[commit-womb] womb/gnustatus Makefile gnustatus-2011-01.texi ...

[Karl Berry]

CVSROOT:        /sources/womb
Module name:    womb
Changes by:     Karl Berry <karl>       11/10/07 00:17:08

Modified files:
        gnustatus      : Makefile gnustatus-2011-01.texi 
Added files:
        gnustatus      : gnustatus-2011-10.texi 
Removed files:
        gnustatus      : gnustatus-2011-04.texi 

Log message:
        draft 2011-10 report

CVSWeb URLs:
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/womb/gnustatus/Makefile?cvsroot=womb&r1=1.2&r2=1.3
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-01.texi?cvsroot=womb&r1=1.16&r2=1.17
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-10.texi?cvsroot=womb&rev=1.1
http://cvs.savannah.gnu.org/viewcvs/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-04.texi?cvsroot=womb&r1=1.1&r2=0

Patches:
Index: Makefile
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/womb/womb/gnustatus/Makefile,v
retrieving revision 1.2
retrieving revision 1.3
diff -u -b -r1.2 -r1.3
--- Makefile    11 Jan 2011 01:53:33 -0000      1.2
+++ Makefile    7 Oct 2011 00:17:07 -0000       1.3
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 # Public domain.  Originally written 2010, Karl Berry.
 # Makefile for gnustatus.
 
-doc = gnustatus-2011-01
+doc = gnustatus-2011-10
 
 texi2dvi = texi2dvi --batch --tidy --build-dir=$*.t2dvi
 texi2pdf = texi2pdf --batch --tidy --build-dir=$*.t2pdf

Index: gnustatus-2011-01.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: /sources/womb/womb/gnustatus/gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v
retrieving revision 1.16
retrieving revision 1.17
diff -u -b -r1.16 -r1.17
--- gnustatus-2011-01.texi      29 Jan 2011 22:37:32 -0000      1.16
+++ gnustatus-2011-01.texi      7 Oct 2011 00:17:08 -0000       1.17
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 \input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
address@hidden $Id: gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v 1.16 2011/01/29 22:37:32 karl Exp $
address@hidden $Id: gnustatus-2011-01.texi,v 1.17 2011/10/07 00:17:08 karl Exp $
 @comment Original sources maintained under the GNU Womb: gnu.org/s/womb.
 @comment %**start of header
 @setfilename gnustatus-2011-01.info
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 
 @dircategory GNU organization
 @direntry
-* GNU Status 2011-01: (gnustatus-2011-01).  GNU code quality recommendations.
+* GNU Status 2011-01: (gnustatus-2011-01).  GNU status reports, Jan. 2011.
 @end direntry
 
 @titlepage

Index: gnustatus-2011-10.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: gnustatus-2011-10.texi
diff -N gnustatus-2011-10.texi
--- /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
+++ gnustatus-2011-10.texi      7 Oct 2011 00:17:08 -0000       1.1
@@ -0,0 +1,543 @@
+\input texinfo   @c -*-texinfo-*-
address@hidden $Id: gnustatus-2011-10.texi,v 1.1 2011/10/07 00:17:08 karl Exp $
address@hidden Original sources maintained under the GNU Womb: gnu.org/s/womb.
address@hidden %**start of header
address@hidden gnustatus-2011-10.info
address@hidden mytitle GNU Status Reports: October 2011
address@hidden @value{mytitle}
address@hidden off
address@hidden %**end of header
+
address@hidden put all extra space at the bottom of pages.
address@hidden
+\globaldefs=1
+ \raggedbottom
+ \hbadness=10000
+\globaldefs=0
address@hidden tex
+
address@hidden
address@hidden
+
+Copyright @copyright{} 2011 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+
address@hidden
+Copying and distribution of this file, with or without modification,
+are permitted in any medium without royalty provided the copyright
+notice and this notice are preserved.
address@hidden quotation
address@hidden copying
+
address@hidden GNU organization
address@hidden
+* GNU Status 2011-10: (gnustatus-2011-10).  GNU status reports, Oct. 2011.
address@hidden direntry
+
address@hidden
address@hidden @value{mytitle}
address@hidden @email{maintainers@@gnu.org}
address@hidden
address@hidden 0pt plus 1filll
address@hidden
address@hidden titlepage
+
address@hidden This looks better than having the specific chapter headings.
address@hidden off
address@hidden @thistitle @| @| @thispage
+
address@hidden
+
address@hidden Top
address@hidden @value{mytitle}
+
+This document collects status reports for GNU packages.
