Release Digest: GNOME, October 27, 2003

New Wallpaper Properties Dialog

I have just released the initial revision of the new wallpaper capplet that I have been working on in my spare time, and has been under discussion on gnome-themes-list. This initial release is quite featureful, yet it is still missing the "random" feature that was in my mock up, as well as some other features and functionality that are outlined in the TODO file that is included in the tarball.

The main feature is the storage of meta-data and the list of available wallpapers, in an XML file in ~/.gnome2/. For each individual image, the filename, a descriptive name, image scaling type, background color type, and background colors are all stored. There is no DTD yet, but one will be written for the next release.

Also left to do, is to write the logic for detecting if the image is a tile or should be scaled or what. It currently detects most tiled images already though, on the basis of height vs. width. If they are the same, Tiled is automatically selected.

I'm also proposing that we replace the current capplet(s) with this one for GNOME 2.6.

Here are the relevant URLs:

http://www.gnome.org/~dobey/gnome-wallpaper-properties-real.png
http://www.gnome.org/~dobey/gnome-wallpaper-properties-0.2.0.tar.gz

• dobey

Qalculate! 0.3.1

Application

Qalculate! 0.3.1

Description

Qalculate! is a modern multi-purpose desktop calculator for GNU/Linux. It is small and simple to use but with much power underneath. Features include customizable functions, units, arbitrary precision, plotting, and a user-friendly interface.

Enhancements & Fixes

Qalculate! version 0.3.1 includes a more reliable result display, better prefix support, fixed number bases dialog, support for unit and functions with the same name, decreased startup time, compatibility fixes for gcc-2.9.x and Solaris, eliminated compilation warnings, and additional minor bug fixes.

Download

http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/qalculate/qalculate-gtk-0.3.1.tar.gz?download

GNOME Software Map entry

http://www.gnome.org/softwaremap/projects/qalculate-gtk

BEAST/BSE v0.5.5

BEAST/BSE version 0.5.5 is available for download at:

ftp://beast.gtk.org/pub/beast/v0.5
or
http://beast.gtk.org/beast-ftp/v0.5

BEAST (the Bedevilled Audio SysTem) is a graphical front-end to BSE (the Bedevilled Sound Engine), a library for music composition, audio synthesis, MIDI processing and sample manipulation. The project is hosted at:

http://beast.gtk.org

This new development series of BEAST comes with a lot of the internals redone, many new GUI features and a sound generation back-end separated from all GUI activities.

The most outstanding new features are the demo song, the effect and instrument management abilities, the track editor which allowes for easy selection of synthesizers or samples as track sources, loop support in songs and unlimited Undo/Redo capabilities.

Note, if you encounter problems with .bse files from previous BEAST versions, this may indicate bugs at the compatibility layer. A bug report accompanied by the problematic file can be send to the mailing list and is likely to get you a fixed file in return.

Overview of Changes in BEAST/BSE 0.5.5:

• New (or ported) modules:
  DavCanyonDelay - Canyon Echo by David A. Bartold
  BseMidiInput - Monophonic MIDI Keyboard input module
  BseBalance - Stereo panorama position module
  ArtsCompressor - Mono and stereo compressor [Stefan Westerfeld]
• Added utility script to crop and duplicate parts [Stefan Westerfeld]
• Added "Party Monster" demo song [Stefan Westerfeld]
• Implemented ability to use sequencer as modulation source
• Added support for external MIDI events in song tracks
• Added .bse file playback facility to bsesh
• Added support for C++ Plugins
• Now installs bse-plugin-generator for simple creation of C++ Modules
• Added manual pages for installed executables
• Lots of small MIDI handling fixes
• Fixed MP3 loader
• Major GUI improvements
• Registered MIME types for .bse files, provided .desktop file
• Made search paths for various resources user configurable
• Added prototype support to IDL compiler [Stefan Westerfeld]
• Work around PTH poll() bug on NetBSD [Ben Collver, Tim Janik]
• Support NetBSD sound device names [Ben Collver]
• Added i18n infrastrukture for BEAST and BSE [Christian Neumair, Tim Janik]
• Added Azerbaijani translation [Metin Amiroff]
• Added Russian translation [Alexandre Prokoudine]
• Added Serbian translation [Danilo Segan]
• Added Swedish translation [Christian Rose]
• Added German translation [Christian Neumair]
• Added Czech translation [Miloslav Trmac]
• Added Dutch translation [Vincent van Adrighem]
• Lots of bug fixes

---
ciaoTJ

Rhythmbox 0.5.4

Hi,

It's been a while since the last Rhythmbox release, but enough bug fixes have accumulated on the 0.5.x branch. We're quite close now to a 0.6.0 release, and if you're interested in seeing the future of Rhythmbox, I highly recommend trying the latest arch/cvs.

The download location for 0.5.4 is, as usual:

http://rhythmbox.sf.net/download.html
http://rhythmbox.org/download.html

Here's the NEWS for 0.5.4:

Overview of Changes in Rhythmbox 0.5.4

• Updated documentation [Mark Humphreys]
• Allow quitting even when Rhythmbox is busy [Colin Walters]
• Handle long artist/album names in song display box [desrt]
• Use Ogg Vorbis for internet radio if compiled without MP3 support [Colin Walters]
• More default internet radio stations [Nadav Rotem]
• Many more Bonobo methods [Rached Ben Mustapha]
• Display time remaining in tray icon tooltip [Colin Walters]
• Hardcode use of mad/vorbisfile/flacdec, until spider works [Colin Walters]
• Don't distribute built CORBA files [Colin Walters]
• Better explanations in druid [Colin Walters, Luca Ferretti]

New or updated translations:
Ole Laursen (da)
Artur Flinta (pl)
Kjartan Maraas (no)
Miloslav Trmac (cs)
Danilo Aegan (sr, sr@Latn.po)
Vincent van Adrighem (nl)
Christian Rose (sv)
Takeshi AIHANA (ja)
Duarte Loreto (pt)
Pablo Gonzalo del Campo (es)
Dmitry G. Mastrukov (be)
Alessio Frusciante (it)
Kostas Papadimas (el)