[Communicator-user] Announcing the release of GalaxyCommunicator version 3.0beta4

[Samuel L. B. <sa...@li...>]

All - 

We are, as usual, pleased and relieved to announce the availability of
Galaxy Communicator 3.0beta4. This is the final beta for version 3.0;
the only changes from the previous public beta (3.0beta2) are minor
bug fixes. Even though the internals of the infrastructure have
changed in some major ways, the upgrade from 2.1 to 3.0 will be quite
simple for the great majority of users. Version 3.0 features:

o Vastly improved tools for managing simultaneous sessions 

o More flexible and robust Hub-server interaction, including the
introduction of continuations and the elimination of deadlocks  

o Support for server location files, which help maintain consistent
port location information across Hub and server  

o Many infrastructure improvements, including cross-language support
for distinguishing among Galaxy Communicator versions, improved timed
task control, and a consistent, event-driven programming model for
embedding the Galaxy Communicator library  

o Improvements in the frame library, including support for dynamically
expandable lists and arrays, better memory management options, and
access to the full range of Communicator types as frame fills 

o More flexibility in the Hub syntax and organization, including
better management of servers and service types, new support for
choosing among available servers, and an alternative syntax which
provides a wider array of control options and eliminates some of the
idiosyncracies in the default syntax  

o A completely revised communications protocol, including XDR encoding
for all brokering and message traffic and better encapsulation of
administrative information  

o Significant brokering improvements, including access to the full
range of Communicator types for brokering and automatic support for
multiple subscribers for outgoing brokers 

o A PDF version of the HTML documentation (thanks to
http://www.easysw.com and their open source conversion tool!)

The test period for 3.0 has been relatively long, and we anticipate no
obstacles to releasing version 3.0 final on the week of April 16,
2001. Please direct all bugs, as usual, to
bug...@li...; please do not send mail directly to
members of the Communicator team.

The GalaxyCommunicator 3.0beta4 distribution comes with extensive
documentation (see docs/index.html), a detailed list of new features
(see docs/new_features.html), and an upgrade guide for 2.1
installations to 3.0beta4 (see docs/3point0upgrade.html). Upgrade
assistance and guidance is also available at
bug...@li....

The GalaxyCommunicator 3.0beta4 release is an open source
distribution. It is available at http://fofoca.mitre.org/download.

Samuel Bayer 
For the Communicator team 

P.S. MIT Galaxy users: The MIT Galaxy system will not compile against
Galaxy Communicator 3.0 without minor modifications. MITRE has a set
of working patches, which you may contact me directly in order to
obtain.