+
+This is a revival of the GNU Status Reports from the historical
address@hidden's Bulletins}, @url{http://www.gnu.org/bulletins}.  The goal
+is to provide GNU-wide news and information from time to time, from as
+many packages as possible.
+
+This report includes items for only a few of the hundreds of GNU
+packages; we hope more will be represented in future installments.
address@hidden://www.gnu.org/manual} lists all GNU packages, with links to
+online manuals and home pages.  All GNU packages can be accessed on
+the web via @indicateurl{http://www.gnu.org/software/@var{pkgname}},
+as shown in the headings here.  For information on downloading
+releases, see @url{http://www.gnu.org/software}.
+
+See also @url{http://planet.gnu.org}, which aggregates the individual
+GNU news items posted on Savannah (@url{http://savannah.gnu.org}).
+
+See also the @email{info-gnu@@gnu.org} mailing list, where
+announcements of new GNU releases are posted.  Subscribe or view the
+archives at @url{http://@/lists.gnu.org/@/mailman/@/listinfo/@/info-gnu}.
+
+The aim of the present report is to be somewhat higher-level and more
+general than the others, although there is inevitably some overlap.
+
+Questions, comments, and suggestions about this document in general
+are welcome; please email @email{maintainers@@gnu.org}.  Bug reports
+and suggestions for specific packages should of course be addressed
+via their usual routes.
+
+Finally, let's mention the FSCONS 2011 conference, taking place in
+Gothenburg, Sweden, November 11--13: @url{http://fscons.org}.
+
address@hidden
+* Chess::
+* Coreutils::
+* Directory::
+* Emacs::
+* Fontutils::
+* Gama::
+* Gawk::
+* GDBM::
+* GNURadio::
+* GSEGrafix::
+* Health::
+* Mailutils::
+* RCS::
+* Sqltutor::
+* Tar::
+* Wdiff::
+* Xboard::
+* Xnee::
address@hidden menu
+
+
address@hidden Chess
address@hidden Chess (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/chess})
+
+From Stuart Cracraft and Antonio Ceballos: GNU Chess plays the
+computer's side of a game of chess against a human, serving as a
+sparring partner to help improve human play levels, improve human
+ratings in competitive tournament play, prepare for a match, or just
+play chess while waiting for a game with a person.
+
+Since full source code to GNU Chess is included, you can enhance the
+GNU Chess's playing and learn more about what goes on inside a
+computer chess program and use it for your personal computer chess
+research.
+
+In April 2011, version 6 of GNU Chess was released.  Version 6 is
+based on Fabien Letouzey's Fruit 2.1 chess engine, a well-debugged
+program which has a strong searcher.
+
+Standard external interfaces remain unchanged in 6.x for compatibility
+with 5.x (which is now deprecated).
+
+In addition to the Chess Engine Communication Protocol, version 6 also
+supports the Universal Chess Interface (UCI).  This increases,
+dramatically, the number of graphical user interface front-ends GNU
+Chess can use.
+
+The program can occasionally be found playing games with anyone who
+challenges it at the Free Internet Chess Server (FICS) under the
+nickname GNUChessSix.
+
+On modern, affordable hardware, GNU Chess scores highly in standard
+chess rating tests (2500 ELO).  It is a strong tactictian, which can
+translate to good positional play on fast enough hardware due to
+increasing depth of search.
+
+If you improve GNU Chess or use it for research, please contact the
+Free Software Foundation to ensure that your improvements are
+considered for integration into the main line.
+
+Meanwhile, enjoy a game of chess and computer chess programming.
+
+
address@hidden Coreutils
address@hidden Coreutils (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/coreutils})
+
+From P@'{a}draig Brady: address@hidden was released in
+September.  A brief summary of additions:
+
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden @code{split --filter} to compress output etc.
+
address@hidden @code{md5sum --strict} to exit with error on any checksum 
mismatch.
