Projects on the Move

Free Software and its Makers PROJECTS ON THE MOVE

Free software covers such a diverse range of applications that it can be hard to find the per- fect tool. We pick the best of the bunch. Our topics this month include elegant presentations, Code Browser, the Debian Installer, and Debian’s Alioth service.

BY MARTIN LOSCHWITZ

lthough the SCO Group had a head projector, but problems persisted. computer to run your slide show. This few advocates at the start of its For one thing, printable slides were can be an issue, since OpenOffice needs Alitigation marathon, things have expensive, and for another, you could a lot of disk space and is quite slow on gone quiet in the SCO corner recently. only use a slide once. A better solution older hardware. Having to install And this comes as no surprise – the that has appeared more recently is a OpenOffice could easily interrupt your course that SCO has taken has proved to video projector that can project an image schedule. To makes things worse, older be an expensive path due to skyrocket- directly from a portable computer. versions do not mix and match well. ing legal costs. Microsoft Powerpoint is by no means SCO’s recent petitions have not been the only presentation tool around. Linux Text-Based Tool of very impressive, and some observers users have a number of alternatives, Convenience expect the court to comply with IBM’s including options that use the command If you can do without the GUI, there are petition and close the proceedings for line or the GUI. It’s just a matter of taste. several alternative presentation tools. good. Kudos to the hard-working One tool is Magicpoint [2]. Magicpoint reporters from Groklaw.net [1] who have Presentation Graphics generates a ready-to-run presentation published the minutiae of the proceed- The OpenOffice presentation tool is from a text file. You can use any text edi- ings for all to read. probably the closest alternative to Pow- tor to create the file. The Magicpoint erpoint. It gives users a set of presenta- files have a format that is reminiscent of Showtime tion styles that they can then fill with Latex (Figure 1); this said, even if you So what was so good about the “good content of their choice. The wysiwyg have never used Latex previously, you old days?” Years ago, if you wanted to editor allows users to modify the text should be able to find your way around. present something to a group of people, style directly in the GUI. And there is a You need a few basic commands, and you needed an overhead projector and a point-and-click animation dialog to liven you can add details (such as a back- way of putting your message onto a up the show. OpenOffice is so easy to ground image) to each section of your chart – a felt pen and a ruler for lack of use that newcomers and recent converts presentation. If you like, Magicpoint will anything better. typically have no problem achieving pro- use a different point size for every line. A few years down the road, computer fessional results. A typical slideshow weighs in at about printers with printable slides became But there is a downside to using 10Kbytes plus any image files you add. useful tools in the battle with the over- OpenOffice. You need OpenOffice on the Magicpoint users especially like the

90 ISSUE 52 MARCH 2005 WWW.LINUX- MAGAZINE.COM Free Software Projects COMMUNITY

feature for generating an open format and although Powerpoint may be a pow- Browser does is add links to other files presentation in the form of an HTML erful contender in the presentation and folders. A link takes you to a new gallery (Figure 2.) stakes, free software has a bigger choice tab with the target resource. Although Magicpoint will not be of tools to suit your requirements. installed on many machines, it needs a Includes GUI lot less space than OpenOffice, and it is Code Browsing Code-Browser is written in the Zinc pro- quite happy to run on older hardware. If there is one thing more difficult than gramming language. The GUI uses the Again in contrast to OpenOffice, the dif- writing a program yourself, it has to be GTK2 library. The source code is avail- ferent Magicpoint versions are compati- trying to understand someone else’s able from the Code-Browser homepage ble, so a Knoppix CD gives you all you code. Perl is a classic example of this at [5], although the major distributions need to run your presentation on almost and is therefore considered a write-only do not have binaries. any machine. language by many. But even in more The Code-Browser workspace is easily intelligible environments, some geared for intuitive use, opening each The Spartan Approach programmers come up with cryptic code. file in a new tab. You can additionally The third presentation tool is Latex Developers are often required to work on split the editor window vertically and itself. Because Latex started life as a uni- other people’s offerings, and any safe horizontally. This allows developers to versal word processing system, it pro- harbor is welcome. keep an eye on multiple files or folders vides ideal support for presentations, Many editors have features such as at the same time (Figure 3). Code- allowing users to design attractive lay- syntax highlighting for loops, functions, Browser is not only useful for investigat- outs. On the downside, a lot of elbow and other bits of code. But Emacs and ing existing source code. The undo grease is required to produce even the Vim are no replacement for any easy-to- buffer can undo multiple steps if things most simple result. Even the most ardent read structure. And when work by pro- go wrong. Code-Browser has a wide fans of Latex will need to put in some grammers with completely different range of configuration options, although extra work, because the default Latex styles is merged, the results are often the dialogs are convoluted at times. distribution does not have templates. close to chaotic. Syntax highlighting supports most Fortunately, there are a few add-ins, Code-Browser is targeted at larger pro- popular languages, including C, C++, such as Prosper [3] and Beamer [4], that jects. Besides syntax highlighting, the C#, Python, and Ruby. Web masters will can make things easier for you. tool also uses folders. That is, it can appreciate the support for CSS, XML, Prosper and Beamer are Latex classes compact freely selectable code sections and HTML. And if you need to add your with special commands that allow users to a single line. The editor then displays favorite programming language, the to modify parameters such as the back- the folder name, allowing the developer Code-Browser package has sample files ground color, size, general appearance, to click and display the source code in that you can modify to reflect your needs and details of each slide. Prosper comes the folder. Another thing that Code- without a great deal of effort. with a collection of themes. After Code-Browser gives programmers creating a .tex file, you can run the a chance to opt out of the editor war pdflatex program to produce PDF-for- between the Emacs and Vim fac- matted material. This means you can tions. And if you are looking for an run your slideshow on almost any alternative for other reasons, the PC, independently of the operating structured code display is a very system. Slides created using Prosper powerful argument in favor of Code- need to take a detour via Latex, Browser. Dvips, and Ps2pdf. These two candidates are very sim- Attack on the ilar with respect to features and user Freedesktop.org Server friendliness. Latex-based presenta- Now that persons unknown have tion programs have a few other bene- taken to attacking various open fits in comparison to Magicpoint and source servers in recent times, OpenOffice: Latex is installed on including servers hosted by Debian, almost any Linux system, and this Gnome, and the Savannah GNU pro- means that most Linux PCs should ject, it was probably just a question be able to display your Prosper or of time as to when the Freedesk- Beamer presentation. top.org [6] server would fall victim If you lack the necessary Latex to malicious hackers. As a skills, the learning curve can be an spokesperson for Freedesktop said, obstacle. Newcomers should allow an unknown intruder broke into the themselves some time to get to know system on November 15 and the program. defaced the Freedesktop homepage. Happily, all of the four programs Figure 1: The Magicpoint file syntax is reminiscent of The server administrators have not we looked at behaved as expected, Latex. disclosed any more details on this,

