Release Digest: GNOME, May 20, 2003

May 21, 2003, 05:00 (0 Talkback[s])

mozilla-bonobo 0.3.0

Application

mozilla-bonobo 0.3.0, the "Happy Vertical People Transporter" release

Description

Mozilla-bonobo is a Netscape-compatible browser plugin that uses GNOME bonobo controls to display content of supported mime types inside browser windows.

Enhancements

Supports more bonobo components
Displays an activity bar while documents are downloaded
Mime types are now configurable in GConf

Fixes

Improved resizing behaviour
Also works on Gtk+ 1.2 based Mozilla browsers (as in RedHat 9)

Download

http://savannah.nongnu.org/download/moz-bonobo/

GNOME Software Map entry

http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/mozilla-bonobo

meld-0.8.1

Application

Meld is a GNOME 2 visual diff and merge tool. It integrates especially well with CVS.

Release Notes

This release is a major rewrite of melds internals to use cooperative threads and also to add incremental diff updates. As a result the user interface is much more responsive and feels much slicker.

Enhancements

The interface has been made much more responsive using a new task scheduler based on Python generators and idle callbacks.
Directory diff searches for all differences recursively for you.
Incremental filediff loader lets you see files as they load.
Filediff loader lets you choose the order of codecs tried.
Diffs now update as you type instead of after a small delay.
CVS browser now usable when the application current directory is not inside the CVS tree.
meld 'file' now shows cvs diff without having to open a cvs browser
better focus behaviour for filediff.
Right click on a tab now brings up a tab menu.
Some Gnome HIG dialog alterations.

Download

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/meld/meld-0.8.1.tgz?download

GNOME Software Map entry

http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/meld

StarDict 2.1.0

Description

StarDict is an international dictionary written for the GNOME environment.
It has powerful features such as "Glob-style pattern matching," "Scan selection word," "Fuzzy query," etc.

dictd dictionary converter, this added about 100 dictionaries.
wquick dictionary converter, this added about 150 dictionaries.
dictzip support, so StarDict can use .dict.dz compressed file now.
WyabdcRealPeopleTTS support, now StarDict can pronouce English words.
Don't hide window when iconify as there is no Notification area.
Custom font settings in preferences dialog.
Search website settings in preferences dialog.
Russia language translation, Russia help document, thanks Alex Murygin <murygin@aitoc.com> very much.
Thanks Will Robinson <wsr23@stanford.edu> for cleaning up all of StarDict's English, including source files and help document, DICTFILE_FORMAT, etc.
zh_CN help document translation, thanks gengjunjun <geng82@163.com>.
oxford-gb dictionary fix, thanks Luo Chong <happyluo79@yahoo.com.cn>.
Thanks statue <statue@freebsd.netlab.cse.yzu.edu.tw> for FreeBSD port patch.
Thanks Opera Wang <Opera.Wang@motorola.com> for Solaris patch and some bug fix.

Download

http://stardict.cosoft.org.cn

GNOME Software Map entry

http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/stardict

LinTalk 0.4-1

Application

LinTalk 0.4-1

Description

A serverless instant messaging tool, primarily meant for Local Area Networks.

Enhancements

It's now possible to add users to the userlist root.
An automated banlist has been added to prevent DoS attacks.
The "Talk" dialog has been replaced.
Some other GUI improvements were also made to match the GNOME usability guidelines.

Fixes

Download

http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/

GNOME Software Map entry

http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/lintalk

gob2 2.0.6

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

Did you know flex is on crack? Yes it is. And now you too can enjoy more crack then with the other leading brand of lex. Yes, you can install new flex and enjoy new crack and still be able to compile the wholesome family goodness of gob. Gob be praised!

So what is this gob thing? Well besides being the cure for cancer, it also generates GObjects (or GTK+ objects). GOB2 is a replacement for the version 1 GOB, that was for GTK+ 1.x mostly. GOB2 can handle pretty much most of the GObject features. At least most of the ones that anyone will ever use. It only requires GLib 2.0 and can generate arbitrary GObjects. You can have both versions installed at the same time if you wish, so that you don't have to port all your gob files to gob2 for now, but you really should as gob2 is nicer and all that kind of stuff.