+
address@hidden @code{join --check} now reports which line the disorder was on.
+
address@hidden @code{rm} uses less memory for large directories.
+
address@hidden @code{shuf} uses less memory when outputting a small subset.
+
address@hidden @code{date} now parses iso-8601 'T' separated dates.
+
address@hidden @code{timeout --foreground} to support interactive commands,
+and @code{timeout} now supports subsecond timeouts.
+
address@hidden itemize
+
+
address@hidden Directory
address@hidden Directory (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/directory})
+
+Although not the usual sort of GNU package, it's worth mentioning here
+that the Free Software Directory has been relaunched as a
+collaborative wiki-based projectj.  A general announce is at
address@hidden://www.fsf.org/news/directory-relaunch}, and more detailed
+information at
address@hidden://www.fsf.org/blogs/directory/behind-the-scenes}.
+
+Volunteers to update the existing entries and add more programs are
+greatly needed.  Please see
address@hidden://directory.fsf.org/wiki/FSD:Participate}.
+
+
address@hidden Emacs
address@hidden Emacs (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs})
+
+From Stefan Monnier: GNU Emacs is heading into pretest for its 24.1
+release, which is aimed for the first half of 2012.  The features in
+this release will include:
+
address@hidden @bullet
+
address@hidden packaging system that allows users to easily download extensions 
for
+  Emacs (the default package archive is hosted by GNU, and maintained by
+  the Emacs developers);
+
address@hidden support for displaying and editing bidirectional text, including
+  right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew;
+
address@hidden native support for lexical scoping in Emacs Lisp;
+
address@hidden improved support for Custom themes;
+
address@hidden native support for TLS/SSL encryption;
+
address@hidden improved integration with the Gnome desktop;
+
address@hidden and upgrades to many other included modes and packages.
address@hidden itemize
+
+
address@hidden Fontutils
address@hidden Fontutils (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/fontutils})
+
+From Adam Dutko: I've been working through getting the code in CVS to
+build and am very close. I've also been investigating a migration to
+Automake and have made some progress in a different (uncommitted)
+branch.  I'm hoping to have the first release building before the end
+of October.
+
+
address@hidden Gama
address@hidden Gama (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gama})
+
+From Vaclav Petras: GNU Gama is a project dedicated to adjustment of
+geodetic networks; the latest release is 1.11
+(@url{http://ftpmirror.gnu.org/gnu/gama}) and the development code is
+available from Savannah (@url{http://savannah.gnu.org/p/gama}).
+
+The latest version contains several documentation and source code
+improvements as well as improved UTF-8 support.
+
+The program @code{gama-local} provides adjustment in a local
+coordinate system.  Input data are stored in an XML file or an SQLite
+database.  Adjustment results are represented as formatted plain text
+or an XML file.
+
+The program @code{gama-g3} partially supports adjustment in a global
+coordinate system (adjustment model on ellipsoid).  Input and output
+data are in an XML file.
+
+User visible strings and generated reports have English, French,
+Spanish, Finnish, Dutch, Catalan, Russian, Ukrainian, Hungarian and
+Czech translation.
+
+We are planing several new features and improvements:
+
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden wider use of SQLite database as native format
address@hidden support reading data recorded by some total stations
address@hidden graphical user interface
address@hidden better C++ API
address@hidden itemize
+
+You can ask for help or discuss new features on the
address@hidden://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/info-gama, @code{info-gama}
+mailing list}, and bug reports should go to the
address@hidden://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/bug-gama, @code{bug-gama}
+list}.
+
+
address@hidden Gawk
address@hidden Gawk (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gawk})
+
+From Arnold Robbins: Gawk 4.0.0 was released at the end of June, 2011.
+There are many new features, including a gawk debugger.  I hope to do
+the first patch release before the end of the year and then
+development of more new stuff towards gawk 4.1 should pick up speed.
+
+
address@hidden GDBM
address@hidden GDBM (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gdbm})
+
+From Sergey Poznyakoff: After a long period of development, a new
+version of GDBM, 1.9.1, was released this year.  It contains
+significant improvements over its predecessor.  The most important
+user-visible changes are the use of memory mapping to speed up I/O
+operations and improvements in @code{ndbm} compatibility code.  In
+particular, the latter fixes a long-standing bug which prevented GDBM
+from being used with some MTAs, most notably Sendmail and Postfix.
