkyApp, GNotes!, Sound Monitor Applet, GQView,
genius, gLaptop, GNU Photo, mini-commander, Gnumeric, wxGtk, gnome-libs, 
graphtool, gnome-python, Blackbox GNOME patch, and GNOME disk catalog.

There's a bunch of new stuff on CVS too, if you're into that.



OK, that's all I can think of.

Havoc