[Syllable-announce] Syllable 0.6.5 released!

[Kristian V. D. V. <va...@li...>]

After an extensive development period, we released Syllable Desktop
0.6.5 with goodies all over. Of course there are bug fixes, most notably
in USB and the network stack, leading to large reliability and
performance improvements. LibUSB and SANE were ported, so there is now
USB access from user space and support for scanners. There are new
network and video drivers, including a unique S3 DeltaChrome driver that
Arno wrote from scratch. Two new window decorators debut from John
Aspras. CD burning ability is now integrated in the form of SimpleBurn
and CDRTools. A new network preferences applet from Andrew Kennan was
integrated, and also Arno's port of OpenBeFS. Many ports were upgraded
and the system layout has been heavily reorganised. Files needed for
compiling software have been split off in a separate package. This is
also the release that harmonises a number of things between Syllable
Desktop and Syllable Server.

The full change log below. Links to download the installation CDs, the
upgrade, and images for emulators can be found on the website at
http://web.syllable.org/pages/get-Syllable.html

Additional software can be found at
http://web.syllable.org/pages/downloads.html

Thanks to everyone who has helped make this release possible, especially
Kaj who has worked twice as hard these last few months putting the
website back together again as well as working on both Desktop and
Server!

--
Changes for Syllable 0.6.5

Drivers
	o Added a driver for the S3 DeltaChrome card. Only BIOS based modesetting is supported.
	o Added the dl2k network driver for D-Link DL2000 based gigabit ethernet cards.
	o Added support for userspace USB via libusb. The USB bus manager will now export device nodes under /dev/usb/[bus #]/[device #] which are used by libusb to access the device.
	o Use lock_semaphore()/unlock_semaphore() instead of sleep_on_sem()/wakeup_sem() in the usb busmanager and disk driver to avoid lockups.
	o Keep USB disk driver loaded
	o Fix DMA transfers on the second ATA/SATA channel for PCI controllers
	o Imported an updated version of the AtheOS NFS driver
	o Imported Arno's port of OpenBeFS

Kernel
	o Some network stack improvements and bug fixes:
		o Ensure the advertised TCP MSS allows enough room for the IP & TCP headers.
		o Set the "Don't Fragment" bit on "whole" IP packets.
		o Increased the default TCP send and receive buffer size to 32k
		o Only route a packet to the gateway if the destination is not on the local subnet.
		o Added a workaround for a bug that causes odd routes to be selected i.e. routing to the gateway for 127.0.0.1.
		o Implemented setsockopt() SO_SNDBUF & SO_RCVBUF for TCP sockets.
	o Cloning memory contexts now works correctly with remapped areas or areas with preallocated pages.

Appserver
	o Added the Blue decorator, by John Aspras
	o Added the Winter decorator, by John Aspras.

Libsyllable
	Checked in a series of patches from Anthony Morphett <aw...@gm...>
		o Fixed the keyboard navigation in IconView & IconDirView. Also adds the ability to select-by-typing.
		o A small fix to the automatic window repositioning code
		o Focus the desktop if there are no open windows when the user switches to a different desktop.

Media
	o Imported Arno's AAC codec
	o Updated the FFMPEG port to a new Subversion version.
	o Added a sample resolution value to the media format structure
	o The framerate is now a double value (required by FFMPEG)
	o Added methods for title, author, etc. to the MediaInput class
	o Added a ParsePacket() method to the MediaCodec class
	o MediaSyncStage::Run() now returns the time the application can sleep
	o The screen output plugin can now convert a video frame to YUV, scale it and write it to the framebuffer in one pass.
	o ColdFish shows the title and author of files and saves them using attributes or in the playlist file.

Applications
	o Imported SimpleBurn 0.4 & added cdrtools to the base installation.
	o Imported an updated version of the AtheOS NFS server
	o Replaced the Network Preferences with one written by Andrew Kennan
	o Added Settings Editor (originally called ASE) by Henrik Issakson.

Desktop
	o FileBrowser will now automatically remember the view settings and Window position. Patch from Anthony Morphett <aw...@gm...>

Misc
	o Moved essential packages to the new system area, to protect them from regular software maintenance activities in /usr/. The idea is that regular user actions will not leave the system unbootable, and a protected system environment will keep allowing basic operation of the system to repair any damage.
	o Moved files for software development (headers, static libraries and development documentation) into a new, separate area in /system/development/resources/.
	o Moved the system headers to /system/development/headers/
	o Added scanner support with SANE
	o Fixed execution of the early init scripts, and thereby initialisation of the terminal.
	o Included SDL_ttf
	o Various fixes to libdl & libpthread

Localisation and Internationalisation
	o Added Greek.

-- 
Vanders
http://www.syllable.org