[3919] in linux-announce channel archive
Linux-Announce Digest #211
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Digestifier)
Mon Oct 28 10:13:12 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: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:13:06 EST
Linux-Announce Digest #211, Volume #4 Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:13:06 EST
Contents:
New Home for LinuxIran... (Frederick Noronha)
REPORTING: Anything goes... a lighter view of a Goa/India LUG meet (Frederick Noronha)
A Free Intel IA32 Reverse Compiler/Disassembler (MarlinsMeadow)
Metro Detroit Linux User's Group meeting, Wednesday Oct. 2nd, 6-8 ("Ingles, Raymond")
A-A-P does more than make (Bram Moolenaar)
SHAREWARE: csv2pdf 1.1 ("Sanface Software")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 11:00:24 CST
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: New Home for LinuxIran...
On Sun, 27 Oct 2002, Arash Zeini wrote:
> Dear Friends,
>
> You are receiving this message because at some point you have been a member of
> the initial and original LinuxIran mailing list.
>
> The mailing list has a new home and is back again. If you are still interested
> please subscribe at:
>
> http://mail.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bna-linuxiran
>
> If you are interested in other mailing lists that we run, please have a look
> at:
>
> http://www.linuxiran.org/modules.php?name=Mailing_Lists
>
> If you need a mailing list for your own project, or you would like to see a
> mailing list for a subject related to Free software and GNU/Linux, please let
> us know.
>
> linuxiran.org! (www.linuxiran.org) itself has been revamped and has a new look
> now, along with some new features. We hope you enjoy using this site.
>
> Greetings,
> Arash Zeini
>
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------------------------------
From: Frederick Noronha <fred@bytesforall.org>
Subject: REPORTING: Anything goes... a lighter view of a Goa/India LUG meet
Date: Sun, 27 Oct 2002 14:40:12 CST
Anything goes... a lighter view of Goa's Oct 26 LUG meet
=========================================================
It was a meeting with a difference... and not just because of an unexpected
influx by women GNU/Linux enthusiasts and school-teachers... on Saturday,
October 26, at the Panjim LUG in Goa, India.
Panic. People have started turning up, and the Computer Society
of India-Goa (they are generous in lending us their venue for
meetings) office key is nowhere on the scene. Arvind and Animesh
are already working on a 'rescue disk' plan.
"Are there no lights inside?" asked a new member, somewhat concerned.
But chaos has a way of dissipating itself. Inspite of having no
pre-announced plan on what was to be discussed, everything shaped
out surprisingly well. (One must appreciate the contribution of
Alwyn Noronha, no relation of this chronicler, for networking
with half-a-dozen volunteers and GNU/Linux schoolteachers, and
bringing them along for this meeting.)
One round of introductions, starting with a breathless (three flights of
stairs, late for a meeting, and no lift) Ajay Kunkolienkar. He's a final
year B.Sc. student "mostly using GNU/Linux for coding, having just finished
a small Linux cluster for his college project"). Alwyn (claims he is "not a
techie"), Animesh Nerurkar ("that's all"), Aliston (Synapse's hardware
network administrator), Valerian (LIC, the Indian life insurance giant, "is
shifting over to GNU/Linux"), Deepa Govekar, Milan Samant and Anna Rodrigues
(three lady-computer teachers at varied schools, now teaching GNU/Linux to
the kids), Flavia, Kini and Sharon (three lady-volunteers doggedly helping
the schools to keep going... they're from Phil Systems, have helped in the
past too, but this is their first meeting).
Anyone left out can assume the ommission was deliberate. Misuse of
journalistic priviledge, what else...
Founder-member Arvind Yadav; Michael Miranda, a retired IIT engineer now in
Calangute (the beach village, once a hippy haunt in the 'sixties, now
getting to be a concrete jungle); Bijon Saha who heads ETDC-Goa; Yunus
Shaikh (Goa's own exported humanware configuration sent over to Denmark and
who's working on thin clients there); Vijay Gopi of Goa Institute of
Management; Tom 'Soon-Heading-Back-To-Germany' Fernandes and one boring
journalist who scribbles distractingly all the time.
