[Syllable Logo]
...is becoming an easy-to-use free software operating system for the home and small office user. It is powerful, lightweight and extraordinarily fast and responsive. More info.

Try Syllable!
 
Navigation
Project of the Month Aug 21, 16:59
[Announcement]On the forum, Rui Caridade proposed to set up a project to have multiple people from the community work on applications together. The idea being that most people are not skilled in all aspects of application development, but they can complement each other. For example, one developer could create the core of an application, another developer could write the graphical interface for it, and a graphics artist could create the images and styling. After some discussion, the idea evolved into trying to have a specific project each month, decided by polls on the forum where you can vote for your favourite topic for the next month. A dedicated section was created on the forum. This is a community project, so please vote, but also bring in your ideas and step forward if you can help on a particular project. As outlined above, you don't have to be a developer. If you always wanted to have a particular application developed but didn't know how, now is the time to pitch in.
Genode OS Framework Ported to Syllable Server Aug 21, 15:57
[Ports]As an experiment, we ported the recently released Genode OS framework to Syllable Server. It does not run on Syllable Desktop yet, as this requires some more deep porting work to the Syllable kernel.
Genode is a very interesting, modular operating system framework with several components that are largely complementary to Syllable. We want to explore the opportunities to integrate these into Syllable. For example, the core component provides a true capabilities system for very high security and reliability. The Nitpicker windowing server is capable of displaying windows from multiple GUI systems on the same screen. If we port the Syllable AppServer to it, for example we could run Syllable applications next to applications based on the upcoming Qt port to Nitpicker.
Genode and a few demo programs will be included in the upcoming Syllable Server release.
Meet Webster Jul 24, 16:08
[Applications]More creative destruction. Another long-time milestone has been reached. It has always been our plan to factor out the web rendering engine of ABrowse into a library with a native Syllable View widget on top, so it can be embedded into more applications than just a web browser. Kristian did just that: building on Arno's WebCore port, he updated that and then stepped up the modularisation by creating the WebView class. He rewrote the browser on top of that and named it Webster. The first alpha version is available in our applications downloads. The latest Syllable 0.6.6 development build is required to run it, as several bugs in the system were fixed for the new browser. The source code is available on our development site.
Rhope Alpha 2 Jun 14, 15:22
[Applications]Michael Pavone has released the second alpha version of his dataflow parallel programming language: Rhope. Its syntax is now friendlier, it got an interactive mode and the support for programming graphical user interfaces on Syllable has been extended.
Syllable Server Development Build Jun 7, 2:11
[Syllable]We released a development build of Syllable Server. This version has a number of updated components, including the kernel, and several fixes. Most importantly, a lot of server functionality was added. Included is a REBOL software stack with a web server and a web programming framework. Support and start scripts are integrated for a number of standard servers, such as CUPS, OpenSSH, BIND, Apache, RSync, SaMBa and VSFTP. However, the configurations of these new modules are not complete yet.
Moving to OMake Build System Apr 14, 9:43
[Ports]It has long been one of our milestone objectives to switch to a better build system. We implemented Builder ourselves as a module-level build system. Individual modules each use their own internal build system, though, usually the classic (GNU) Make. For native Syllable code, we eventually selected OMake as a modern replacement. The latest version of OMake now runs on Syllable and is available in our downloads. We will be migrating to it over time. Builder will get support for it and we encourage you to use it in your projects.
To be able to call omake to build a simple native Syllable program, you need two files in your project directory:

OMakeroot
open build/C
DefineCommandVars()
.SUBDIRS: .

OMakefile
CXXFLAGS += -O2
LDFLAGS  += -lsyllable

APP = HelloWorld

CXXSOURCES[] =
    $(APP)

