[3872] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #164
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Tue Jul 23 08:13:09 2002
From: Digestifier <Linux-Announce-Request@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu>
To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Reply-To: Linux-Announce@senator-bedfellow.mit.edu
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 08:13:03 EDT
Linux-Announce Digest #164, Volume #4 Tue, 23 Jul 2002 08:13:03 EDT
Contents:
Linux for sale - £2.50 per CD or less, including first class postage and packing. ("Simon Finnigan")
announcing groff 1.18 (Werner LEMBERG)
Issue #41 of Georg's Brave GNU World, the monthly GNU forum has ("Georg C. F. Greve")
[commercial] Australian Linux Hardware Site - www.linuxware.com.au (Bradley C Goldsmith)
Aegis 4.6 - a project change supervisor (Peter Miller)
Eureka LUG (worldcommander)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:06:56 CST
From: "Simon Finnigan" <simon@therealm.freeserve.co.uk>
Subject: Linux for sale - £2.50 per CD or less, including first class postage and packing.
I`m selling copies of Linux in the UK for £2.50 per CD or less, depending on
how many you order. As an example, I charge £6.75 for Mandrake 8.2,
including delivery by first class post. I will also discuss pricing for
large orders - email me if you want to order a lot of CD`s and we`ll come to
a deal.
I take payment by NoChex, cheque or postal order. For international orders,
please email me to confirm postage costs - I can also accept PayPal
payments.
For full details of what distributions I am selling, along with a full price
list and details on how to pay, visit my site:
http://mysite.freeserve.com/linuxsales
If this posting is against the newsgroup charter, please email me off the
group and I`ll make sure I don`t post here again.
Thank you for your time.
--
For cheap Linux CD`s (£2.50 each or less in the UK) visit:
http://mysite.freeserve.com/linuxsales
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:07:04 CST
Subject: announcing groff 1.18
From: Werner LEMBERG <wl@gnu.org>
groff 1.18 has been released.
It is available from ftp://ftp.gnu.org/gnu/groff/ and mirrors of that
site (see list of mirror sites at http://www.gnu.org/order/ftp.html).
Current snapshots are available from ftp://ftp.ffii.org/pub/groff/devel/
groff is the GNU implementation of troff, a document formatting system.
Included in this release are implementations of troff, pic, eqn, tbl,
grn, refer, -man, -mdoc, and -ms macros, and drivers for PostScript, TeX
dvi format, HP LaserJet 4 printers, Canon CAPSL printers, HTML format
(still alpha), and typewriter-like devices. Also included is a modified
version of the Berkeley -me macros, an enhanced version of the X11
xditview previewer, and an implementation of the -mm macros.
See below for the relevant snippet from the NEWS file.
Bug reports should go to bug-groff@gnu.org.
Enjoy!
Werner
======================================================================
This file describes recent user-visible changes in groff. Bug fixes are not
described. There are more details in the man and info pages.
VERSION 1.18
============
***************************************************************************
* *
* PLEASE READ THE CHANGES BELOW REGARDING GROTTY, GROFF'S TTY FRONTEND. *
* *
***************************************************************************
Troff
=====
o Color support has been added to troff and pic (and to the device drivers
grops, grodvi, grotty, and grohtml -- other preprocessors and drivers will
follow). A new function `defcolor' defines colors; the escape sequence
`\m' sets the drawing color, the escape sequence `\M' specifies the
background color for closed objects created with \D'...' commands.
`\m[]' and `\M[]' switch back to the previous color. `\m' and `\M'
correspond to the new troff output command sets starting with `m' and
`DF'. The device-specific default color is called `default' and can't be
redefined.
Use the `color' request to toggle the usage of colors (default is on); the
read-only register `.color' is 0 if colors are not active, and non-zero
otherwise.
The old `Df' output command is mapped onto `DFg'; all color output
commands don't change the current font position (consequently, `Df'
doesn't either).
Outputting color can be disabled in troff and groff with the option -c
(it is always disabled in compatibility mode). See the section on grotty
for the GROFF_NO_SGR environment variable also.