It was Arvind Yadav's idea to get Bijon Saha to evaluate two
distros he had recently tried, Red Hat 8.0 and Mandrake 9.0.
After all, as Saha puts it, he tries to "explore all desktop
distros in GNU/Linux". And, luckily we have the <shameless plug>
www.lincds.com network in Bangalore, made up of two hardworking
engineering students, to supply us the needed CDs at affordable
rates </shameless plug>.
Saha can speak. Some random points from his presentations:
o Release numbers are becoming a 'numbers game', with each distro
trying to outdo the other by speeding up their release-numbers.
o Yet RedHat is fully justified in calling this distro 8.0
o It's install process has changed (to pre-check if CDs are okay)
o Video-card etc is directly detected, making for a smooth install
o GUI is totally different from the pst. KDE/Gnome come in a 'RH' version
o The Verdana font makes the desktop look aesthetically beautiful
o Wine integration is far better; click on an .exe and it understands
o Some minuses: the release size has grown hugely, affecting those
using earlier generation hardware (who doesn't in India?)
o If you click on an MP3 (dropped in favour of Ogg) in KDE, the
software crashes.
o RedHat, now targeting the desktop user, allows for the
username-password not to be entered, if setup in that manner.
("It's not a good idea," ArvindY can be heard protesting.)
o Graphical installer Kpackage is "not included for some reason".
o RedHat should have given the option to stay with the original
KDE/Gnome.
And, on Mandrake 9.0:
o It has no dramatic changes from Mandrake 8.3.
o They've not hacked into KDE/Gnome, to change its appearance as
done by RedHat.
o Eleven window-maker or other desktop environments get installed.
o "It's quite a good distro now."
o Mandrake uses kernel 2.4.19, RedHat 2.4.18. Mandrake offers supermount.
Some debate about the upgrading. (Install in a new partition, if
satisfied with the 'distro', stay with it. There are no restrictive
"piracy" fears lurking around the corner any way.)
Animesh 'Banduji' Nerurkar rounded off the 'war of the distros' by narrating
his experiences with Debian 3.0 aka "Woody". (Animesh: "Debian is not meant
for the *casual* home-user." Yunus: Why not?)
Animesh's point is that Debian offers little customisation, leading
to "very high" reliability. "There are no perl or python-based
scripts to give you a cute install." But it's clearly a neat
organisation of resources. The basic installation goes through
in a few minutes. Then you boot from the hard-disk and add all
your desired apps. "Very neat, very clean, very simple."
But getting xWindows to run was a task. "More so, because for me, it was
very different from RedHat and Mandrake, and I was not used to Debian.
Besides, I have worrysome hardware. Debian gave me a royal headache,
specially since it meant a new set of tools which I was not used to."
Knoppix came to the rescue. It's a one-CD pack that allows you to
run Debian without even installing it on your hard-disk. ("I took
the xWindows config file generated by Knoppix, and dumped it on
the harddisk.") Lo behold, all problems were gone. You can now
guess what is Animesh's favourite distro.
Some further sharing of experiences with Sysphlede Claws (not stable) and
Sysphlede. (ArvindY: "Light, works with older hardware". Overall positive
feedback.)
More feedback on Debian Junior ("wonderful applications, jcompris
helps young kids learn the basics through games and fun... except
one application, everything else works beautifully"), Tux Math,
etc. Unfortunately Tux Paint doesn't work across a network.
Attempts to install in local schools across a LTSP network are
throwing up difficulties.
Queries about Gentoo 1.4. Debate about how the domain should be named for
the Goa Schools Computers Project (one suggestion was
firstname.secondname@schoolinitials-village.gscp.org)
One query from a teacher: AbiWord (earlier release?) simply
sticks when students try to raise the point-size.
