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NewsVac: News from around the Web
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Adobe Breathes AIR into Linux
11 months, 1 week ago
Adobe has launched its AIR 1.5 software for Linux. Supported distributions include Fedora 8, Ubuntu 7.10, and openSUSE 10.3. This enables companies and developers to easily target users using all three major OS -- Windows, Linux and Mac -- with a single code base. -
Interview: Angela Byron, top Drupal developer and evangelist
1 year ago
Angela Byron is one of the lead developers and a community manager for the open source content management system Drupal, which OStatic is based on (along with sites such as The Onion and Fast Company). Few people have more influence on and knowledge of Drupal than she does, including working directly with Dries Buytaert, founder of Drupal. We caught up with Angie and she weighed in on the future for Drupal, and what the open source movement needs. -
Cisco targets Linux developers
1 year, 1 month ago
Cisco is asking developers to instead think "inside the box" to create applications that will run on the Linux-based Cisco AXP module, and it's tossing in $100,000 in prize money just to keep it interesting. -
Dynamic programming futures
1 year, 1 month ago
JavaScript, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and other dynamic languages are remaking the Web and bringing programming to the masses. Where should developers place their bets? -
Examining the Compilation Process. Part 1.
1 year, 1 month ago
This article, and the one to follow, are based on a Software Development class I taught a few years ago. The students in this class were non-programmers who had been hired to receive bug reports for a compiler product. As Analysts, they had to understand the software compilation process in some detail, even though some of them had never written a single line of code. It was a fun class to teach, so I'm hoping that the subject translates into interesting reading. -
Branching, tagging and merging in Subversion
1 year, 1 month ago
In this Automation for the People installment shows how to effectively tag, branch, and merge source code using the open source, freely available Subversion version-control system. -
Kernel Log: No unstable series; Linux 2008.7; dealing with security fixes
1 year, 4 months ago
Along with 2.6.27 development ramping up, there is a variety of other Linux kernel news. Shortly after the release of Linux 2.6.26, someone on the Linux Kernel Mailing List (LKML) asked what sort of changes -- either potential or already in the works -- might give rise to a 2.7 development series. Torvalds did not even wait 20 minutes to respond, "Nothing. I'm not going back to the old model. The new model is so much better that it's not even worth entertaining as a theory to go back." -
Ubuntu to unveil new version of its Launchpad community next week
1 year, 4 months ago
Christian Reis, known in the open source community as "Kiko," talked about the scheduled debut next week of the new Version 2.0 of Launchpad yesterday at the 10th annual O'Reilly Open Source Convention. The new version will be announced next week by Canonical Ltd., the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu Linux. -
Jaspersoft Unveils New Community Platform at the O’Reilly Open Source Conference (OSCON)
1 year, 4 months ago
OSCON, PORTLAND, Ore. — July 23, 2008 — Jaspersoft Corporation, the market leader in open source business intelligence (BI), today announced the open beta of its new JasperForge, a next-generation community platform that will support the open source BI community with tools that meet the evolving needs of all community stakeholders – from developers to business users.