For defining color components as fractions between 0 and 1, a new scaling
indicator `f' has been introduced: 1f = 65536u. For testing whether a
color is defined (with .if and .ie), a new conditional operator `m' is
available.
More details can be found in the groff_diff.7 manual page and in
groff.texinfo.
o Similar to \m and \M, \f[] switches back to the previous font. \fP
(and \f[P]) is still valid for backwards compatibility.
o The new escape \F is the same as `.fam'; \F[] switches back to previous
family -- \F[P] selects family `P'.
o Two new glyph symbols are available: `eu' is the official Euro symbol;
`Eu' is a font-specific glyph variant.
o The new glyph symbols `t+-', `tdi', and `tmu' are textual variants of
`+-', `di', and `mu', respectively.
o Latin-1 character 181 (PS name `mu', Unicode name U+00B5 MICRO SIGN) has
got the troff glyph name `mc'.
o -Tutf8 is now available on EBCDIC hosts.
o Strings can take arguments, using this syntax: \*[foo arg1 arg2 ...].
Example:
.ds xxx This is a \\$1 test.
\*[xxx nice]
o It is now possible to have whitespace between the first and second dot (or
the name of the ending macro) to end a macro definition. Example:
.de !
..
.
.de foo
. nop Hello, I'm `foo'.
. nop I will now define `bar'.
. de bar !
. nop Hello, I'm `bar'.
. !
..
o `.fn' is a new string-valued register which returns the (internal) real
font name; styles and families are properly concatenated.
o Three new read/write registers `seconds', `minutes', and `hours' contain
the current time, set at start-up of troff. Use the `af' request to
control their output format.
o The new request `fchar' can be used to provide fallback characters. It
has the same syntax as the `char' request; the only difference is that a
character defined with `.char' hides the glyph with the same name in the
current font, whereas a character defined with `.fchar' is checked only if
the particular glyph isn't found in the current font. This test happens
before checking special fonts.
o In analogy to the `tmc' request, `.writec' is the same as `.write' but
doesn't emit a final newline.
o The new request `itc' is a variant of `.it' for which a line interrupted
with \c counts as one input line.
o Two new requests `ds1' and `as1' which are similar to `ds' and `as' but
with compatibility mode disabled during expansion of strings defined by
them.
o The syntax of the `substring' request has been changed: The first
character in a string now has index 0, the last character has index -1.
Note that this is an incompatible change.
o To emit strings directly to the intermediate output, a new `output'
request has been added; it is similar to `\!' used at the top level.
o `.hpf' has been extended. It can now handle most TeX hyphenation
pattern files without modification. To do that, the commands \patterns,
\hyphenation, and \endinput are recognized. Please refer to groff_diff.7
for more information.
o `hpfcode' is a new request to provide an input encoding mapping for the
`hpf' request.
o The new request `hpfa' appends hyphenation patterns (`hpf' replaces
already existing patterns).
o A new request `ami' (append macro indirect) has been added. The first and
second parameter of `ami' are taken from string registers rather than
directly; this very special request is needed to make `trace.tmac'
independent from the escape character (which might even be disabled).
o The new request `sizes' is similar to the `sizes' command in DESC files.
It expects the same syntax; the data must be on a single line, and the
final `0' can be omitted.
o `trin' (translate input) is a new request which is similar to `tr' with
the exception that the `asciify' request will use the character code (if
any) before the character translation. Example:
.trin ax
.di xxx
a
.br
.di
.xxx
.trin aa
.asciify xxx
.xxx
The result is `x a'. Using `tr', the result would be `x x'.
o The request `pvs' isn't new, but hasn't been documented before. It
adds vertical space after a line has been output. This makes it an
alternative to the `ls' request to produce double-spaced documents.
The read-only register `.pvs' holds the current amount of the
post-vertical line space.
o For compatibility with plan 9's troff, multiple `pi' requests are
supported:
.pi foo
.pi bar
is now equivalent to
.pi foo | bar
o A new escape sequence `\O' is available to disable and enable glyph
output. Please see groff_diff.7 and groff.texinfo for more details.
o The escapes `\%', `\&', `\)', and `\:' no longer cause an error in \X;
they are ignored now. Additionally `\ ' and `\~' are converted to
single space characters.
o The default tab distance in nroff mode is now 0.8i to be compatible
with UNIX troff.
o Using the latin-1 input character 0xAD (soft hyphen) for the `shc'
request was a bad idea. Instead, it is now translated to `\%', and
the default hyphenation character is again \[hy]. Note that the glyph
\[shc] is not useful for typographic purposes; it only exists to have
glyph names for all latin-1 characters.
