Open Source News
February 27, 2004
Using MySQL to Stop Editing Web Pages
Russell Dyer discusses web site management with Perl and MySQL. "Although there's much that can be done with web design, sometimes I find it to be extremely boring. When I'm deep into a Perl project, the last thing I want is to meet with other department managers to discuss changes in the text on the corporate web site. It's not a good (or interesting) use of my time. As a result, over the last few years I've developed CGI scripts for sites in Perl and databases in MySQL so that non-technical staff can manage and update site content with little help from me."
Find What You Want with Plucene
Simon Cozens introduces Plucene, a Perl-based web site search engine. "For the past few months, my former employers and I have been working on a port of the Java Lucene search engine toolkit. On the February 3rd, Plucene was released to the world, implementing almost all of the functionality of the Java equivalent."
Linux X10 universal device drivers Version 2.0 alpha 1
For the world of home-automation, version 2.0 alpha 1 of the X10 device drivers for Linux are available. "X10 device drivers for Linux creating a /dev device for each X10 unit in the house. This allows command line, script, and program access to the X10 network.This driver currently supports the PowerLinc Serial, PowerLinc USB, CM11A, and Firecracker/CM17A. Version 2.0 works with kernel 2.6 and is ready for alpha testing."
XML for word processors
David Mertz covers the use of XML in word processing applications on IBM's developerWorks. "Recent versions of the three major free software word processing programs have all adopted XML as their native document format. The approaches to XML taken by AbiWord, KOffice's KWord, and OpenOffice.org Writer differ somewhat between the applications -- largely reflecting the underlying development focus of each project. Here, David takes a look at how these projects and all open source word processor developers have realized the advantages of XML as a document format: componentization of parsers and writers; openness and formality of format specification; and applicability of XSLT and other transformation APIs."
A Computer Lab with No Windows, Part II
Linux Journal continues a study of building a computer lab using a Linux terminal server network. "Most of the common programming languages, such as shell scripts, C and C++, are included in the LTSP download. If you want to have the latest Java development environment installed, however, you can download your choice of Java SDK from Sun and install it. Sun offers Java SDKs in both source as well as binary code. After installation, you might want to add a path to /opt/ltsp/i386/etc/lts.conf so any user can have access to the language."
A first look at the new GIMP 2.0
NewsForge reviews version 2.0 of the GIMP. "A monumental change in GIMP 2.0 is a much-improved text tool. The new tool boasts enhanced font selection and allows for multi-line entries. All changes are immediately reflected on the canvas, making it much easier for designers to preview their text within the image context. Further, you can export text as a path in order to tweak its shape, fill style, or scale."