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Open source still the best way to develop software
1 year, 4 months ago
The open source way of creating programs is still the best way. Just don't confuse it with being the perfect way -- there's no such thing. -
Incredibly fast handling of decimal numbers in ANSI C
1 year, 4 months ago
Find out about decNumber, a high-performance decimal arithmetic library in ANSI C, especially suitable for commercial and human-oriented applications. The library consists of several modules that provide direct support for integer, fixed-point, and floating-point decimal numbers, arbitrary precision values and special values and much more. -
Refine XPath results using predicate matching
1 year, 4 months ago
Predicates give you advanced and refined searching capabilities, allowing you to evaluate the values of attributes and the parent and child nodes of a targeted element. Rather than find a wider node set and refine or filter that set programmatically, you can add predicates to your XPaths to find exactly the nodes you want. -
The blessings of synchronised releases
1 year, 4 months ago
"The open source world is currently debating the merits -- if any -- of synchronising the release schedules of several of the bigger, key projects that make up a Linux distribution. The discussion was started by Canonical's Mark Shuttleworth, and continued as a back and forth between the Ubuntu leader and KDE's Aaron Seigo, but of course other members of the community discussed right along on blogs and other venues. Sander, developer of Coccinella (an open-source Jabber client) provides some insights into the whole discussion." -
The A-Z of Programming Languages: C++
1 year, 4 months ago
Bjarne Stroustrup of C++ fame dissects the history of his famed programming language. -
Embedding a File in an Executable, aka Hello World, Version 5967
1 year, 5 months ago
I recently had the need to embed a file in an executable. Since I'm working at the command line with gcc, et al and not with a fancy RAD tool that makes it all happen magically it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to make this happen. A bit of searching on the net found a hack to essentially cat it onto the end of the executable and then decipher where it was based on a bunch of information I didn't want to know about. Seemed like there ought to be a better way... - More News
Linux.com : Programming
Open source programming languages for kids
The past couple of years have seen an explosion of open source programming languages and utilities that are geared toward children. Many of these efforts are based around the idea that, since the days of BASIC, programming environments have become far too complex for untrained minds to wrap themselves around. Some toolkits aim to create entirely new ways of envisioning and creating projects that appeal to younger minds, such as games and animations, while others aim to recreate the "basic"-ness of BASIC in a modern language and environment.
Tracking build status with Pulse
Pulse is a build server that can monitor your source repository and trigger a build and test cycle every time somebody does a commit. With Pulse you will always know if the most recent sources in your revision control system compile and if they pass your unit and system tests. Better yet, Pulse allows you to build and test your current working copy of checked-out source, during a so-called Personal Build, so you can see if your code breaks things before you commit your changes to the central repository.
GameLayers gets on track with Ruby on Rails
GameLayers' Passively Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG), which allows users to immerse themselves in a virtual world of adventures, challenges, and intrigue, has been picking up traction thanks in part to its robust open source framework. Underpinning the popular online game is Ruby on Rails, a full-stack framework for developing database-backed Web applications that works with a variety of Web servers and databases.
Programming GNOME applications with Vala
GNOME's Vala programming language lets you use the GLib2 object system at the heart of the GNOME desktop without having to do object-oriented programming in ANSI C. Unlike Mono or Java, a Vala program does not require any virtual machine or runtime libraries, so people who use your Vala objects don't even have to know they are not written in C.
Installing Ruby on Rails in Linux
Ruby on Rails is garnering a lot of praise as an easy-to-use, database-driven Web framework for developing Web applications. Most of the documentation for Ruby on Rails centers on Macintosh, with the remainder seemingly only for Windows machines, but RoR is perfectly usable on Linux computers too. This article explains how to install and begin developing with RoR in Linux.
Browse all your source code revisions with ViewVC
For programmers on big projects, a version control system for managing source code is vital, but working on files in a large project from one of these programs' command-line interfaces is cumbersome. Worse, the results of the commands lack highlighting to show the differences between files and revisions. ViewVC is a handy browser-based code viewer that allows users to browse a source code tree managed by either CVS or Subversion, look at changes, compare revisions at the file or line level, and perform other operations -- just about anything except allow users to check out or commit files.
Set Mantis to track your bugs
Mantis is that rare bug-tracking program for small projects that is neither too bloated nor too featureless. It's an excellent choice for developers who need a bug tracker that the average computer user can use. Its clean interface and numerous features make bug tracking fast and easy.
Video tour: Bluefish editor
Bluefish is a GUI-based text and code editor that runs on "most (maybe all?) POSIX compatible operating systems including Linux, FreeBSD, Ma cOS X, OpenBSD, and Solaris." It has an impressive feature list, and is both lightweight and speedy. It is not currently under heavy development primarily because it is a mature program that already does exactly what it is supposed to do with no fuss or complaint.
Easily displaying two-dimensional data with GtkDatabox
Many applications need to graphically display the relation between two data axes. Common examples are how one resource such as CPU load or an exchange rate varies over time. GtkDatabox makes presenting such information in a GTK+ desktop application much simpler.
