novacut-community team mailing list archive

[Jason Gerard DeRose <jderose@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm happy to announce the 4th release of the Distributed Media
Library<https://launchpad.net/dmedia>(aka "dmedia"). At this point
dmedia is really just for developers and
*highly* adventurous end-users, but the design and implementation are both
progressing quickly.

You can download the source tarball here:
dmedia-0.4.0.tar.gz<https://launchpad.net/dmedia/trunk/0.4/+download/dmedia-0.4.0.tar.gz>

Packages are available for Ubuntu Natty in the Novacut Stable Releases
PPA<https://launchpad.net/%7Enovacut/+archive/stable>.


Unfortunately, as
gir1.2-webkit-1.0<http://packages.ubuntu.com/gir1.2-webkit-1.0>and
python-couchdb
0.8 <http://packages.ubuntu.com/python-couchdb> are now required, dmedia 0.4
can't be used on Lucid or Maverick. As such, this release in particular is
only recommended for developers and *super-extra* highly adventurous
end-users. Running the development version of
Ubuntu<http://www.ubuntu.com/testing>has its own mild perils, not to
mention the fact that dmedia has undergone
some aggressive refactoring this cycle. Please be sure that all your files
are safely backed up should you test-drive dmedia 0.4.
What's new in dmedia 0.4

The 0.3 cycle<http://blog.novacut.com/2011/01/announcing-dmedia-03-made-of-web.html>may
have been a slow one, but 0.4 has been a nonstop whirlwind of
development fury. Most of the work was deep in the backend, adding the
features and robustness dmedia needs to pull off all its distributed magic.
Err, that's half a lie... I'm lazy and make CouchDB provide most of the
magic <http://docs.couchone.com/couchdb-api/index.html>. There were also
some big steps toward making dmedia a platform upon which fantastic user
experiences can be built using familiar HTML5 technology.

Highlights include:

   - dmedia.ui.CouchView<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Edmedia/dmedia/trunk/view/head:/dmedia/ui.py#L106>now
"for reals" can correctly sign all requests to desktopcouch, so go
crazy
   with embedded WebKit + HTML5!
   - dmedia.filestore.FileStore<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Edmedia/dmedia/trunk/view/head:/dmedia/filestore.py>is
robust, well documented, and basically feature complete
   - Added dmedia.schema<http://bazaar.launchpad.net/%7Ejderose/dmedia/stores/view/head:/dmedia/schema.py>-
good start on a formal, test-driven definition of the dmedia CouchDB
   schema
   - The "dmedia/file" records now track where and how durably a file is
   stored <https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/680467>
   - Roughed out two new transfer backends - one for BitTorrent
download<https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/708418>,
   another for S3 upload and
download<https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/717544>

 And a whole lot more - see bugs fixed in the dmedia 0.4
milestone<https://launchpad.net/dmedia/+milestone/0.4>.

Known issues


   - Futon is currently broken on Natty -
lp:716237<https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/couchdb/+bug/716237>
   - dmedia has a failing unit-test on Natty -
lp:710405<https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/710405>
   - The python-dmedia transitional Debian package has been dropped, so you
   should uninstall python-dmedia before installing the dmedia 0.4 package

Special thanks

And a special thanks to:

   - Bilal Akhtar <http://twitter.com/#%21/bilal_akhtar96> for getting
   dmedia 0.3 so nicely packaged that it's been accepted into the Debian NEW
   queue <http://ftp-master.debian.org/new/dmedia_0.3.0%7Erepack-1.html>(wow!)
   - rockstar <http://twitter.com/#%21/rockstar_> for inviting us to talk
   about Novacut at NCLUG <http://nclug.org/> and for encouraging me
to use dmedia
   code reviews <https://code.launchpad.net/dmedia/+activereviews> as a way
   to get more people involved
   - leighman <https://launchpad.net/%7Eleighman> for making sure dmedia
   will look nice in that *other* other standards compliant browser -
Opera<https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/711265>
   - Akshat Jain <http://twitter.com/#%21/ssj6akshat> for scouring the
   interweb and keeping us abreast of interesting industry
developments<http://corp.kaltura.com/press/Kaltura-Open-Source-Video-Platform-Provider-Secures-$20-Million-Funding-Lands-Major-Customer-Wins>
   - David Green <https://launchpad.net/%7Edavid4dev> for fixing the broken
   appindicator icon <https://bugs.launchpad.net/dmedia/+bug/722520> in the
   nick of time
   - Stuart Langridge <http://twitter.com/#%21/sil> as
desktopcouch<https://launchpad.net/desktopcouch>was his idea and it's
totally brilliant... if your next desktop app doesn't
   use it, you're a fool!

Contribute to 0.5 and beyond!

We do monthly time-based releases, always releasing on the last Thursday of
the month. That means we promise to make a release on time each month, but
never promise what exact features will land.

dmedia 0.5 will be released on Thursday March 31 2011, and development is
already underway. To see what's in store for the next release, checkout dmedia
0.5 milestone <https://launchpad.net/dmedia/+milestone/0.5>.
Interesting stats

ohloh <https://www.ohloh.net/> says dmedia is 2 person years of
work<https://www.ohloh.net/p/dmedia>.
Not too shabby for a little over 4 months of development.
That's all, folks!

Thanks to everyone who is helping make this dream a reality!

Cheers,
Jason Gerard DeRose <http://twitter.com/#%21/jgderose>