Earlier in the day, over the hospitality of Alwyn and Lisa and their teenage
children at the island of Chorao, there was a sharing of ideas to take
GNU/Linux education in schools ahead. Locating applications the
schools/villages would find useful was seen as one critical area. Extending
after-hours facilities is also being looked at closely. E-mail facilities
for schools is another priority. Using the computers not just as a geek's
plaything, but as a tool to gain access to greater information and knowledge
(for all subjects) is increasingly emerging as a priority. Keeping machines
up and running remains a challenging task, what with poor power and many
other problems. Locating and listing suitable GNU/Linux books for teachers
is another issue. (ENDS)
--
Frederick Noronha * Freelance Journalist * Goa * India 832.409490 / 409783
BYTESFORALL www.bytesforall.org * GNU-LINUX http://linuxinindia.pitas.com
Email fred@bytesforall.org * Mobile +9822 122436 (Goa) * Saligao Goa India
Writing with a difference... on what makes *the* difference
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------------------------------
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:14:32 CST
From: marlinsmeadow@aol.com (MarlinsMeadow)
Subject: A Free Intel IA32 Reverse Compiler/Disassembler
A Free Intel IA32 Reverse Compiler/Disassembler is available from the following
website
The purpose is to decompile raw Intel machine bytes back into machine source
language. It runs on Windows but will decompiler any binary format Linux,
Windows, WRS, QNX etc.
http://members.aol.com/marlinsmeadow/index.htm
Regards
David
marlinsmeadow@aol.com
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------------------------------
From: "Ingles, Raymond" <Raymond.Ingles@compuware.com>
Subject: Metro Detroit Linux User's Group meeting, Wednesday Oct. 2nd, 6-8
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:18:04 CST
The next meeting of the Metro Detroit Linux Users Group will be
held Wednesday, November 6th, 2002 from 6:00pm-8:00pm at our new
meeting site:
Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Troy Education Center
755 W. Big Beaver Road, Suite 245
Troy, MI 48084
(248) 362-3587
http://suned.sun.com/US/locations/MICH.html
Note the date, time and venue changes from previous meetings.
Directions and map are available from the MDLUG website:
http://www.mdlug.org/meetings/next.php
This meeting's topic will be:
"Simplify and Accelerate Your Web Production Process"
Presented by: Owen McQueen, Senior Technical Consultant, Octave Software
Octave Software invites you to learn how WebOctave can help you build
content-rich Web applications that drive meaningful user experiences for
your Web site visitors. WebOctave is next-generation content management
software, developed to be easy to implement, easy to use, and flexible
enough to meet the needs of even the most complex Web sites. WebOctave is
the only enterprise solution that runs on Linux-based Web deployment
servers. Like Linux, WebOctave is secure and performs outstandingly well,
whether on a single server or across a server farm. Most importantly, it
offers a great ROI proposition based on rapid deployment and reduced
maintenance requirements...which is why WebOctave is the perfect compliment
to your Linux investment. See a demonstration of WebOctave at the meeting
location listed above, or contact Octave Software at (213) 480-1500 for more
information. Visit us online at www.octavesoftware.com.
Sincerely,
Ray Ingles (248) 737-7300 x22317
"[Linux's goal is] total world domination. But in a good way."
- John Schwartz
The contents of this e-mail are intended for the named addressee only. It
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------------------------------
From: Bram Moolenaar <Bram@moolenaar.net>
Subject: A-A-P does more than make
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:18:12 CST
A-A-P version 0.100 has been released. This is the first milestone for
the A-A-P project. The main item in this release is the "aap" program.
WHAT DOES THIS DO?
The "aap" program is make on steroids. It does everything that make
does, has a powerful script language build-in and has integrated
internet support. You can use it to:
- Build a program, on multiple platforms and in several variants
- Maintain a web site (A-A-P is used for the Vim web site)
- Download and install an application (like FreeBSD ports)
- Obtain a module from CVS, update files in CVS
- Generate and filter files
Most of these things can be done with a recipe of just a few lines.
Have a look at the examples: http://www.a-a-p.org/examples.html .
