Software News

6

February 2003

www.linux-magazine.com

N E WS

Software

If you are a keen KDE user and have
been following the predicted timelines
set, then many of you would have been
expecting to have had the chance to play
with what should have been the latest
release of the KDE desktop environment.

It was hoped that the latest KDE

release would have been launched mid-
December 2002. Initially, a single

incident of a bug was reported, but
this proved to be more widespread,
with similar incidents of this problem
appearing throughout the code.

The call to halt the version release

came just days before it was due to
be distributed, when it became apparent
that the bug had worked its way
into many other parts of the code and,
unfortunately, became a showstopper.

While the code could have been

combed through in about a week, this
would have put the launch much too
close to the holiday season so the deve-
lopment team reached the pragmatic
view to hold off until 8th January.

If you are still a keen KDE user, then

the excitement can start all over again,
because the new release date for version
3.1 should be just a few days after you
read this. Fingers crossed.

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http://www.kde.org/info/3.1.html

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KDE 3.1 release delayed – showstopper bug found

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EiffelStudio for Business development software

Eiffel may not be the most common
programming language in use today, but
the continued development of Eiffel
Studio, which has just hit version 5.2,
means people must be using it.
Efficiency in use is Eiffel’s claim to fame
and for some it is now the language of
choice when developing business-
oriented applications for the small
to medium size company. This efficiency
is made more apparent when you
have consideration for the
development of multiple
platforms, which are also
business critical.

This latest release leaves

the Linux developer with a
faster compiler. The GUI,
having been redesigned,
now reflects Eiffel’s cross-
platform nature and aids
developers in the creation
of applications that will
work in an identical fashion
even though they are

running on different platforms, be
it a Unix, Windows or embedded system.
Continued tweaking has made im-
provements to the debugging system and
now the developer has the opportunity
to call upon external tools from within
EiffelStudio.

Those that have yet to try Eiffel are

invited to download a Free Edition of
this IDE from the web site.

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http://www.eiffel.com/

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Box of delights for Java
developers

Java developers are, on one hand, lucky
to have so many development tools and
resources at their disposal. The other
hand weighs heavy though, with the
need to install and configure all of these
packages to figure out which one is most
capable of handling the task you require.
If only someone could package them all
up into one development distribution to
take this misery away.

Yes, you’ve guessed it, that is exactly

what EJB solutions has done with their
Out-of-the-Box product, which will auto-
matically install over 50 Open Source
packages, sensibly configured so they
are ready to run in a matter of minutes.
You also get QuickStart project guides
and samples of Java applications, com-
plete with source code. This would also
make for a useful system on which to
learn more about programming with
projects like JBoss, Tomcat or MySQL.

While EJB does offer a free to down-

load community edition just for Linux
users, the keener or more professionally
based of you will probably want to take
one of the chargeable packages, which
start from just US $19.95 (£12.75 or Euro
19.75 approx.)

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http://www.ejbsolutions.com/

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RealNetworks community
initiative

Helix is a community of independent
developers who are being given a huge
helping hand from RealNetworks,
makers of RealPlayer, which comes with
most boxed sets of Linux. This
community is looking to develop an
open platform for the delivery of digital
media, such as the streaming of audio
and video.

RealNetworks has handed over more

code, this time for their ‘DNA Producer’
package, to the community to further
help in this goal. Back in October 2002,
they released the ‘DNA Client’ software.

This initial release has made a real

impact on the community project. Now,
more than 5,000 developers have
registered with the Helix project. Many
hands make light work.

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http://www.helixcommunity.org
http://www.realnetworks.com/

7

February 2003

www.linux-magazine.com

N E WS

Software

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ISO-compliant database
management

ThinkSQL is a relational database
management system designed for
modern hardware and an equally
modern OS, like Linux.

The developer’s aim is to make

ThinkSQL as fully compliant to the ISO
SQL standard as practically possible, and
their most recent beta version release,
which is free to download from the link
below, takes us all one step closer to this
ideal situation.

