[LinEAK-announce] project status and .... 0.8.1 release !!

[Mark S. <m.s...@el...>]

Hello everyone,

Finally a public announcement regarding the LinEAK project from
me, or rather, 'us' since Sheldon is 'the man' at the moment and
ofcourse the main developer. To be honest, he is the saviour
of this project ever since I lack the time to code actively.

First off, we would like to thank all of you for your continuing
support. Whether it is by just downloading and using the software
, by active involvement through the mailling list or by donating,
Thanks!

Second, I've opened up #lineak on the Freenode.net network. If you
want you can drop by, perhaps have a casual chat or nice discussion.
See http://freenode.net for details on the network and how to get on.

Third, Sheldon and I are currently discussing the future roadmap
of LinEAK. Currently much effort is put into the plugin API. Although
neither of the GUI's are currently up-to-date, lineakd in the meanwhile
is rock-steady. Once the plugin API evolves, we plan to work on the
GUI(s) again... and maybe, just maybe we can have a complete package
when we release 1.0 ......

And now, fourth, and this is the best news of all...
Version 0.8.1 has just been released!!
Details below!

Cheers,
Mark & Sheldon

------ lineak 0.8.1 release -----
Other than bug fixes, there are a few nice surprises in the plugin packages.

First is the amarok plugin for the kdeplugins package.
Second (and I'm saving the best for last) is the Media-Detect plugin in 
the defaultplugin package. The Media-Detect plugin is inspired by Damon 
Kaswell. It allows you to specify the commands of multiple media players 
for things like play, pause, etc. and then picks one that is running, or 
a favoured player from among multiple players, and executes the desired 
action. From the README:

EAK_MEDIADETECT(COMMAND)
           This macro allows you to use the media detect plugin to run
           one of the supported commands. This plugins requires that you
           have a configuration file in your ~/.lineak directory called
           media-detect.conf

               Valid commands are:
                  PLAY
                  STOP
                  PAUSE
                  PLAYPAUSE
                  NEXT
                  PREVIOUS

Here is an example of a media-detect.conf file:

[AMAROK]
    NAME = Amarok Media Player
    PROGRAM = amarok
    PLAY = AMAROK_PLAY
    STOP = AMAROK_STOP
    PAUSE = AMAROK_PAUSE
    PLAYPAUSE = AMAROK_PLAYPAUSE
    NEXT = AMAROK_FORWARD
    PREVIOUS = AMAROK_BACK
    TYPE = macro
    PRIORITY = 1
[END]
[JUK]
    NAME = Juk Media Player
    PROGRAM = juk
    PLAY = Player play
    STOP = Player stop
    PAUSE = Player pause
    PLAYPAUSE = Player playPause
    NEXT = Player forward
    PREVIOUS = Player back
    TYPE = dcop
    PRIORITY = 2
[END]
[XMMS]
    NAME = X Multi Media System
    PROGRAM = xmms
    PLAY = --play
    STOP = --stop
    PAUSE = --pause
    PLAYPAUSE = --play-pause
    NEXT = --fwd
    PREVIOUS = --rew
    TYPE = program
    PRIORITY = 3
[END]

I'm working on adding application classes to this plugin so that we do 
specify things like webbrowsers, and others to the one config file and 
have ti do the right thing. That should show up in 0.8.2

Many thanks to Phil W. aka Sir Taco for updating and increasing the 
support of new keyboards, Damon K. for the original Media-Detect, and 
many others who provide bug reports, patches and packages (last but not 
least: Chris P.).