Free 3.9 software for linux

prerex project is an interactive (command-line) editor and a LaTeX macro support package that can be used to create very attractive and readable prerequisite charts.
A prerequisite chart is a network of course boxes linked by prerequisite and co-requisite arrows.
Enhancements:
- The patch for kpdf has been modified so that correct chart coordinates are returned when the document display is smaller than the kpdf window.

fsc2 is a program running under Linux for controlling spectrometers. Programs for remote control of spectrometers usually are home-written and often restricted to doing a certain set of experiments with only a fixed set of devices. In contrast, fsc2 is much more flexible because it was written with three main aims:
- It should be easy for the user to set up a new experiment without having to change the program at all.
- Devices should be exchangeable and support for new devices should not necessitate changes of the basic program.
- Users doing just standard experiments should only need to interact with a simple graphical user interface.
This flexibility has been achieved by making the program an interpreter for a rather easy to learn but powerful enough scripting language (EDL, Experiment Description Language) and employing a strictly modular approach to the handling of devices.
This allows to set up a new experiment or change an already existing one fast and easily without requiring any detailed knowledge of the internals of fsc2 or how exactly devices are controlled by the computer - everything required is to become acquainted with the EDL scripting language.
Moreover, an already working script for an experiment can be swiftly converted to display a graphical user interface for entering the experimental parameters by adding just a few extra lines and converting it via a Perl script (included in the package), thus allowing it to be used also by those not acquainted with the EDL language.
Main features:
- The EDL language used to describe experiments is similar to other medium to high level languages, borrowing from e.g. MathLab, Fortran, C and Perl etc. It comes with a lot of functions for data handling, displaying and saving in completely user defined ways. Thus writing a description for a new experiment or adapting an already existing EDL script wont be difficult for anyone remotely acquainted with one of the above mentioned programming languages. The online documentation has a chapter with an introduction to writing EDL scripts.
- Devices are not "hard-coded" into fsc2. Instead, they are dealt with by modules that get loaded on demand (a single instruction in an EDL script). For each sort of devices a set of EDL functions exists to set up and control the device and fetch measured data. This allows e.g. to employ a different device with similar functionality by often just changing a single line in an EDL script.
- fsc2 allows other programs to send it EDL scripts for execution. Thus one may write scripts for standard experiments that in turn automatically create EDL scripts from user input, for example via a graphical user interface. fsc2 comes with a tool that automatically generates such scripts from slightly modified EDL programs. Once such a script has been created, "normal" users dont have to know how to write or change EDL programs, thus retaining all the convenience of the traditional type of programs but without sacrificing any of fsc2s flexibility.
- fsc2 comes with a simple built-in web server (only running on user demand) that allows to remotely monitor the state of an experiment.
- Currently fsc2 can control devices that are either connected via the serial ports, the GPIB bus, the RULBUS (Rijksuniversiteit Leiden BUS) or are realized as PCI or ISA cards (Linux drivers for these cards are supplied with the package as far as possible). Support for devices controlled via the LAN is implemented but still needs extensive testing.
- Writing new device modules (or adapting existing ones for a new device) shouldnt be too difficult for anyone having some experience with writing programs in C. More than 50 modules for quite a range of devices are already part of the package and can be used as a starting point for developing modules for new devices. The documentation has a whole chapter on how to write new modules.
- fsc2 is well-documented, a more than 300 page documentation in HTML, info, PostScript and PDF format is part of the package, covering all aspects of fsc2, i.e. the graphical interface, the EDL language, device functions and the writing of new device modules.
- fsc2 has been extensively tested and is currently used for controlling more than ten EPR spectrometers as well as an Optical Single Molecule and a Raman spectrometer, using a broad range of different devices and experimental techniques.
- The complete sources for the program and all device modules (as well as several Linux device drivers) are available under the GNU Public License (GPL), so they can be adapted or extended to fit whatever requirements there are without any restrictions.

EFlite is a speech server for Emacspeak and other screen readers that allows them to interface with Festival Lite. EFlite is still in beta, but I have been using it successfully with Yasr to get speech on my notebook under Linux without having to lug my Speak-out around. It uses Festival Lites code for the interface with the sound driver and, therefore, should work with some versions of ALSA, but I have only tested it with the OSS sound drivers so far.
Enhancements:
- Corrected INSTALL documentation for Emacspeak 19 and up
- From Jeremy Huddleston :
- es.c: fix EOF bug
- es.c: add -D (daemon) option
- Support shared libraries

APODIO project is a Mandriva-based specialist live CD designed for musicians and multimedia enthusiasts.

The new version 4.2.2 is considered a test release; it contains a large collection of software for audio, video and graphics manipulation.