+Another series of changes addressed compatibility with the POSIX
+specification.
+
+This version introduces a number of improvements to the GDBM
+interface.  Changes to @code{gdbm_setopt} interface are particularly
+noteworthy as they allow the programmer to fine-tune the database and
+retrieve various database parameters.
+
+GDBM 1.9.1 includes an interactive tool for manipulating GDBM database
+files: the @code{testgdbm} program allows users to view and update
+existing databases, export them to the portable flat file format and
+to create new database files.
+
+
address@hidden GNURadio
address@hidden GNURadio (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio})
+
+From Tom Rondeau: GNU Radio has been evolving quickly throughout the
+past few years.  Leadership in the project changed in 2010 from Eric
+Blossom to Tom Rondeau.  One part of this change is a renewed energy
+in developing the community and increasing the number of contributors
+to the project.  GNU Radio hosted its first conference on September
+14--16 at the University of Pennsylvania.  While due to space
+constraints, we had an initial limit of forty attendees, but request
+was so great that we ended up accommodating fifty-five people from
+academia, industry, and government. The interest and user base of GNU
+Radio is strong and growing, and we are excited to see the various
+ways the project is being used.
+
+A large part of the discussion at the conference was how to contribute
+to the project, and fostering this environment will continue to be one
+of my primary short-term objectives. All of the conference material
+will be made available on the main GNU Radio website
+(@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio}) as well as my personal
+web site (@url{http://gnuradio.squarespace.com}).
+
+In the current efforts of the development, we are actively integrating
+new features that will enable GNU Radio in ways that were never
+possible before.  Two major features in GNU Radio include a new
+vectorization library called VOLK (for Vector-Optimized Library of
+Kernels) and stream tagging.
+
+VOLK provides a way to access the vector (i.e., SIMD) instructions of
+general purpose processors. While there are other ways of doing this,
+a goal of GNU Radio is cross-platform support and ease of programming
+and implementing new signal processing features.  Until VOLK, adding
+SIMD code to GNU Radio had been a difficult, assembly-driven process.
+Instead, VOLK introduces the concept of a vector kernel to perform
+common mathematical functions in a cross-platform library.  Over the
+next year, we will be improving many of the low-level signal
+processing blocks by using VOLK kernels instead of generic C++ code.
+As we make these changes, we expect to see a dramatic increase in the
+performance and processing capabilities of GNU Radio.  A side benefit
+of this is the exposure of an extensible vector library for anyone to
+use and build upon inside GNU Radio---or out, as VOLK is not designed
+solely for GNU Radio use and builds as a separate library.
+
+The other major additional capability introduced into GNU Radio is
+know as @dfn{stream tags}, which provide a method of annotating
+samples with tags of information that can be passed downstream in a
+GNU Radio graph. This feature adds an interface so that control, data,
+metadata, and other information may be passed through a communication
+system.  With these tags, we will be able to realize more advanced
+digital modems that require data like logic control and timing
+information.
+
+Version 3.6 of GNU Radio, to be released later this year, will include
+support for VOLK and stream tags.  Furthermore, we are working to
+migrate all over-the-air examples that use the Ettus Research, LLC
+(@url{ettus.com}) hardware to the new UHD (Ettus' Universal Hardware
+Driver).  This move helps us begin to standardize the hardware API
+layer that will be required to support various hardware platforms from
+a single software radio core.
+
+
address@hidden GSEGrafix
address@hidden GSEGrafix (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gsegrafix})
+
+From Spencer Buckner: GSEGrafix is a GNOME application which uses an
+anti-aliased GNOME canvas for creating scientific and engineering
+plots. The program is written in C and reads ASCII parameter files and
+data files. The parameter files contain keywords and corresponding
+arguments for specifying plot parameters (such as data file names,
+data file formats, plot type, plot style, axis type, axis labels,
+etc). Eleven example plots, corresponding examples of Octave code or C
+code for creating the data files, and corresponding parameter files
+are included. The program can be run from a terminal window or from a
+graphical user interface.