Macro Packages
==============
o Peter Schaffter <df191@ncf.ca> has contributed a new major macro package
called `mom', mainly for non-scientific writers, which takes care of
many typographic issues. It comes with a complete reference (in HTML
format) and some examples. `mom' has been designed to format documents
for PostScript output only.
o Two macros `AT' (AT&T) and `UC' (Univ. of California) have been added to
the man macros for compatibility with older BSD releases.
o Both the man and mdoc macro packages now use the LL and LT registers for
setting the line and title length, respectively (similar to those
registers in the ms macro package). If not set on the command line or
in a macro file loaded before the macro package itself, they default to
78n in nroff mode and 6.5i in troff mode.
o The `-xwidth' specifier in the mdoc macro package has been removed. Its
functionality is now integrated directly into `-width'. Similarly,
`-column' has been extended to provide this functionality also.
o A new macro `Ex' has been added to the mdoc macro package to document an
exit status.
o The PSPIC macro has been extended to work with DVI output (`pspic.tmac' is
now automatically loaded for -Tdvi), using a dvips special to load the EPS
file.
o The trace.tmac package now traces calls to `am' also. Additionally, it
works in compatibility mode.
o `troff.1' has been split. Differences to UNIX troff are now documented
in the new man page `groff_diff.7'.
o `groff_mwww.7' has been renamed to `groff_www.7'. The file mwww.tmac
has been removed.
o `groff_ms.7' has been completely rewritten. It now contains a complete
reference to the ms macros.
o `groff_trace.7' documents the trace macro package.
o Changes in www.tmac:
Note that HTML support is still in alpha change, so it is rather likely
that both macro names and macro syntax will change. Some of the macros
mentioned below aren't really new but haven't been documented properly
before.
The following macros have been renamed:
MAILTO -> MTO
IMAGE -> IMG
LINE -> HR
For consistency, the macros `URL', `FTL', and `MTO' now all have the
address as the first parameter followed by the description.
By default, grohtml generates links to all section headings at the top
of the document. Use the new `LK' macro to specify a different place.
For specifying the background color and a background image, use the
new macros `BCL' and `BGIMG', respectively.
The macro `NHR' has been added; it suppresses the generation of top and
bottom rules which grohtml emits by default.
The new macro `HX' determines the cut-off point for automatic link
generation to headings.
The image position parameter names in `IMG' have been changed to `-L',
`-R', and `-C'.
New macro `PIMG' for inclusion of a PNG image (it will automatically
convert it into an EPS file if not -Thtml is used).
New macro `MPIMG' for putting a PNG image into the left or right margin
(it will automatically convert it into an EPS file if not
-Thtml is used).
New macros `HnS', `HnE' to start and end a header line block.
New macro `DC' to produce dropcap characters.
New macro `HTL' to generate an HTML title line only but no H1 heading.
New macros `ULS' and `ULE' to start and end an unordered list. The new
macro `LI' inserts a list item.
Groff
=====
o The new command line option `-c' disables color output (which is always
disabled in compatibility mode).
Nroff
=====
o Two new command line options `-c' and `-C'; the former passes `-c' to
grotty (switching to the old output scheme); the latter passes `-C' to
groff (enabling compatibility mode).
Pic
---
o New keywords `color' (or `colour', `colored', `coloured'), `outline' (or
`outlined'), and `shaded' are available. `outline' sets the color of the
outline, `shaded' the fill color, and `color' sets both. Example:
circle shaded "green" outline "black" ;
Filled arrows always use the outline color for filling.
Color support for TeX output is not implemented yet.
Pic2graph
=========
o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
converts a PIC diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
Eqn2graph
=========
o A new script contributed by Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>. It
converts an EQN diagram into a cropped image. Since it uses gs and the PNM
library, virtually all graphics formats are available for output.
