[Gpe-list] Beta test of Maemo GPE update

[Graham Cobb]

A beta test of the next update of GPE for Maemo is available (for OS2008 users 
only at the moment).  If you use GPE on Maemo Diablo or Chinook, please 
install this update and report any problems (preferably in bugzilla but, if 
not, to me) as this is the basis of the next update to be released as a 
stable release for the Maemo community.  

Beta versions for bora and gregale will be available soon (I will announce 
their availability to the GPE list but, if you are seeing this announcement 
somewhere else, send me an email and I will tell you when it is available for 
your OS).  If no major problems are found, I expect to release the stable 
update in a few weeks.

Although the stable update will be made available in the Extras repository, 
this beta release is available in the "extras-devel" repositories.  To see 
the update you should add a catalogue to the Application Manager as:

Catalogue name: extras-devel
Web address: http://repository.maemo.org/extras-devel
Distribution: your distribution name: gregale, bora, chinook or diablo
Components: free non-free

After refreshing the package list and checking for updates, the application 
manager should offer to update whichever of the the GPE applications you have 
installed: gpe-calendar, gpe-contacts, gpe-filemanager, gpe-timesheet, 
gpe-todo, gpesummary, gpesyncd or starling.  The version should be 
2.8+maemo+svn20080720-1 or later.  You may want to disable the extras-devel 
repository again after you have done the upgrade as it contains unreleased 
versions of many programs.

It would be **really** useful to me if everyone who installs this beta test 
could just send me a brief email telling me they installed it, which OS they 
are using (diablo, chinook, bora or gregale), and which applications they 
have installed/upgraded.

This update is mainly bug fixes, although it includes the following new 
features:

o gpesummary (the homepage plugin) watches for alarms and starts gpe-calendar 
to handle displaying an alarm whenever one fires.  This means that 
gpe-calendar no longer needs to be running for alarms to fire.  This feature 
(and related changes and bugfixes to gpesummary) are most in need of testing.

o gpe-calendar no longer iconises when the close button is pressed.  Instead 
it gives the user a choice of iconising or closing and the choice can be 
remembered for the future.  The close option is most useful if you also use 
gpesummary so that it can open gpe-calendar when necessary to show alarms.

o Several translations have been improved or added.

Many bugs have been fixed.  Notable bugfixes include:

o The crashes and other problems when switching to/from the agenda view when 
the sidebar is disabled have been fixed.

o gpesummary only runs once per minute, to avoid running the battery down

o Sidebar calendar works

o Several improvements in import and export to/from gpe-calendar, gpe-todo and 
gpe-contact, including support for 8-bit characters, better support for 
recurring events and support of the birthday field in contacts

o Several bugs which could cause alarms to be repeated even after they have 
been acknowledged have been fixed.  There may be a few unexpected repeats for 
the first 24 hours but this should be fixed after that.  If anyone sees 
alarms still repeating after they have been acknowledged, please report the 
circumstances

Graham