Derick Rethans' Blog: More goodies in the eZ Components
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As mentioned by Derick Rethans on his blog today, there's some new versions of several (five) of the components in the next version of the eZ Components framework:   In the just released alpha versions you can find new features, such as better support for OpenID, a Database backend for OpenID authentication, a validating method for e-mail addresses, SMTP authentication support for DIGEST-MD5, CRAM-MD5, NTLM and LOGIN and encoding support for e-mail headers.   He also mentions other goodies like tree structure handling and functionality to support WebDav connections. Check out their roadmap to get a better idea of what's to come.
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Padraic Brady has posted today about a subclass of the Zend_Loader package (in the Zend Framework) he had written up to handle Dependency Injections - it was submitted but ended up being replaced with a Zend_Di component instead.   I realised someone had proposed a novel new component called Zend_Di, and that small change was since accepted by Federico into his DI buster. This is a quick overview with very simple use cases - read the full proposal for even more gory details about your object innards using DI.   He talks about what DI (dependency injection) is and what it can be used for and includes a simple example set around a controller in the framework that uses the Zend_Di component to make a "mock Zend_Mail" that can be used in testing too. Examples of these sorts of tests (with PHPSpec) are included too.
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With the recent acquisition Sun has made (you heard about that, right?), there's tons of resources in the open source community that are talking about it, lots of them are more PHP-specific. Cal Evans has put together a list of some of the PHP bloggers/community memembers that have posted some of their thoughts on the purchase.   With all of the buzz floating around yesterday on this topic, I decided to let some of the dust settle before posting. From everything I've seen, the PHP community is largely positive about the news. [...] As I said, the community at large seems to be pleased with this news. Here are the links I've collected so far.   Names in the list include Andi Gutmans, Lukas Smith and Jaremy Zawodny. There's also a list of some comments from the "pundits" as to what this purchase could mean for the web as a whole.
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PÃ¡draic Brady continues his series looking at the creation of complex views in the Zend Framework with part six today all about gathering together the thoughts and ideas from the previous articles into a cohesive whole.   Part 6 now takes our previous fragments of theory and attempts to stitch them together into a cohesive whole - a description of a possible end solution. Yes, I know code talks loudly, and we'll get there with an almighty bang in Part 7 (which I promise is no more than a week away). Until then it's more verbosity.   He suggests a list of six terms to help get everyone on the same page when talking about the complex views:   Includes Partials Dispatches Layouts Placeholders Response Segments   Since these terms would mean nothing without proper definitions, he provides a few paragraphs on each explaining what they are and, where necessary, using code to illustrate the point.
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Look for more consumer electronics products and services from the PC behemoth. Also: SuSE Linux for Dell servers.
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A lot of things are happening in the Ruby world right now, and I wanted to highlight a few of them here:  At FOSCon this year, Amy Hoy has asked people to start writing more instructive articles about parts of Ruby or Rails so that newbies would have more "fine manuals" to read.  I've tried to do my part with two short series (so far), one on RubyInline and the other on ruby-prof.  The RubyInline articles are: RubyInline, making making things faster easier, and RubyInline: Going a bit Further.  The ruby-prof articles are:  Profile and ruby-prof, ruby-prof and call graphs, and Profile and ruby-prof:  getting specific. Another blog related event is the current blogging contest being run by Ruby Inside.  They're offering $100 US to their favorite informativ, ruby related blog post this week (Aug 14-20).  There have been a lot of interesting entries so far.  It would be pretty cool to see more contests like this crop up. We're getting close to a couple of Ruby conferences, I wrote about RubyConf*MI in my last post.  RailsConfEurope is also comingu up quickly.  If you're reasonable close to either of these, you should consider registering. O'Reilly has released the Ruby Cookbook.  It's a massive tome, chock-full of Ruby goodness.  I haven't had time to read the whole thing yet, but what I've read looks good, and I'm hearing good things from folks I trust.  Looks like another good book to add to your Ruby bookshelf. APress is getting ready to jump into Ruby and Rails in a big way.  They've got ten titles listed on their 'Rails Roadmap', and have lined up some well known Ruby names to write for them.  They're still looking for some Ruby authors according to this blog post. No Starch Press is also starting to make some Ruby related noises.  I can't be specific yet, but there's a good looking Ruby book on its way into their catalog.  If the book is half as good as what they've talked to me about, it's going to be another 'must have'. The Pragmatic Programmers also look like they're set to add some more titles to their Facets of Ruby line.  James Gray has said that he's writing a book for them that should be announced soon, Ezra Zygmuntowicz also has a book on the way, and I've recently signed a contract with them for a Ruby related book.  It looks like the PragProgs aren't going to be content to sit on their Ruby laurels. Finally, Developerdotstar is close to announcing a couple of books about programming.  Neither of these is Ruby specific, but from everything I've heard I think they're going to be solid, language independant books about becoming a better programmer.  Just the kind of thing you'd expect from these guys.
