[maemo-developers] PyMaemo (Python for Maemo) release candidate for Maemo 5 (Fremantle)

[From: Anderson Lizardo]

Hi,

The PyMaemo team is pleased to announce the release candidate of
PyMaemo for Maemo 5!

This new release is currently available through the extras-devel
repository, for installation instructions see:
http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/installation.html. Note that some
PyMaemo packages were automatically promoted to extras-testing/extras
because they are dependencies from other promoted applications, so you
might be already using the latest versions.

We also are proud to present the new look for the PyMaemo website:
http://pymaemo.garage.maemo.org/. Comments are welcome :). As part of
the new website organization, we moved most of the documentation to
the wiki, so the community can easily contribute with fixes/updates to
it:

http://wiki.maemo.org/PyMaemo

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?
---------------

New packages:

* python-alarm: 0.1-0maemo1
+ complete rewrite of libalarm bindings, now using Cython (note that the API
  has changed a lot since Diablo, for now check the C API documentation[1] for
  reference)

Updated packages:

* python-hildon: 0.9.0-1maemo13
+ Lots of bug fixes (including adding a few missing API)
* cython: 0.11.2-1maemo1
+ Update to latest package in Debian.
* gst0.10-python: 0.10.14-2maemo5
+ Add python2.5-gstreamer to Provides/Replaces/Conflicts keywords
* pyclutter: 0.8.0-1maemo3
+ Add opengles-sgx-img-common-dev as an alternative dependency to libgl-dev
  (libgl-dev was removed from Maemo 5 final ARMEL SDK)
* python-osso: 0.4-0maemo1
+ Complete rewrite using Cython (earlier version had subtle bugs due to missing
  sanity checks), plus a few API updates. This new version is API compatible
  with previous one.
* python2.5: 2.5.4-1maemo2
+ Drop sbox-ld-preload.dpatch.
* pygtk: 2.12.1-6maemo8
+ Add mising Maemo specific API and some python2.6 compatibility fixes (note
  that we do not support python2.6 in Maemo 5, this is a future proof fix).
* python-hildondesktop: 0.0.3-1maemo2
+ Add support for Status Menu widgets.
* ipython: 0.10-1maemo1
+ Update to latest release from Debian

Bugs fixed: MB#4782, MB#4821, MB#4897, MB#4920, MB#4923, MB#4936,
MB#4947, MB#4957, MB#4969, MB#4977, MB#5015, MB#5026, MB#5027,
MB#5096, MB#5102, MB#5143, MB#5164, MB#5199, MB#5226, MB#5244

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

python-mafw (Python bindings for MAFW) is still considered alpha
quality, and there are a couple of known issues on it:
MB#4919: python-mafw: list of missing types to complete methods bindings
MB#4824: python-mafw: source_browsing.py example does not work
MB#4932: python-mafw: mafw.Source.browse() method is missing
MB#4839: python-mafw: mafw.Registry lacks list_plugins() method
MB#4849: python-mafw: MafwPluginDescriptorPublic structure is missing

Hildon Widgets written in Python may not appear on the "Add widget"
list (see MB#5232). We already have a partial fix for the problem, and
will upload a new version for python-hildondesktop soon. As a
workaround, you can start the widgets from the command line, as
standalone programs. See http://wiki.maemo.org/PyMaemo/HildonDesktop
for an example on how to do this.

There are some bugs in the current documentation for python-hildon
(namely the Python Hildon tutorial and reference manual, see MB#5091
and MB#5141). Due to a mistake while upgrading to the new website
layout, this documentation is temporarily unavailable. We are working
to fix this and will make them available soon.

There are no bindings for GUPnP (MB#4829), libhildonmime (MB#5157), as
well for various other Maemo 5 components. We plan to work on
providing bindings for these components during the Maemo 5 life cycle.

The PyMaemo base set of packages take considerable storage space
(MB#5364). We already started experiments with the "maemo-optify" tool
to install biggest things out of root fs, and we plan to reduce a
plenty of storage usage by cutting unnecessary things (such as some
remaining documentation). Expect next releases to reduce storage usage
gradually.

We will not migrate to python2.6 in Maemo 5 due to a (unresolved)
bug (MB#4734 [18]), where a core SDK package explicitly conflicts with
python >= 2.6, preventing any further upgrades from the 2.5.x series.

This release is supposed to be compatible with previous releases. If
you have any issues regarding building or running your Python
application on Maemo 5, feel free to contact us (see below for how to
contact the PyMaemo team and report bugs).

Acknowledgments:
-----------------

Thanks to everybody who helped making this release possible.

Bug reports, as always, should go to our Bugzilla [3]. Use the
pymaemo-developers mailing list for help, feedback or suggestions.

References
--------------
[1] http://maemo.org/api_refs/5.0/5.0-final/libalarm/
[2] https://garage.maemo.org/mailman/listinfo/pymaemo-developers
[3] https://bugs.maemo.org/enter_bug.cgi?product=PyMaemo

Thanks,
-- 
Anderson Lizardo
OpenBossa Labs - INdT
Manaus - Brazil