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reaction to the disgruntle- tools have used their homepages to dis- ment that the previous tribute these tools thus far. The server release candidate had would also offer a centralized Subver- provoked from many sion or CVS repository to developers. developers. The Installer No sooner said than done. A few team had made such Debian members centered around extensive changes to the Wichert Akkerman set up a machine in program core that other March 2003, and the Alioth [7] service members were starting to has been running on that computer ever worry that the Installer since. The design is reminiscent of would never see comple- Sourceforge, and the system works in a tion. Joey Hess is refer- similar way, apart from it being ring to Release Candidate restricted to Debian-specific projects. 2 as the finished product, The launch went spectacularly wrong, which will be part of the with temporary outages after only a few Figure 2: Magicpoint generates HTML previews and galleries Sarge distribution. days, and the Alioth story has continued from a presentation file. Although it looks like in the same vein. Server outages have Debian Installer will no been quite common, causing damage to apart from attributing the attack to script longer be an obstacle to Sarge, it’s busi- the Subversion and CVS repositories and kiddies. ness as usual at the other construction forcing the team to restore the reposito- The attack affected more than sites. There have been no developments ries from backups. Freedesktop, as the machine hosts a on the Sarge security support front since But things look set to change. As multitude of other projects, such as last month, and the release date is still Wichert Akkerman announced, work is Kalyxo and D-Bus. When the administra- uncertain. It remains to be seen how in progress on a new computer, and the tors noticed the incident, they immedi- long users will be prepared to fly the existing Alioth server, known as Haydn, ately took the server down and rein- Debian flag. As the predecessor to Sarge, is due to be replaced shortly. The stalled. Analysis of the old system Woody is starting to get mouldy, Source- replacement system is already undergo- showed that there had been no attempt forge recently migrated to Fedora. ing trials, and Wichert Akkerman has to misuse the computer as a jump-off Bug squashing parties took place on already set up Subversion and CVS fold- point for further attacks. November 27 and 28 to help the distrib- ers. The idea is to give the new Alioth Freedesktop.org is the fourth promi- ution move towards the release. The server an extended trial run to identify nent server in the open source commu- original plan was to have parties at three any issues before the official launch nity to have been attacked, and this has different locations at the same time. date. Developers are invited to join in given rise to speculations. People have Alexander Schmehl announced a party with the testing. started to ask if the attackers are just in Germany, quickly followed by Anand hackers with a bad attitude or opponents Kumria and David Moreno Garza’s That’s all folks… of free software. There is no evidence announcements of bug squashing parties …for this month at least, but we do have either way at present. And on the in Sydney and Latin America. one request before we go: if you can rec- brighter side, optimists can look forward ommend a program that you would like to an improved security posture. Alioth Ever and Anon to see featured in Projects on the Move, Sourceforge.net gives open source pro- why not mail me with your suggestion Debian Installer Saga jects storage for files and webspace, and [8]? ■ Continues this brings Sourceforge kudos in the As the head of the Debian Installer team, world of free software, despite issues INFO Joey Hess recently announced the with the responsiveness of the server. [1] Groklaw documents the SCO case: release of Release Candidate 2 of the The Debian project had the idea of http://groklaw.net Debian Installer. This is the most impor- providing a similar service to developers, [2] Magicpoint: tant change to Debian GNU/Linux 3.1, as many programmers of Debian-specific http://member.wide.ad.jp/wg/mgp/ also known as Sarge, [3] Prosper: and it has had a major http://prosper.sourceforge.net/ impact on the release [4] Latex-Beamer: date, which has been http://latex-beamer.sourceforge.net/ postponed several times. [5] Code-Browser website: The list of changes is http://code-browser.sourceforge.net far less spectacular in [6] Freedesktop: http://freedesktop.org/ comparison to previous release candidates and [7] Alioth: http://alioth.debian.org mainly comprises bug- [8] Tips and suggestions: fixes. This seems to be a Figure 3: Code-Browser compacts code segments to folders. [email protected]

92 ISSUE 52 MARCH 2005 WWW.LINUX- MAGAZINE.COM