Here are the news in 2.0.5 (gob2):

Allow compilation with newer flex (tested with both 2.5.4a and 2.5.31)
Minor doc update
Minor build fixes

ftp://ftp.5z.com/pub/gob/
ftp://ftp.5z.com/pub/gob/RPMS/
http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gob2/2.0/
http://www.5z.com/jirka/gob.html

Note: RPMS are built on RH9, so you success on other distros or versions of redhat may vary.

Have fun,

George

--
George <jirka@5z.com>

Then, when you have found the shrubbery, you must cut down the mightiest tree in the forest... with... a herring!

The Knights Who Say 'Ni'

GNOME System Tools 0.26.0

The GNOME System Tools version 0.26.0 have been released.

The GNOME System Tools are a set of cross-platform configuration utilities for Linux and other Unix systems. Internally they are divided in frontends and backends. The frontend knows nothing about the underlying system and provides the same user interface across the different types of systems. The backend knows how to read and write the configuration information. The GNOME System Tools do not impose a new database on the system: they work with the default configuration files so that configuration can still be done by hand or by other tools.

Screenshots

You can view screenshots of the most recent tools at http://www.gnome.org/projects/gst/screenshots.html

Changes since last release

General

Added GST to pkgconfig, so any third party application could find backends (Joseph Wenninger)

Network

Added network profiles support (Garnacho)

... plus other lots of bugfixing (Garnacho, Carlos García)

thanks to Götz Waschk, Ken Stanley, James Livinston and Joseph Wenninger for sending patches

Downloading

You can get it from :
ftp://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gnome-system-tools

Help Wanted

We still need lots of help from anybody interested in contributing to GST, even if it's only an email letting us know whether the tools worked for your system. You can also submit bug reports at http://bugzilla.gnome.org

Testing

Testing that the tools work correctly on your system and either filing detailed bug reports or confirming that they work correctly is greatly appreciated. If you test a tool on an unsupported distro/system and find out that it works correctly, please let us know so that we can update the supported tools matrix (see below).

Porting

The backends are designed as to minimize the effort needed to support more distros/systems. A great way to contribute is to port the tools to another distribution/system.

Prerequisites

GNOME 2 libraries
GConf
VTE
gnome-print

Stability

The tools have been stable on our systems recently. However, since this tools modify your system configuration we suggest that only people which are going to be able to solve a problem if something goes wrong use them at the time. We have created a backup system so that the changes made to the configuration files are tracked and stored.

Mailing list / IRC

For discussion and feedback, sign up for our mailing list:http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/setup-tool-hackers

You can also find us in the #gst channel on IRC server irc.gnome.org/

Whitepaper

You can find the latest version of the GST whitepaper at: http://primates.ximian.com/~miguel/helix-setup-tools.html

Backup system

Every time a tool modifies your system configuration files, it makes backups of those files. The backups are rotated (for 9 levels in total), and the backup made the first time the tool was run is kept forever. This means that you can revert your system configuration to the point before you ever ran a GNOME System Tool.

The backup path is /var/cache/setup-tools-backends/backup/<tool>/<id>/. In this directory, you'll find a complete snapshot of the files that were modified. The original directory structure leading up to these files is also kept. <id> runs from 1-9, and when the first backup is rotated out, it is kept in a special catalog called "First", which is never touched again.

Current Tool Set

Runlevel admin
Allows you to configure:
- the services your computer will run at startup
- in which runleves do they run
Network admin
Allows you to configure your:
- hostname
- samba hostname and workgroup
- DNS servers
- search domains
- hosts (/etc/hosts)
- Network interfaces
- ppp
- ethernet
- slip
- wavelan (limited support)
Time admin
Allows you to configure your:
- Date & Time
- Timezone
- NTPD servers
Users admin
Allows you to manage:
- Users
- username / full name
- password
- home dir
- shell
- groups
- Groups
Boot admin
Allows you to set:
- Default boot partition
- Partition type and label
- Timeout
- Kernel image
- Kernel extra parameters (append)
- adding or deleting partitions from the boot manager