Groffer
=======
o A new script contributed by Bernd Warken <bwarken@mayn.de>. It displays
groff files and man pages on X and tty, taking care of most parameters
automatically.
Grog
----
o Documents using the mom macro package are recognized.
Grops
=====
o Color support has been added.
o A new option `-p' is available to select the output paper size. It has
the same syntax as the new `papersize' keyword in the DESC file.
Grodvi
======
o By default, font sizes are now available in the range 5-10000pt, similar
to PS fonts. If you want the old behaviour (i.e., font sizes at discrete
values only), insert the following at the start of your document:
.if '\*[.T]'dvi' \
. sizes 500 600 700 800 900 1000 1095 1200 1400 1440 1600 \
1728 1800 2000 2074 2200 2400 2488 2800 3600
o A new font file HBI (using cmssbxo10; this is slanted sans serif bold
extended) has been added.
o Two font families are now available: `T' and `H'.
o EC and TC fonts have been integrated. Use `-mec' (calling the file
ec.tmac) to switch to them. Those fonts give a much better coverage of
the symbols defined by groff than the CM fonts.
Note that ec.tmac must be called before any language-specific files; it
doesn't take care of hcode values.
o Color support has been added. For drawing commands, colors are translated
to gray values currently.
Grotty
======
o Color support has been added, using the SGR (ISO 6429, sometimes called
ANSI color) escape sequences.
o SGR escape sequences are now used by default for underlining and bold
printing also, no longer using the backspace character trick. To revert
to the old behaviour, use the `-c' switch.
Note that you have to use the `-R' option of `less' to make SGR escapes
display correctly. On the other hand, terminal programs and consoles like
`xterm' which support SGR sequences natively can directly display the
output of grotty. Consequently, the options `-b', `-B', `-u', and `-U'
work only in combination with `-c' and are ignored silently otherwise.
For the `man' program, it may be necessary to add the `-R' option of
`less' to the $PAGER environment variable; alternatively, you can use
`man's `-P' option (or adapt its configuration file accordingly). See
man(1) for more details.
o If the environment variable GROFF_NO_SGR is set, SGR output is disabled,
reverting to the old behaviour.
o A new special \X'tty: sgr n' has been added; if n is non-zero or missing,
enable SGR output (the default).
o If the new option `-i' is used (only in SGR mode), grotty sends escape
sequences to set the italic font attribute instead of the underline
attribute for italic fonts. Note that many terminals don't have support
for this (including xterm).
Grohtml
=======
o Color support for glyphs has been added.
o New option `-h' to select the style of headings in HTML output.
o New option `-b' to set the background colour to white.
o New options `-a' and `-g' to control the number of bits for anti-aliasing
used for text and graphics, respectively. Default value is 4; 0 means
no anti-aliasing.
o groff character/glyph entities now map onto HTML 4 character entities.
Grolbp
======
o Valid paper sizes are now specified as with the new `papersize' keyword
in the DESC file. Specifically, the old custom paper type format
`custAAAxBBB' is no longer supported.
Miscellaneous
=============
o A new manual page `ditroff.7' is available.
o The groff texinfo manual will now be installed, together with a bunch
of examples.
o A new keyword `papersize' has been added to the DESC file format. Its
argument is either
. a predefined paper format (e.g. `A4' or `letter')
. a file name pointing to a file which must contain a paper size
specification in its first line (e.g. `/etc/papersize')
. a custom paper size definition like `35c,4i'
See groff_font(5) for more details. This keyword only affects the
physical dimensions of the output medium; grops, grolj4, and grolbp use it
currently. troff completely ignores it.
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------------------------------
From: "Georg C. F. Greve" <greve@gnu.org>
Subject: Issue #41 of Georg's Brave GNU World, the monthly GNU forum has
Date: 23 Jul 2002 12:10:07 GMT
--==-=-=
Content-Type: multipart/mixed; boundary="=-=-="
--=-=-=
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable
[Please repost and forward this article widely, wherever it
is appropriate.]
Issue #41 of Georg's Brave GNU World,=20
the monthly GNU forum has been released.
