[gst-announce] Release notes for GStreamer 0.9.6 "Always On Time"

[Christian Fredrik Kalager Schaller]

Release notes for GStreamer 0.9.6 "Always On Time"

We are happy to announcce our second last development release of
GStreamer before the big 0.10 release planned in early December.
So this is your last time to get on in on the fun before everything is
declared to be set in stone.

The 0.9.x series is a development series and not recommended for end
users. It is not API or ABI compatible with the stable 0.8.x series. It
is, however, parallel installable with the 0.8.x series.

The main focus of the 0.9 series is to make GStreamer threadsafe.

This module, gstreamer, only contains core functionality. For actual
media playback, you will need other modules.

gst-plugins-base
(http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/releases/gst-plugins-base/0.9.6.html)
        contains a basic set of well-supported plug-ins
        
gst-plugins-good
(http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/releases/gst-plugins-good/0.9.6.html)
        contains a set of well-supported plug-ins under our preferred
        license
        
gst-plugins-ugly
(http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/releases/gst-plugins-ugly/0.9.6.html)
        contains a set of well-supported plug-ins, but might pose
        problems for distributors
        
gst-plugins-bad
(http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/releases/gst-plugins-bad/0.9.6.html)
        contains a set of less supported plug-ins that haven't passed
        the rigorous quality testing we expect

Features of this release
      * Parallel installability with 0.8.x series
      * Threadsafe design and API
      * API changes and clean-up
      * Extensive documentation updates
      * remove GLib 2.4 compatibility
      * added clock selection
      * added network clocking
      * added fd:// URI handler
      * added more fraction functionality
Bugs fixed in this release
      * 143472 : [api] gst_tag_list_foreach() takes a non-const
        GstTagList*
      * 156633 : [API] don't use same API for arrays as for normal lists
      * 164168 : circular pipeline fails to negotiate
      * 165650 : [API] gst_value_deserialize doesn't work correctly for
        NU...
      * 168438 : [API] GstIndexFilter doesn't receive user_data
      * 168494 : [API] gst_index_add_object() does nothing
      * 305291 : Obnoxious bug-filing request
      * 311489 : Possible gstghostpad locking problems
      * 319178 : [API] finish filler events and support them in
        GstCollect...
      * 319388 : 0.9 API changes tracker
      * 319389 : state change updates obsolete some functions
      * 319392 : GstEventType is not bindings-friendly
      * 319395 : Macro name/visibility API bugs
      * 319940 : Use GLIB macros for GCC extensions
      * 320060 : add a CORE error category for missing ELEMENTS/PLUGINS
      * 320097 : GST_BUFFER_FLAG_ORIGINAL should die
      * 320113 : [API] duration message changes
      * 320299 : gst_pad_send_event should take stream lock for
        serialized...
      * 320324 : [API] GST_FOURCC_FORMAT should drop leading '%'
      * 320423 : [API] padding for GstCollectData
      * 320766 : [API] collect pads API changes
      * 321061 : GstURI not used
      * 321235 : [API] GST_PAD_IS_USABLE should be removed
      * 321386 : [SEGFAULT] basetransform when doing reverse caps
        negotiation
      * 321452 : GstPad's " template " property is b0rked
      * 321528 : capsfilter: assertion `caps != NULL' failed
      * 321595 : GstBin doesn't clean the message queue when changing
        stat...
      * 321638 : Don't use // style comments in headers
      * 321648 : Wrong type check in gst_message_parse_clock_lost
      * 321710 : GstClock resolution functions should take a
        GstClockTime
      * 321712 : GstClock adjust function changes
      * 321875 : gst_plugin_check_file disappeared
      * 321950 : gst_registry_scan_paths lacks implementation
      * 321962 : [easyfix] gst_value_is_fixed uses gst_value_list_* on
        GST...
      * 322027 : [API] Rename gst_caps_structure_fixate_* to
        gst_structure...
      * 322034 : Elements should be updated not to take the stream lock
        in...
      * 322069 : Names of GstTagSetter methods should be more
        descriptive
      * 322134 : API master/slave clocks
      * 322139 : our elements are confused about GEnumValue and which is
        t...
Download
You can find source releases of gstreamer in the gstreamer download
directory - http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org/src/gstreamer/

GStreamer Homepage
More details can be found on the project's website,
http://gstreamer.freedesktop.org. 

Support and Bugs
We use GNOME's bugzilla for bug reports and feature requests -
http://bugzilla.gnome.org

Developers
CVS is hosted on cvs.freedesktop.org. You can browse the gstreamer
repository- http://cvs.freedesktop.org/gstreamer/gstreamer/  

All code is in CVS and can be checked out from there. Interested
developers of the core library, plug-ins, and applications should
subscribe to the gstreamer-devel list. If there is sufficient interest
we will create more lists as necessary. 
Applications
At this point, ports of existing applications to 0.9 are still
experimental. Totem GStreamer 0.9 support is maintained in Totem CVS
head. A patch for Rhythmbox is maintained at
http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=309609. Jamboree has a branch
with the tag "jamboree-gst-0.9" that works against GStreamer 0.9.
Flumotion has been mostly ported to 0.9 as well and there is a patch for
Muine and work-in-development in Banshee CVS.

Contributors to this release
      * Alessandro Dessina
      * Andy Wingo
      * Daniel Fischer
      * Edward Hervey
      * Jan Schmidt
      * Johan Dahlin
      * Julien MOUTTE
      * Michael Smith
      * Stefan Kost
      * Thomas Vander Stichele
      * Tim-Philipp Müller
      * Torsten Schoenfeld
      * Wim Taymans