[ANNOUNCE] The GNU HaliFAX - Viewer 0.10

[Wolfgang Sourdeau <wolfgang ultim net>]

Hi,


The GNU HaliFAX - Viewer 0.10 (ghfaxviewer) has been released.
This version obsoletes any version of GNU FaXile you might have on your system.


What is the GNU HaliFAX project:

The GNU HaliFAX project aims at writing a complete free client applications
suite for the GNU system. Currently, support is only provided for the HylaFAX
fax system.
This is a GNU project, which means we are engaged in integrating our programs
as much as possible with the rest of the GNU system as well as writing only
free programs.
Two components are currently available: GFax, soon to be renamed, and the
GNU HaliFAX - Viewer. They all runs in the GNOME environment. The
GNU HaliFAX - Viewer can be compiled with GTK+ only though.


What is the GNU HaliFAX - Viewer:

This is the viewer of the GNU HaliFAX project. It is able to read any G3/G4
encoded uni- and multi-page TIFF files. Images can be rotated left and right.
They can be zoomed from a factor of .25 to one of 6, though any zoom factor
is virtually supported. They also can be printed, to a printer or to a
postscript file.
The program is not yet able to retrieve files from the network, although this is
currently on the way.
The GNU HaliFAX - Viewer runs on GNU systems, probably on any UNIX-type system
and on the Win32 platform.


What is new in this release:

- the program has an application icon now, both on Win32 and GNU;
- Win32 has version and copyright information in its executable;
- the bug which causes Win32 printing to consume all your computer
  resources, to crash the computer, to make your screen jump on itself,
  rotate and die... has been identified and worked-around. The culprit is
  this amazingly buggy Win32 API. Use free software !
- a new zooming algorithm has been implemented, taking into account
  the only relevant pixels in a page. Normal fax pages doesn't have
  that much pixels so the result is a lot faster, although things could
  still be optimized.
- a new menubar has been added;
- the menubar is undockable as well as the toolbar in the GTK+ version;
- basic GNOMification but the GTK+-only version is still available.
  Specify "--without-gnome" as command-line parameter when running
  configure, if you are one of those who like to recompile every
  program they find.
- an about box is now available, listing all the people who have
  contributed to the viewer in a way or another.
- an info box, containing informations about the current fax file is
  now available both in the "File->Properties..." menu or in the
  toolbar, for which I have created another nice icon.
- zh_TW.Big5 (Taiwan Chinese) translation added, thanks to Kevin Chen.
- de (German) translation updated, thanks to Till Bubeck.


Notes:

Only the GNOME version is available as a Redhat package, until a find a
way to build two binary packages from the same source archive.
Both the GTK+ and GNOME versions are available for Debian GNU/Linux though,
so people who have switched to this wonderful distribution have a choice.

The Win32 version makes use of the GTK+ libraries port of Tor Lillqvist.
To compile the win32 version you will need the minw32 or cygwin GCC port,
as MS VC++ will never be supported.


Where to download this marvellous thing:
(the project homepage will be updated in a few hours only)

Source code:
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/sources/ghfaxviewer-0.10.tar.gz

Redhat GNU/Linux distribution:
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/redhat/RPMS/ghfaxviewer-0.10-1.i386.rpm
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/redhat/SRPMS/ghfaxviewer-0.10-1.src.rpm

Debian GNU/Linux:
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/debian/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/ghfaxviewer-gnome_0.10-1_i386.deb
or, for the GTK+ only version...
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/debian/dists/unstable/main/binary-i386/ghfaxviewer-gtk_0.10-1_i386.deb

If you are too lazy too type those long URL, you might want to add those lines
to /etc/apt/sources.list:

deb http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/debian unstable main
deb-src http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/debian unstable main

...provided you can wait for a few supplemental hours.

Win32:
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/win32/ghfaxviewer-0.10-win32.bin.tar.gz
Don't worry about the .tar.gz extension, Win32 versions of the tar and gzip
utilities do exist. The tar and gzip format are supported by Winzip too.

Required Win32 DLLs are provided as a matter of convenience:
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/win32/dll/gtk+-dlls.tgz
http://www.ultim.net/~wolfgang/gnu_halifax/distributions/win32/dll/non-gtk+-dlls.tgz

Since some of those libraries are distributed under the GNU LGPL, you are
entitled to ask me for their source code at no charge. Install them in
c:\windows\system or c:\windows\system32.


Any type of donations are welcome, those who don't donate will just get a bad
conscience.

Happy Faxing !


Wolfgang
-- 
A chicken is an egg's way of producing more eggs.