-- Georg Greve
Hello everyone,
Issue #41 of the column is now online and it can - as usual - be found
on the GNU Webpage and its mirrors. Otherwise just follow the links at
the end of this posting.
Georg's Brave GNU World is a monthly column which is being released
simultaneously in eight languages (English, German, French, Japanese,
Spanish, Korean, Portugese and Italian) on the web and printed in the
German "Linux-Magazin," the "Linux Magazine" U.K., the "Microsoftware"
(largest computer magazine in Korea) and the "Linux Magazine France."
This makes it the monthly column with the widest distribution
worldwide afaik.
If you would like to receive mail about new issues directly, you can
subscribe to the "Brave GNU World" announcement mailinglist. Just
send mail to <brave-gnu-world-request@gnu.org> with "subscribe" in
the *body*. The mailinglist is only for announcements that are related=20
to the "Brave GNU World" and is of very low volume (between 1 and 2
mails a month).
The 41th issue covers the following topics:
* Debian-Med [ Free Software is good for your health! ]
* Gnumed [ Paperless medical practice with Free Software ]
* OIO [ Data portability for medical applications ]
* Res Medicinae [ "the" medical solution as Free Software ]
* Romance [ Replacing .NET with a Free standard ]
* JavaRisk [ Risk on Java ]
* EmacsChess [ Playing chess in EMACS with nifty extras ]
This column intends to provide a forum for all GNU maintainers,
friends and associates and I am always open to suggestions. So if=20=20
you=20
* have questions about the GNU Project that might be of general
interest=20
* have a GNU Project and would like to improve its profile
* would like to start a GNU Project you are looking for people to
start it with=20
* think something doesn't get the publicity it deserves
* would like to see something made public
send mail to:
"Brave GNU World <column@gnu.org>"
This column is for everyone with an interest in Free Software,
so don't hesitate to contact me if your project is under a Free
Software license (http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/license-list.html)
and you'd like to see it introduced here.
The 41st issue can be found at
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-41.en.html
[ English version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-41.de.html
[ German version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-41.it.html
[ Italian version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-41.ja.html
[ Japanese version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/issue-41.ko.html
[ Korean version ]
or via the "Brave GNU World" homepage
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.en.html
[ English version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.fr.html
[ French version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.de.html
[ German version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.it.html
[ Italian version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.ja.html
[ Japanese version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.es.html
[ Spanish version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.ko.html
[ Korean version ]
http://www.gnu.org/brave-gnu-world/brave-gnu-world.pt.html
[ Portugese version ]
That's it for now...
Regards,
Georg Greve
--=-=-=--
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:07:08 CST
From: Bradley C Goldsmith <brad@blacksheepsoftware_nospam.com.au>
Subject: [commercial] Australian Linux Hardware Site - www.linuxware.com.au
Hi All,
For the Aussies who read this group - http://www.linuxware.com.au - is
available for all of your GNU/Linux needs.
Cheap hardware, flat rate shipping and free before-and-after sales advice from professionals
is available.
Cheers,
Brad
sales@linuxware.com.au
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------------------------------
From: Peter Miller <millerp@canb.auug.org.au>
Subject: Aegis 4.6 - a project change supervisor
Date: 23 Jul 2002 12:10:14 GMT
I am pleased to announce that Aegis 4.6 is now available.
Aegis is a transaction-based software configuration management system.
It provides a framework within which a team of developers may work on
many changes to a program independently, and Aegis coordinates
integrating these changes back into the master source of the program,
with as little disruption as possible.
You are invited to visit
http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/aegis/
for a more complete description of what Aegis is, and access to the
download files.
For information about what new features are available in this release,
please see the README file available at the above site.
--
Regards
Peter Miller <millerp@canb.auug.org.au>
/\/\* http://www.canb.auug.org.au/~millerp/
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------------------------------
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 2002 07:07:15 CST
From: sustainedenergy@hotmail.com (worldcommander)
Subject: Eureka LUG
Greetings,
I'm looking to start a LUG in Eureka/Homboldt County. I don't see
that any exist. If you're interested please contact me.
Thanks,
Jon
sustainedenergy@hotmail.com
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------------------------------
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