The current features for version

0.4.09, which is still a beta, include
Native APIs for Open Standards, ODBC
protocols, as you would expect, but also
have built in support for Borland’s
Delphi and Kylix.

The multi-threaded server has support

for server-side cursors with hold and
return options.

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http://www.thinksql.co.uk/

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Desktop Linux advances

December saw the release of updated
versions of ShaoLin Aptus, a simplified
Linux workstation deployment and
management solution, which comes in
three flavors.

ShaoLin Aptus 2.0 Small Business is

designed for the small to medium sized
enterprise where ease of Linux deploy-
ment is paramount.

A remote bootup system means that

client systems can be configured and
managed with just a few mouse clicks
from a central control.

The Professional version

builds on the Small
Business version and now
includes the necessary
scalability required of an
enterprise system.

The Schools version

adds to this yet again, in-
corporating a Workstation
Booking system. It is this
which will allow a school
to maximize the use of
their machines by allow-

ing control of the amount of time a
particular user has access to a machine.
Where machines are scarce, the last
thing anyone needs is someone hogging
resources.

This functionality is applied to the

user’s Linux distribution of choice.
ShaoLin Aptus has full support and
integration with versions of Linux from
Red Hat, Mandrake, SuSE and United
Linux systems.

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http://www.shaolinmicro.com/

While it is so very important for vendors
to meet customers at such events
like the LinuxWorld Expo to be held
in New York this month, the value of
bringing developers together is more
so. FOSDEM, the Free Open Source
Developers European Meeting, is one of
the most successful events to do just
this, with its 3rd meeting being held
in Brussels over a busy weekend of
February 8–9 2003.

Though it is described as a European

meeting, many developers from the
world over will make the effort to attend.
Last year, just to pick two names out
at random, David Wheeler came from
North America to tell packed halls about
secure Linux programming, while
Miguel de Icaza came from South
America to tell us more about Ximian
and development tools and libraries like
Bonobo and Mono.

Speakers are still being confirmed, so

full details are not yet available as we
write, but we can say, for those that have
a passion for databases and database
design, Ann Harrison will be along to

give details of the Firebird project and
David Axmark will talk about MySQL.

So much needs to be crammed into the

two days that many of the lectures run
simultaneously, so subject themes have
had to be set up to try and maximize
what people can get to.

This year’s FOSDEM lecture themes

will concentrate on the development of
Open Source software for the Desktop,
Education, Multimedia and Toolkit
Software, as well as the previously-
mentioned database development.

In previous years the nature of the

event has been pretty much a lecture-
style event, it looks as if the organizers
are keen to add to this for this year, and
include a stream of practical tutorial
events following on from last year’s
GnomeMeeting demonstration.

If this has sparked some interest,

do not forget to contact your local
Linux User Group, many of these will
be arranging group bookings, so con-
siderable savings could be made on both
the travel and accommodation.

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http://www.fosdem.org/

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The Linux Test Project

Everybody wants stable, reliable and
robust Linux distributions. They also
want similar featured packages to go
with them.

With so much development going

ahead in the world of Linux, proving just
this has become a headache. Where
there is a hole, you can expect some
Open Source project to fill it, and so it is
with the Linux Test Project.

In joint partnership with SGI, IBM and

the Open Standards Development Labs,
this project is developing test suites to
put the Linux kernel and closely tied
applications under close scrutiny, to
show that those main tenants hold true.

The goal is to automate as much of

this testing process as possible. In doing
so, it is hoped to speed the process up
and to minimize errors.

Being Open Source, obviously there is

an encouraging welcome to the Linux
community to run these tests for
themselves and to look at, and possibly
improve upon, the testing suite.

Recently added to the range of tests in

the suite of programs, take a closer look
at sigset() and sigaction() interactions
and improvements to the scheduling
tests.

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http://ltp.sourceforge.net/

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FOSDEM meeting in February