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In this new post on Zak Greant's blog, he takes a look at some comments made about the eZ partner program he helped to develop and his responses to clear up some issues.   In a blog post yesterday, CMS expert and Optarian Seth Gottlieb wonders about the eZ partner program.   Gottlieb made comments about it seeming to be a good system, but not quite understanding how it would work when applied. Zak comes back with comments on the reasoning behind the program, how it works to benefit the partner, and how they see those partners, both in giving credit and their involvement with the projects.   For more information on the eZ partner program, check out this page on the eZ website.
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By Bruno Dieter Chan  THIS week I have some interesting software for you. We'll start off with the useful and work our way down to the could-be-useful.
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During the construction of my 64-bit box I collected enough spare parts to build another machine, one destined for a 32-bit Linux system. Last week I finally got that machine built and running with a sparkling new version of the Jacklab Audio Distribution (JAD). I've been using JAD in its alpha releases, but the new box is running the first beta version. Various improvements have been made in JAD since my earlier review, including the adoption of a 2.6.19 kernel optimized for superb realtime performance. Since I've profiled the system in an earlier blog entry I decided to briefly review some of the more unusual software included with the distribution or built with the help of its development packages. JAD contains more than 70 applications for audio and video composition and production, most of which are at their most recent release versions, so come join me in a look at some less typical sound &amp; music software running on one of the best of the new breed of multimedia-optimized Linux distributions.
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Plus: Geek squad comes to the rescue. [News.com Extra]
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Derick Rethans has posted about the new roadmap the eZ Components project will follow to arrive at the 2008.1 release of the collection of components.   In the new release we will be addressing some importing parts of Web applications: RSS/Atom feeds, Document conversion, Search and Translations. The full roadmap can be found on the eZ Components website page.   Highlights in the new roadmap include new components like Document (convert between document formats), Feed (rss/atmos reading and writing) and a Search component that allows for indexing and querying Solr and other search engine types.   If you'd like to help them reach their goals, Derick suggests checking out the items that are open for contribution and chipping in code where you see a need.
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Rui Capela's software has appeared in this column many times. I've written about it directly (see At the Sounding Edge: Using QSynth and QJackCtl and HDRs and DAWs For Linux: The New Breed) and it shows up in almost every article I write. I'm not exaggerating when I state that Rui's programs have become indispensable components here at Studio Dave, so naturally I'm interested in the mind behind it all. In this entry I'll recap the nature and state of Rui's software, after which we'll meet the man himself in another lively interview here at the sounding edge.
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The Zend Developer Zone quickly points out that the latest eZ Systems newsletter has been released and it includes details on version 3.8.4, updated documentation, and a few other things.   This week's newsletter brings news about an updated distribution package for eZ publish 3.8.4, new documentation for eZ publish upgrades and new information about eZ platform development. The newsletter also includes the weekly forum watch and an update about the current bug fix status.   They cover the update to eZ publish, the "Upgrade" section in the documentation, new advancements concerning eZ platform, and some interesting discussions going on over in their forums.
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Some months ago I started collecting the pieces I needed to build my own 64-bit computer. I'm not a complete stranger to building machines, I've put together a dozen or so during the past twenty years, but it's been quite a while since I started one from scratch, and my experience with this machine was more instructive than it was meant to be. Nevertheless, at long last Studio Dave has gone 64-bit crazy. Well, not really crazy, but certainly more than mildly enthusiastic.
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The Zend Developer Zone has posted some information about a screencast of the QEDWiki they've covered previously from IBM.   We've covered QEDWiki before but so far we've only had screenshots to show. Now we've got a full blown screencast. The demo application they show is the "hardware store" scenario we first saw in the article with Dan Gisolfi. Each time I see a new screencast of this application it gets better. This time, the properties panels are fleshed out and everything looks a lot more finished.   They remind readers of what the QEDWiki is - "the most sophisticated applications to have been built on top of the Zend Framework so far" that allows users to create applications in a drag and drop style right on a wiki page. Check out the screencast for a look at how it all works.
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Santa and his high-tech elves have drummed up a great selection of gizmos to please tech lovers on your gift list this year.
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The eagerly-awaited Ubuntu Studio has been released, adding another entry into the expanding list of multimedia-optimized Linux distributions. I haven't had a chance to try it yet, but interested readers can peruse some installation screenshots or check out the latest news and information on the Ubuntu Studio Wiki. I plan to review the distro in a future column, along with an update on the latest version of the venerable PlanetCCRMA, but in this entry I'm focused on another very exciting new release. Ardour 2.0 is now available for download. This version is a significant improvement over the 0.99 series (1.0 was never released), with many new features and enhancements to performance and stability. The following article profiles the new Ardour as I employed it for three projects, all involving the program in the processes of composition and arranging as well as the more typical tasks of recording and editing. I've described each project in some detail, and each description includes a link to the final audio output.