+
+The current version, @code{gsegrafix-1.0.6}, was uploaded on 10
+September 2011.  This version adds the keywords
address@hidden and @code{background_image}.  The keyword
address@hidden enables the background color of the plot
+window to be specified as either ``white'', the default, or ``black'';
+if black is chosen, the plot box, tick marks, axis labels, title, and
+text are white. The keyword @code{background_image} enables a
+background image, such as a map, to be displayed in the plot box. The
+image can be scaled in four different ways by specifying one of the
+parameter values: @code{center}, @code{fill}, @code{scale}, or
address@hidden
+
+
address@hidden Health
address@hidden Health (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/health})
+
+From Luis Falc@'{o}n: GNU Health is a free health and hospital
+information system with support for electronic medical records,
+hospital information systems, and health information systems.  Its
+goal is to contribute to the work of health professionals around the
+world to improve the lives of the underprivileged, providing a free
+system that optimizes health promotion and disease prevention.
+
+The GNU Health Project has been chosen by the United Nations
+University, Institute of Global Health (UNU-IIGH).  This organization
+supports the use of free (as in freedom) software health care
+information system in developing countries, through capacity-building
+programs and technical consultancy to improve efficiency and
+quality of health care services.
+
+This is an example of how free software can leverage resources to help
+developing countries.  Many thanks to address@hidden Safie Mohd
+Satar who is leading the GNU Health integration project UNU-IIGH.
+This effort will increase the amount of physicians and health centers
+using free software, and we will all benefit with their valuable
+feedback.
+
+Assistance of all sorts is greatly appreciated; please see our web
+pages for details.
+
+
address@hidden Mailutils
address@hidden Mailutils (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/mailutils})
+
+From Sergey Poznyakoff: GNU Mailutils is heading for the next major
+release.  A major rewrite of the I/O subsistem has been finished,
+considerably improving performance.  Several other parts of the
+framework have also undergone a revision.  In general, the code base
+has reached a stable state and most of the work now is concentrated on
+writing the documentation.
+
+
address@hidden RCS
address@hidden RCS (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/rcs})
+
+GNU RCS 5.8 was recently released (the first release in many years),
+with some small bugfixes, portability enhancements, and new Texinfo
+documentation.  Its maintenance has passed to Thien-Thi Nguyen.
+
+
address@hidden Sqltutor
address@hidden Sqltutor (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/sqltutor})
+
+From Ales Cepek: GNU Sqltutor is a web based interactive tutorial for
+Structured Query Language (SQL).
+
+You can try Sqltutor online at
address@hidden://sqltutor.fsv.cvut.cz/cgi-bin/sqltutor}.  First, a tutorial
+must be selected from the opening page and started. A series of
+tutorial questions follows in a simple dialog.  When finished,
+Sqltutor displays final evaluation with the review of all questions
+asked during the session together with user's SQL queries and correct
+answers for wrong solutions.
+
+Sqltutor is implemented on the top of a relational database system
+PostgreSQL.  The program is a CGI script that selects SQL questions
+from its database, checks the answers and evaluates the final score.
+The second part of the project is a free collection of SQL questions
+and answers representing SQL tutorials.  Sqltutor enables the running
+of one or more tutorials in different languages from a single
+database.
+
+The C++ code and database schema are stable; what is most needed is to
+add a set of tutorial questions and answers in good English, and we
+need help from native speaker with some knowledge of SQL.  Currently
+we actively use only a tutorial in the Czech lanuuage.  Please write
address@hidden@@gnu.org} if you'd like to get involved.
+
+
address@hidden Tar
address@hidden Tar (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gar})
+
+From Sergey Poznyakoff: version 1.26 was released this year.  It is
+mostly a bug-fixing release.  The most important changes:
+
address@hidden @bullet
address@hidden A bug in the @code{--verify} option, introduced in version 1.24,
+is now fixed.
+
address@hidden Fixed storing the long sparse file names in PAX archives.
+
address@hidden Work around POSIX incompatibilities on FreeBSD, NetBSD and Tru64.
+
address@hidden Fix bug with @code{--one-file-system --listed-incremental} used 
together.
address@hidden itemize
+
+
address@hidden Wdiff
address@hidden Wdiff (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/wdiff})
+
+From Martin von Gagern: GNU wdiff is a front end to diff for comparing
+files on a word per word basis.  A word is anything between
+whitespace.  This is useful for comparing two texts in which a few
+words have been changed and for which paragraphs have been refilled.