Workbench Linux distro is a workhorse for software developers
If you develop applications using FOSS tools, Workbench is an ideal distro for you. In addition to packing a gamut of development tools, the distro also bundles everyday apps and eye candy, so you can use it on your desktop as well.
Linux Foundation launches killer development tool
Ask any independent software vendor what he hates most about developing for Linux and he'll tell you that it's having to develop for SUSE and for Red Hat and for Ubuntu and ... you get the idea. The Linux Foundation has just released a beta of a new program, Linux Application Checker (AppChecker), that's going to make ISVs and other programmers start to love developing for Linux.
OOo Basic crash course: Creating charts with Base and Calc
While OpenOffice.org Base is good for storing and querying data, it doesn't provide any easy way to chart information. This is exactly what Calc does best, with its dedicated chart module. If you want to visualize data stored in a Base database, you can write an OOo Basic macro that pulls data from a database, inserts it into a Calc spreadsheet, and then creates a chart. Here's how.
Veteran developer ditches Microsoft for open source
If you've ever used Microsoft Access or Excel, you have likely used a product that Mike Gunderloy had a hand in developing. The irony is that Gunderloy himself doesn't use those products anymore. He's given up Microsoft for open source -- and he's not going back.
Designing rich AJAX Web interfaces with ZK
ZK is an AJAX toolkit designed to make creating user interfaces that run in a Web browser as simple as creating event-driven interfaces for desktop applications. The interfaces created with ZK use an XML markup language to define the user interface and Java code to implement the Web application's functionality. ZK includes support for data-bound controls so that you do not have to worry about updating the user interface forms when you change your Java objects.
Fast, powerful Geany editor offers IDE features
Geany is a lightweight text editor for Linux based on the GTK2 toolkit. Geany supports internal and external plugins, and it excels as a source code editor, since it includes basic integrated development environment (IDE) functionality. Here's an introduction to using Geany's built-in features, including the IDE and built-in development capabilities.
Lessons learned from NCSU FOSS class
Free and open source software (FOSS) is only beginning to find a foothold in computer science departments in North America. FOSS tools may be used in teaching or be the subject of research or special committees, but few departments include courses that introduce students to the FOSS community. As a result, when North Carolina State University created a FOSS graduate course in the 2008 spring semester, it turned to Red Hat to find an instructor with a suitable background of FOSS involvement and university teaching experience. Community manager Greg DeKoenigsberg recommended performance tools engineer Will Cohen, who now looks back at the experience with an eye to how what he and his students learned might help other instructors.
Version labeling is out of control
Anybody who spends time trying new free software applications and distributions will soon notice that version numbering and labeling is next to meaningless. These days, versioning rarely gives an accurate idea of the state of development, except relative to other builds of the same project. It is simply a label that distinguishes one build from another. That's too bad, because a properly labeled release can give users a sense of how advanced the build actually is.
An introduction to CGI scripting with Python
Mention Common Gateway Interface scripting to a Web developer, and their first response is likely to be "I use Perl." While Perl has long dominated the CGI scripting world, there are other, and perhaps better, tools available. In this tutorial we'll take a look at CGI scripting with Python, a fast, versatile, multi-platform language.
Book review: Open iPhone Application Development
Johnathan Zdziarski's book Open iPhone Application Development is a guide writing applications for the iPhone without engaging the restrictions of Apple's official software development kit (SDK). The book takes readers on a concise tour of iPhone jailbreaking, setting up the free compiler tool chain, writing basic Objective-C apps, and the available libraries and APIs. Apple might not like this book, but if you need to develop for the iPhone or just want to learn more about how it works, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better practical resource.
OOo Basic crash course: Creating a simple application launcher
In previous installments of the crash course, you've learned how to build a simple basket tool, a task manager, and even a word game. This time, let's take a look at how you can use the skills you picked up from those exercises to create a simple application launcher, which will allow you to start virtually any application without leaving the convenience of OpenOffice.org. While working on this project, you'll learn how to create and use functions, handle errors, and how to populate list boxes using records from a database table.
