GStreamer 0.2.0 'Critical Mass' released

[Christian Schaller <Uraeus linuxrising org>]

GStreamer "Critical Mass" 0.2.0 released!

We're pleased to announce the availability of version 0.2.0 (dubbed
"Critical Mass") of the GStreamer streaming-media framework.

This release features a completely new scheduler, updated capabilities
and autoplugging subsystems, a large number of new plugins, and a bunch
of bug fixes.

The media player is once again relatively stable, and should play many
common media formats. QuickTime and AVI support are still lacking due to
problems in getting codecs for them (the majority are quite closed).

However, please remember the fact that GStreamer is not a product for
end users, it's for developers who which to write applications that have
better media handling support. If the player crashes, don't be
surprised, we probably already know why. If your new GStreamer-based
application crashes, we want to know about it and help you fix the
problem.

Updates, Enhancements:

    * better CPU detection
    * dynamic autopluggers with a new more powerful API
    * sparc cothreads
    * reworked arg setting (gstparse.c and gstelement.c xml handling)
    * gstreamer-launch can now handle dynamic pads and visualisation
plugins
    * testsuite directory added
    * incremental scheduling is now implemented
    * dynamic adding and removing of elements in a runnning pipeline
    * proper synchronisation and thread interlock
    * caps negotiation: allow elements to exchange and agree on a media
type; get rid of the metadata
    * man pages added for command line utils
    * more documentation updates
    * colourful debug system
    * new plugin initialisation mechanism so that the core can refuse to
load plugins built with an incompatible version number
    * added bash comand line completion for gstreamer-launch
    * pipefilter is now decoupled as it should be
    * added gnomevfssrc as the prefered element in gstplay
    * PAUSED and PLAYING state are now swapped
    * elements cannot have identical names when added to a bin
    * lots of plugin updates
    * reworked AVI decoder
    * allow quoted and escaped args in gstparse.c
    * preliminary work on proper refcounting
    * numerous bugfixes in the plugins

New plugins:

    * xmms input, effect
    * mpeg2dec based on libmpeg2
    * alsa sink and src
    * rtp sink
    * FLX decoder
    * multidisksrc
    * a new X-only videosink
    * stero2mono and mono2stereo
    * mulaw encoder/decoder
    * colorspace converter
    * artsdsink
    * alaw encoder/decoder
    * mad mp3 decoder
    * passthrough and script to create a plugin boilerplate
    * volenv (a volume envelope filter)
    * adder (an audio mixer)
    * arts plugin
    * 1394src (a firewire source)
    * DV decoder.
    * aasink
    * intfloat and floatint converter
    * autoplugcache
    * gstoss to import audio from legacy apps by hijacking /dev/dsp
    * lav encoder (for interoperability with mjpegtools)
    * gnomevfssrc (read data from gnomevfs) and gnomevfssink
    * sdlvideosink (display video using SDL)
    * quicktime decoder based on openquicktime
    * audiofile src and sink
    * level (level detection plugin)
    * gsm decoder/encoder (based on libgsm)
    * cutter (split audio into non-silent bits)

Compile fixes:

    * added a gstreamer.m4 script
    * more compatibility fixes for various xml libs
    * more BSD patches
    * gstversion.h added
    * numerous configure changes
    * compatibility with autoconf 2.50

More details on these features can be found, along with the release
tarballs and some RPMs, on the project's website: or the Roadmap

GStreamer is hosted on SourceForge, so support requests and bugs may be
filed as usual. Interested developers of the core library, plugins, and
applications should subscribe to the gstreamer-devel list. If there is
sufficient interest we will create more lists as necessary.

Authors (arranged by major contribution type)

Core:
- Erik Walthinsen
- Wim Taymans
- Matt Howell
- Brent Bradburn
- Richard Boulton

Plugins:
- Zaheer Merali
- Thomas Vander Stichele
- Bastien Nocera
- Thomas Nyberg
- Steve Baker
- Arik Devens
- Yann
- Ronald Bultje

Various other stuff:
- David Lehn
- Christian Schaller
- Andrew Mitchell
- Jérémy SIMON
- Arnd Bergmann
- Jamie Gennis