+It works by creating two temporary files, one word per line, and then
+executes diff on these files.  It collects the diff output and uses it
+to produce a nicer display of word differences between the original
+files.
+
+The latest release was numbered 1.0.0, reflecting the fact that the
+code has been around for a long time and is therefore considered quite
+mature.  So consider this change not so much as a radical program
+improvement of some kind, but rather a fix to the fact that some
+people tend to take a major version number of zero as an indication of
+immature software.  Although the NEWS entry for this release is a bit
+longer than for some past releases, in terms of features and bug fixes
+it might as well have been called 0.6.6.
+
+So what has changed?  As user noticeable changes we have updated
+translations for Dutch, French, Danish and Slovenian, as well as a
+completely new translation file for Ukrainian, thanks to Yuri
+Chornoivan.  The code will now give more useful results when the
address@hidden program either cannot be executed or fails for some
+reason.
+
+Build time improvements include an update of our @code{gnulib} imports
+as well as an extension of the test suite.  On the source code level,
+there was some cleaning up, slightly improved portability with respect
+to file descriptor duplication, and a unification of coding style
+accomplished through GNU Indent.
+
+
address@hidden Xboard
address@hidden Xboard (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/xboard})
+
+From Arun Persaud: XBoard is a graphical user interface to chess in
+all its major forms (and many others).  Over the last year XBoard
+development has seen three new releases (4.5.x) fixing lots of bugs
+and including many new features and some redesign of the GUI.
+
+An ongoing effort is to merge the code of XBoard and its so-called
+``Winboard'' companion back into one code base.  we are now closer
+than ever to completely this task. To this end the effort to update
+the GUI and to move to GTK has been restarted.  Nevertheless, we can
+always need more help!  If you are interested in this and are willing
+to help, please contact us at @email{xboard-devel@@gnu.org}.  You can
+of course also contact us to discuss other issues/ideas too.
+
+
address@hidden Xnee
address@hidden Xnee (@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/xnee})
+
+From Henrik Sandklef: Xnee is a suite of programs that can record,
+replay and distribute user actions under the X11 environment.  Think
+of it as a robot that can imitate the job you just did.  The latest
+version is 3.10, released in August 2011.
+
address@hidden

Index: gnustatus-2011-04.texi
===================================================================
RCS file: gnustatus-2011-04.texi
diff -N gnustatus-2011-04.texi
--- gnustatus-2011-04.texi      19 Feb 2011 01:46:06 -0000      1.1
+++ /dev/null   1 Jan 1970 00:00:00 -0000
@@ -1,141 +0,0 @@
-Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2011 17:49:00 -0500
-From: "Tom Rondeau via RT" <address@hidden>
-Apparently-To: <address@hidden>
-Subject: [gnu.org #672160] Re: request for GNU Status Reports 
-
-
-A NEW TICKET HAS BEEN CREATED, REPLIES GO TO REQUESTORS BY DEFAULT.
-
-Thu Feb 17 17:48:59 2011: Request 672160 was acted upon.
-Transaction: Ticket created by address@hidden
-       Queue: maintainers
-     Subject: Re: request for GNU Status Reports
-       Owner: Nobody
-  Requestors: address@hidden
-         CCs: 
-      Status: new
- Ticket <URL: http://rt.gnu.org/Ticket/Display.html?id=672160 >
-
-
-Karl,
-Sorry for the delay in this. I wrote it about a while ago, put it
-aside to review later, and then forgot about it. I hope it's not too
-terribly late to be of any importance this year.
-
-
----------------------
-GNU Radio:
-
-GNU Radio had a pretty good year in 2010, and we are already on track
-for an even more productive year in 2011. While we only produced one
-release in 2010, a large amount of work went into our source
-repository to improve the quality and stability of the project, and we
-are on track for a new release soon that incorporates many of these
-fixes into a new stable release. From here, we have been implementing
-some major improvements and additions to GNU Radio that will be part
-of the releases in 2011, so 2010 was an important year for getting us
-to the next major milestones.