The APODIO live CD boots into French by default, but English and a number of other languages are also supported.

The default window manager is the light-weight PWM, with OroboROX provided as an alternative.

The APODIO project was started in 2003 by the APO33 association It has two objectives : First : to create a live CD for PC, a complete audio station under GNU/Linux that could quickly be installed on the hard disk, or work straight away as a CD, with a Ram of at least 320 Mo, and practical and simple administration tools.

The 3.0.9 April 2003 APODIO version of the live CD immediately recognizes and adjusts itself to your equipment, your sound and graphic display adapters and your eventual hard disk partitions. It offers various interfaces, such as Gnome, Rox, Fluxbox... and a choice of software to work on sound. It is based on the GNU/Linux Mandrake 10.0 distribution and on the mklicecd group scripts for the creation of the live CD or of the hard disk.

The second objective is to give some sort of permanence to part of our work, while adhering to the principles of GNU/GPL. Unlike most other distributions that tend to drift too far away from the Linux Debian/RedHat/Mandrake communities, we wished to remain close to Mandriva, to allow users to reclaim the tools for themselves.

From the start, APODIO was not meant to become a finished or final product, but rather, a toolbox, more adapted to the common user than to the developer ; more practical than technical. Since we follow closely the Mandriva platform, we can concentrate more on what we find interesting in the first place, while making sure that our work will keep up with changes in hardware and software.

The complete remade July 2005 APODIO-4 version utilizes less RAM than the V3 ; it is based on - and can be synchronised with – Mandriva 2006 (cooker). Some video processing software has been added and the PureData base has been considerably increased.

We now have a practical base in the evolution of the live CD APODIO on Mandriva and new projects are in progress : the Poulpe (Octopus), a live CD that can be the basis for a sound and plastic installation, in various places linked by web-radio flows. Ref. the site : (http://www.apo33.org/poulpe) The Ubik, the live CD for a standby or a disabled situation, becomes a sound and video sculpture, connected to any other Ubik. It can be responsive to a network or to a keyboard/mouse set. Each user can either modify the CD base or the PureData patches found in a known directory in a disc, usb, fp... and thus personify his/her Ubik.

Mtools is a collection of utilities to access MS-DOS disks from Unix without mounting them. The project supports Win95 style long file names, OS/2 Xdf disks and 2m disks (store up to 1992k on a high density 3 1/2 disk).
Mtools can now handle the long filenames of Windows NT and Windows 95. Mtools is maintained by David Niemi and me (Alain Knaff). Mtools-3.9.9 has been released on March 3rd, 2003.
Enhancements:
- This is mostly a maintainance release which fixes a couple of bugs, addresses warnings raised by gcc4, and merges some platform-specific patches (MingW, NetBSD, Redhat/Fedora, Cygwin, Solaris).

CableTV is a CableCrypt decoder for Linux. It has been tested with BT878 cards under kernel 2.2.x and 2.4.x, and provides full decryption of Wiener Telekabel Telekino (Austria), but reported to work with many stations over europe. It works yet only with PAL. Chroma and polarity inversion is supported. It has support for color MMX decoding and b/w x86 assembler decoding.
Enhancements:
- fixed compile errors with gcc-2.95.x
- reduced audio on 10 sec. delay to 1 sec.
- support for long options
- use pci utils for bt848 address (Manuel Estrada Sainz)
- drop root privilege ASAP (Manuel Estrada Sainz)
- STRANGE_SYNC_PROBLEMS patch (Manuel Estrada Sainz)
- debianized with help from Manuel Estrada Sainz
- inline MMX and asm locking stuff, we dont need nasm anymore, yes!
- enabled old C decode routine, maybe we get it to run on another platform than i386
- made code ANSI C conform, compiles now with -ansi
- added initial autoconf support
- changed default decode routine to -r4
- major code cleanup in cablecrypt-*.c files
- add PAL interpolation to C mode (option -r2)

TightVNC project is a free remote control software package derived from the popular VNC software. With TightVNC, you can see the desktop of a remote machine and control it with your local mouse and keyboard, just like you would do it sitting in the front of that computer.
Main features:
- free, GPL-licensed, with full source code available;
- useful in remote administration, remote customer support, education, and for many other purposes;
- cross-platform, available for Windows and Unix, compatible with other VNC software;
- well maintained and being actively developed.
Enhancements:
- This stable version includes support for the latest RFB protocol version 3.8, VNC4-compatible parsing of host:display strings, and a number of bugfixes and portability fixes.
- Also, there was many changes in the built-in Java viewer such as scaling, automatic encoding selection, support for ZRLE encoding, and a workaround for a Tab key problem.