
 Places where to post the announce of a new wxWPM release:
 ---------------------------------------------------------

 wx-users mailing list:       wx-users@lists.wxwidgets.org
 wx-announce mailing list:    wx-announce@lists.wxwidgets.org
 wx-dev mailing list:         wx-dev@lists.wxwidgets.org

 wxForum announcement board:  http://wxforum.shadonet.com/viewforum.php?f=10
 wxCommunity news:            http://www.wxcommunity.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Submit_News&file=index



 The announcement text:
 ----------------------

 Here it is the announcement text used for last release of wxWPM:




Announcing wxWPM 0.2: wxWidgets Package Manager
===============================================

I'm pleased to announce a new release of the wxWPM, the wxWidgets package manager project.


What is it?
-----------

The wxWidgets Packager Manager project (wxWPM in short) provides the tools to create and use a new format of source packages: the wxWidgets packages.

The wxWidgets packages are simple compressed archives containing a WXP (wxWidgets package descriptor file) which contains the info used by the Package Manager to build (i.e. compile), install or uninstall the package on the user's system using the build system of the packaged software (e.g. bakefile or cmake).

The concept is very similar to the DevC++'s devpaks, but unlike them wxWidgets packages are cross-platform and are completely abstracted from the build system used by the packaged project.
They are aimed to make the software modular and easy reusable!

Packaging your software using the wxWidgets Packager GUI is extremely easy; once you've filled in the fields, it will even help you to make new releases of your software faster (creating the .zip and .tar.gz archives automatically excluding unwanted files); you won't even need to upload/distribute a new file as you can reuse your source releases (the usual .zip, .tar.gz archives) as wxWidgets packages (just putting a package descriptor inside them)!


What does it provide?
---------------------

The wxWPM project provides three applications:

  1. a GUI Package Manager which can be used to browse remote repositories of packages, download the selected packages, build them using the user-specified configuration and finally install them.
  
  2. the wxWidgets GUI Packager: an intuitive tool which creates the wxWidgets package descriptors (WXP) and will create the wxWidgets compressed package.
  
  3. the third application is a command-line manager which provides all functionalities of previous apps from command-line, allowing to e.g. script the download and the installation of the latest version of your favourite packages.

This project was initially sponsorised by Google in its Summer Of Code 2006, developed by Francesco Montorsi and mentored by Julian Smart.


Links
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To learn more about wxWPM:    http://wxwpm.sourceforge.net
wxWPM screenshots page:       http://wxwpm.sourceforge.net/screenshots.php
wxWPM download page:          http://wxwpm.sourceforge.net/download.php

To learn about wxWidgets:     http://www.wxwidgets.org



Feedback greatly appreciated !

Francesco Montorsi