-
-Among the major changes GNU Radio saw last year, one of the biggest
-was a change in the project maintainer. Eric Blossom began this
-project almost ten years ago and has been the leading voice and
-architect of the project ever since. Early on in 2010, Eric decided to
-move on to other projects and interests and asked Tom Rondaeu to step
-in and take over. Tom holds a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from
-Virginia Tech and has been a major contributor to GNU Radio for over
-six years. He officially took over as the maintainer of GNU Radio in
-September of 2010.
-
-Along with the new maintainer, we are starting to see new energy being
-put into GNU Radio. Some of what was developed at the end of last year
-will begin making its way into the main distribution of GNU Radio this
-year. Among these features includes some exciting new developments
-that will enable GNU Radio in ways that were never possible before.
-The two major features being introduced to GNU Radio include a new
-vectorization library called VOLK (for Vector-Optimized Library of
-Kernels) and stream tagging.
-
-VOLK provides a way to access the vector (i.e., SIMD) instructions of
-general purpose processors. While there are other ways of doing this,
-a goal of GNU Radio is cross-platform support and an ease of
-programming and implementing new signal processing features. Until
-VOLK, adding SIMD code to GNU Radio had been a difficult,
-assembly-driven process. Instead, VOLK introduces the concept of a
-vector kernel to perform common mathematical functions in a
-cross-platform library. Over the next year, we will be improving many
-of the low-level signal processing blocks by using VOLK kernels
-instead of generic C++ code. As we make these changes, we expect to
-see a dramatic increase in the performance and processing capabilities
-of GNU Radio as well as introduce an extensible vector library for
-people to use and build upon. Another exciting idea behind VOLK is
-that it is not designed solely for GNU Radio use and builds as a
-separate library for incorporation and use in any other project.
-
-The other major change that was introduced last year but will be used
-more heavily throughout the coming year are the stream tags. Stream
-tags provide a method of annotating samples with “tags” of information
-that can be passed downstream in a GNU Radio graph. This feature adds
-an interface to so that control, metadata, and other information may
-be passed through a radio system such as timing and state information.
-Because of these tags, we will be able to realize more advanced
-digital modems that require logic control and timing information
-previously unavailable.
-
->From what we are seeing with the new features and the state of GNU
-Radio, we expect to significantly grow the capabilities of GNU Radio.
-We are also excited that this will bring in new users that will expand
-our community and the developers that contribute significantly to our
-project. On this note, we have identified increasing awareness and
-developers of GNU Radio as a major goal of the project over the next
-few years. We are directly pursuing this by hosting the first GNU
-Radio conference in September of 2011.
-
-More information about GNU Radio can be found at our main homepage  at
-http://www.gnu.org/software/gnuradio.
-
-------------------------------------------
-
-Regards,
-Tom
-
-
-
-
-On Wed, Dec 15, 2010 at 10:47 AM, Karl Berry <address@hidden> wrote:
-> Hi everyone,
->
-> We'd like to revive the GNU Status Reports that used to be printed in
-> the GNUs Bulletins, for posting on a GNU web page and/or in the monthly
-> FSF newsletter, etc.
->
-> The idea is to collect a couple of paragraphs of high-level news about
-> any and all paragraphs. Â This can be notable changes in recent releases,
-> upcoming things you are excited about, or anything else you think worth
-> mentioning.
->
-> We'll edit it for English, etc., as needed, so don't worry about that
-> side of things. Â Don't worry about formatting, either. Â Texinfo is
-> preferred, but if it's easier for you to write it as plain text, HTML,
-> (La)TeX, or whatever, that's fine, we will unify it.
->
-> We'd especially like to encourage those of you maintaining GUI and
-> non-programmer-oriented packages to participate, to help spread
-> awareness that GNU goes beyond replacing the original Unix utilities.
->
-> For those who don't already know, some packages use the savannah news
-> facility, which gets aggregated on http://planet.gnu.org, to post status
-> reports now. Â Clearly there is some overlap, but we're thinking that
-> these GNU-wide status reports would perhaps be higher level and written
-> for a more general audience, where appropriate.
->
-> Please email your entries to address@hidden  We'd like to get them
-> in by December 24 for this first round.
->
-> Thanks,
-> Karl
->
->
-> --
-> http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/gnu-prog
->
-