[Ccrtp-devel] Common C++ 1.2.5 released tonight, updated status for 1.3.0, ccaudio plans

[David Sugar]

GNU Common C++ 1.2.5 was released tonight.  This release includes a few 
recent bug fixes, both for the URLStream class, and related to 
endStream()'s properly checking buffers before they delete them.  I also 
changed configure.in to configure.ac, as newer autoconf's are happier 
with this, and reconfig then cleanly rebuilt configure on Debian.  In 
fact, this is the first new release I have tried distributing since our 
old production micro-server detonated last month.

Much progress has also been made in the proposed Common C++ 1.3 release, 
and all recent work in the Common C++ 1.3 (stable2) branch has been 
updated in public cvs this week.  This includes a number of new 
convenience classes, including a complete Directory tree walker.  Many 
other areas have been expanded as well, particularly in scheduler 
handling and other process management features that were not 
encapsulated within Common C++ before.  I have successfully built 1.3 on 
HP/UX and have generally finished making the core class methods and 
common arguments 64 bit clean.  I also added a placement object class 
that allows one to new and reuse deleted objects within managed "class 
String" memory.

There are a few small items still left in pre-testing for 1.3 before I 
will consider making an initial release generally available.  However, 
if we do another test branch release in Bayonne, it will have been built 
using Common C++ 1.3 as it is very stable on core functionality.  I am 
looking for suggestions for additional improvements and new features for 
GNU Common C++, whether for 1.3 or beyond...

Also new seperate releases of ccAudio will hopefully begin appearing 
shortly after GNU Common C++ 1.3.0 becomes generally available.  These 
will be initially numbered starting at 1.3.0 as well.  There have been 
many enhancements made in ccAudio functionality as part of the Bayonne 
testing branch, and these will be represented in the new stand-alone 
library.  In addition, I do plan to build a new "audiotool" as part of a 
future 1.3 ccAudio release that will both test the library and make it's 
functionality immediately available as a shell command that can 
manipulate and process audio files for you in interesting and useful 
ways, such as performing tone detection and silence stripping on 
existing audio files, some audio conversions like sox does, etc.

The main questions that now exist in ccAudio is how it handles 
packet/frame aligned codecs, and how machine endian issues (such as 
found on ppc) effect processing audio frames for tone detect and 
silence/energy computations and/or that are processed through codecs for 
transmission or storage in fixed endian format audio files.  To help in 
developing and testing framed audio operations in ccAudio in general, I 
have made it possible to optionally enable framed behavior in g.711 
codecs and pure linear data.  I hope that the new proposed audiotool 
will help extensivily in testing and debugging behavior in the future 
ccAudio releases, and in particularly for when testing ccAudio on 
systems that do not share Intel little endian machine representations.