.DEFAULT: $(CXXProgram $(APP), $(CXXSOURCES))
PHP 5 Ported to Syllable Desktop Mar 28, 1:23
[Ports]Ruwen Boehm got the newest version of PHP to work, so for the first time since AtheOS times, we have our own PHP port. A binary package for version 5.2.5 is now available to download.
Squeak Ported to Syllable Desktop Mar 21, 17:30
[Ports][Squeak with Seaside]Kelly Wilson has ported Squeak to Syllable. Squeak is a multimedia environment based on the Smalltalk programming language. There are no video and sound drivers yet that interface between Squeak and Syllable, so the Squeak graphical environment is not available yet. However, headless Squeak programs that don't need a graphical user interface run, and the screenshot shows a web site in ABrowse, produced by the Seaside web application framework.
sIDE Update Mar 21, 17:20
[Applications]A new version of sIDE, our graphical integrated development environment, has been released. Since Syllable 0.6.5, sIDE didn't properly create new projects based on a template anymore. This has been fixed, and several old constructs in the software build process have been updated to modern standards.
Rhope Dataflow Language Feb 23, 21:45
[Applications]Michael Pavone has created a new programming language: Rhope. It's a very interesting language that is based on dataflow and also uses transactional concepts to make parallel programming easy. Rhope is an interpreter that is available for Syllable, OS X and Windows. Mike mentions that it was for a large part developed on Syllable and that its web site runs on Syllable Desktop, on a web server and web framework programmed in Rhope itself. Rhope currently has preliminary support for programming graphical user interfaces on Syllable and Windows.
New Premium and Source CDs Jan 17, 0:17
[Syllable]We published a new Premium CD for Syllable Desktop 0.6.5. As always, it's available from the Syllable shop. The complete program source code didn't fit on it any more, so we created a separate CD for that. It holds the source code for Syllable Desktop, Syllable Server and extra packages. Both CDs are also available as a download from now on, so you can choose to receive them sooner and save the shipping costs by burning your own CD.
New Download Section Dec 26, 15:33
[Ports]The link to our Official Releases in the navigation panel on the left here has been replaced by a new download page of our own. After going through several download web sites in the past years, this one is meant to stay. It is fully integrated into the new content management system for the sites. We will extend it over time to add categories, main sections for Syllable Desktop and Syllable Server, and eventually, software contributed by individual developers.

The current page offers some new packages that were created or ported recently. They are mainly libraries, of interest to software developers.
Syllable Server Source Code Published Dec 23, 21:30
[Applications]The code to build Syllable is maintained in Builder, the build system. There are a main repository of build specifications and overlays for Syllable Desktop and Syllable Server. The code for Server is now completely published in the source repository. A package of Builder (11 MB) for Syllable Server has been released that corresponds to Syllable Server 0.2 with a few fixes. The procedure to build Syllable Server will be the subject of an article in a future Syllable Newsletter.
Development Build December 16 Dec 16, 21:44
[Syllable]A new development build of Syllable Desktop is available (the December 9 build was broken and withdrawn). This version represents a rather huge restructuring of the third-party software in the system. A new package pool was split off from the one in /usr/ and introduced under /system/resources/. The former pool retains its structure, but packages in the new system pool are versioned, formalising our method of shipping older versions of libraries to retain compatibility with existing binary software. Except for libraries, the versioned pool is not meant to install multiple versions of the same package.

Smaller changes to the system structure were also made, to unify it with the structure of Syllable Server.

Many packages were updated, most notably those for printing.

The FFMPEG plug-in, LibUSB, the SDL extension libraries and GhostScript are missing from this build. ABrowse will not run because cURL is missing.
CMake Ported Nov 24, 16:00
[Ports]Alex Neundorf of the CMake project has ported it to Syllable. CMake is used to build many projects, including CDRKit, that we should soon be able to use instead of CDRTools for burning CDs and DVDs. The CMake port is in their CVS repository and will be in the upcoming 2.6.0 release.
Newsletter #2 Nov 11, 14:48
[Announcement]Ruud has published the second issue in the new series of our Syllable Development Newsletter. It contains thirteen pages of articles, interviews and the second instalment of Kristian's programming tutorial. The newsletter is accompanied again by a software pack, rounding up seven packages that were released since the first edition.
Development Build November 4 Nov 6, 19:45
[Syllable]Another development build of Syllable Desktop is ready. From now on, the development builds will be available from their own page on the new development site. A link is on the panel on the left. The caveats are the same as for the previous build.
New Development Site Nov 4, 20:15
[Announcement]This web site has been split into subsites oriented towards different audiences. A new site was created for software developers. It can be reached through the new "Subprojects/Navigation" panel on the left and contains all the content that is specific to software development on Syllable. The API references and driver tutorials are now on-line again.