[maemo-developers] PyMaemo (Python for maemo) alpha release for Fremantle

[From: Anderson Lizardo]

[cross-posting to pymaemo-developers and maemo-developers]
Hi,

We are pleased to announce the first (alpha) release of PyMaemo for Fremantle!

This new release is available through the extras-devel repository, see
installation instructions in
http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/sdk_installation.html#fremantle

What is it?
----------
Python for Maemo (PyMaemo for short) main objective is to make possible
to use Python programming language as the scripting and development
language for maemo Platform, providing a better alternative for fast
prototyping and programming in maemo environment besides the C
programming language.

Python is for serious programming and to have fun. Python has a nice
syntax, it is easy to learn and powerful enough for a vast range of
applications, this is why we choose Python for Maemo.

What has changed?
---------------
This release represents a major upgrade compared to previous ones. It
contains the following changes:

* Updated versions of all packages, now matching the Debian Lenny
stable release.
* Custom packaging was dropped and now we use the standard Debian
packages (plus maemo specific customizations). This means that PyMaemo
packages should now be fully compatible with Debian, thus facilitating
ports of existing applications from Debian.
* Dropped python-gpsbt package, since libgpsbt does not exist on
fremantle anymore.
* Added ipython (not installed by python-runtime).

Known issues
-----------------

* pyid3lib has been temporarily removed due to a missing -dev package
on the SDK (see maemo bug #4235 [1])
* python-gstreamer is currently missing; there is one being maintained
by maemo multimedia team on the SDK repository, we should check
whether it should be just uploaded to extras-devel.
* python-hildon lacks some of the new API for fremantle. For this
alpha release, only the deprecated API (not available on the C API)
was removed.
* Initial experimentation on actual OMAP3 hardware (beagle board
running fremantle [2]) shows that overall installed size (as installed
by the "python-runtime" metapackage) of PyMaemo is around 43 MB. For
the final release, we intend to reduce more this size.
* The packages were tested on actual hardware, but only to verify
installation. We expect the community to provide feedback on this
alpha release and report any runtime issues.

This release is supposed to be compatible with previous releases. If
you have any issues regarding building your Python application on
fremantle, feel free to report it on the pymaemo-developers mailing
list [3].

Acknowledgments:
-----------------
Thanks to everybody who helped making this release possible.

Bug reports, as always, should go to our Bugzilla [4]. Use our mailing
list [3] for support, feedback or suggestions.

References
--------------

[1] https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=4235
[2] http://maemo-beagle.garage.maemo.org/
[3] https://garage.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/pymaemo-developers
[4] https://garage.maemo.org/tracker/?atid=229&group_id=40&func=browse

Thanks,
-- 
Anderson Lizardo
Instituto Nokia de Tecnologia (INdT)
Manaus - Brazil