Flightdeck-UI MVM and Library 0.2.0 (Stable) Released

[fdui@openlight.com]

This is a stable (production) release of the Flightdeck-UI library and
Multi-Variable Monitor (MVM).  Downloads are available from the
project homepage ("http://www.openlight.com/fdui/").  The screenshots
are here: "http://www.openlight.com/fdui/screens.html".

The goal of the Flightdeck-UI project is to apply ideas from aircraft
instrumentation design to general purpose user interfaces.  The
project consists of a library (which provides widgets based on the
basic instruments of flight) and the Multi-Level Monitor (MVM)
monitoring application.

MVM can be quickly configured to track data from several sources (for
example free disk space on your machine, the local weather, the number
of visits to your website, etc.).  It will then sit in some corner of
your desktop, allowing you to read this information with an occasional
glance.  MVM includes a graphical editor and theme support.

Support for multiple concurrency models in MVM plug-ins has been added
in this release (asynchronous I/O and thread pool examples are
included in the distribution).  In addition, it is now easier to write
simple plug-in modules, with functions that return integer or floating
point numbers.  For more information, see the README-MVM.TXT file
("http://www.openlight.com/fdui/README-MVM.TXT").

A number of bugfixes (particularly in the graphical editor) as well as
enhanced error notification have also been added.

Some of the new plug-ins (most notably the ones using thread pools)
perform a clean shutdown when you exit MVM.  If your Internet
connection is hung up, you might have to wait a little for the I/O to
time out so that the threads can stop (it is not possible to interrupt
a Python thread).

MVM and the Flightdeck-UI library are both open source/free software.
They have been tested under Linux (RedHat 7.2) and under Windows 95.

Questions can be emailed to originator of this message.  Your ideas
and participation will be appreciated!