The A-A-P recipe works better than a Makefile in many ways:
- Uses signatures to avoid trouble with timestamps; restoring an old
version of a file causes recompiling
- Integrated support for up- and downloading
- Integrated support for CVS (other version control systems can be added)
- Python script can be used for more complicated tasks
- Messages are brief, a log file contains the details
- Reduces the need for shell scripts, improves portability
- Automatically figures out dependencies for C programs
- Simple syntax: mostly like a Makefile but avoids the need for line
continuation backslashes, spaces in a file name are possible
- Good support for a project with multiple directories
A-A-P is written in Python. It currently runs on any Unix system with
Python 1.5 or later. MS-Windows and Mac support is to be added later.
WHAT IS A-A-P?
A-A-P makes it easy to locate, download, build and install software. It
also supports browsing source code, developing programs, managing
different versions and distribution of software and documentation. This
means that A-A-P is useful both for users and for developers.
The current release is able to execute recipes. Further development
will include an IDE framework, which makes it possible for existing
tools to work together. For example: to use Vim with gdb for debugging,
lookup remote documentation with the cross referencer, preview a TeX
file, etc.
A-A-P is still under development. Although the current version is
working, not everything has been properly tested. There might be a few
problems, use with care.
A-A-P is open source under the GNU GPL. You are welcome to help
improving A-A-P!
LINKS
Home page: http://www.a-a-p.org
Manual HTML: http://www.a-a-p.org/exec/index.html
Manual PDF: http://www.a-a-p.org/exec/exec.pdf
Maillists: http://www.a-a-p.org/maillist.html
Freshmeat: http://freshmeat.net/projects/a-a-p/
--
A poem: read aloud:
<> !*''# Waka waka bang splat tick tick hash,
^"`$$- Caret quote back-tick dollar dollar dash,
!*=@$_ Bang splat equal at dollar under-score,
%*<> ~#4 Percent splat waka waka tilde number four,
&[]../ Ampersand bracket bracket dot dot slash,
|{,,SYSTEM HALTED Vertical-bar curly-bracket comma comma CRASH.
Fred Bremmer and Steve Kroese (Calvin College & Seminary of Grand Rapids, MI.)
/// Bram Moolenaar -- Bram@moolenaar.net -- http://www.moolenaar.net \\\
/// Creator of Vim - Vi IMproved -- http://www.vim.org \\\
\\\ Project leader for A-A-P -- http://www.a-a-p.org ///
\\\ Lord Of The Rings helps Uganda - http://iccf-holland.org/lotr.html ///
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------------------------------
From: "Sanface Software" <sanface@sanface.com>
Subject: SHAREWARE: csv2pdf 1.1
Date: Mon, 28 Oct 2002 08:18:12 CST
csv2pdf is a very flexible Perl5 program based on txt2pdf 6.x core. It
allows you to convert all your CSV files to PDF format, and is flexible
enough to run on any platform that supports PERL. It can be used on its
own, or you can use it with other applications to convert your documents
on the fly.
ecsv2pdf is the executable version of csv2pdf. It's been specially
compiled for those users who simply can't or don't want to run PERL on
their systems. It has all the functionality of the original perl
version, and is merely distributed in binary form for your convenience.
We currently have 6 executable versions: Windows, Linux, Solaris, AIX,
HP-UX, Mac OS X.
Here are some of the things that you can achieve with csv2pdf:
Automatic grid design around every cell
You can select the cell delimiter (default is ;)
You can select the cell alignment (lef, right, center)
Obviously you've every txt2pdf feature.
csv2pdf is shareware
The csv2pdf source code is our company core business.
We trust you.
You can test csv2pdf and modify it.
You can't use a modify version of csv2pdf for production purpose. You
can't resell csv2pdf or a modify version of it without SANFACE Software
authorization.
You can't copy part of it to include in your source without SANFACE
Software authorization.
Test csv2pdf 1.1!
You can find it at http://www.sanface.com/csv2pdf.html
--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG
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