Re: Wine release 1.4

[Christian Costa]

Ooo. Thanks ! I didn't expect so much for my birthday ! :D
What a pity for Greg. I only knew he retired from supporting the bot. :(

Cheers
Christian

2012/3/7 Alexandre Julliard
> The Wine team is proud to announce that the stable release Wine 1.4
> is now available.
>
> This release represents 20 months of development effort and over
> 16,000 individual changes. The main highlights are the new DIB
> graphics engine, a redesigned audio stack, and full support for
> bidirectional text and character shaping.
>
> It also contains a lot of improvements across the board, as well as
> support for many new applications, notably Microsoft Office 2010. See
> the release notes below for a summary of the major changes.
>
> This release is dedicated to the memory of Gé (Greg) van Geldorp, who
> passed away in May 2011. Greg single-handedly designed, built, and
> maintained the Wine Testbot, which has become a cornerstone of our
> development process. The high quality of this release owes a lot to
> his work. He is greatly missed by us all.
>
> The source is available from the following locations:
>
> http://ibiblio.org/pub/linux/system/emulators/wine/wine-1.4.tar.bz2
>  http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/wine/wine-1.4.tar.bz2
>
> Binary packages for various distributions will be available from:
>
> http://www.winehq.org/download
>
> You will find documentation on http://www.winehq.org/documentation
>
> You can also get the current source directly from the git
> repository. Check http://www.winehq.org/git for details.
>
> Wine is available thanks to the work of many people. See the file
> AUTHORS in the distribution for the complete list.
> What's new in Wine 1.4
>
> *** Graphics
> - There is a new graphics engine for rendering into Device Independent
>
> Bitmaps (DIB). DIB rendering no longer requires access faults or
>  round-trips to the X server, which yields large performance gains in
>  DIB-intensive applications.
> - The DIB engine can also be used for fall-back implementations of
>
> some graphics primitives, like alpha blending, when the display
>  driver doesn't support them directly.
> - All possible color formats are supported by the DIB engine, so DIB
>
> operations are no longer limited by the color resolution of the
>  display. Rendering of the various palette formats is also improved.
> -
>
> Custom styles of dashed lines are supported.
> -
>
> Cosmetic pens using hashes or patterns are supported.
> -
>
> Gradients use dithering on low color resolution devices for a nicer
>
> appearance.
> -
>
> The XRender extension is used for gradients when supported.
> -
>
> PostScript output quality is improved, particularly for bitmaps and
>
> paths.
> -
>
> Rotated text works better for all output device types.
> -
>
> GdiPlus supports more image formats, including formats that are not
>
> supported through GDI.
> - More image codecs are implemented, including support for TGA and CMYK
>
> JPEG decoding, as well as BMP, TIFF, PNG, and ICNS encoding.
>
> *** Audio
> - The audio stack is completely redesigned, based on the Vista
>
> model. WinMM and DirectSound are implemented on top of the new
>  MMDevAPI library.
> - The Alsa, OSS, and CoreAudio drivers have been rewritten to use the
>
> new model. They now serve as back-ends to the MMDevAPI dll, which no
>  longer needs to rely on the OpenAL library.
> - The Jack, NAS, AudioIO, and ESD audio subsystems are no longer
>
> supported. Version 3 of the OSS subsystem is no longer supported
>  either, version 4 is required.
> - The Audio tab in the Wine Configuration tool has been redesigned for
>
> the new audio subsystem. The appropriate driver is automatically
>  selected and no longer needs to be configured manually.
>
> *** Input devices
> - The XInput 2 extension is used to provide better mouse control in
>
> games and other full-screen applications.
> - The mouse is automatically clipped to prevent it from leaving a
>
> full-screen window when running in desktop mode. Switching to a
>  different application with Alt-Tab releases the mouse. Clipping can
>  be disabled through the Wine Configuration tool.
> -
>
> Animated mouse cursors are fully supported.
> -
>
> Joystick action mapping is supported, including a configuration dialog.
>
> *** Internationalization
> -
>
> Bidirectional text rendering is fully supported.
> -
>
> Font shaping and reordering is supported for all the scripts
>
> specified in the Unicode standard.
> - Bidirectional text editing is supported in the standard edit
>
> control.
> -
>
> Vertical fonts (e.g. for Japanese) are supported.
> -
>
> Mirroring of windows, menus, and window controls for right-to-left
>
> languages is fully supported.
> - All resources (strings, menus, dialogs, accelerators) contained in
>
> Wine can be translated through standard gettext-style po files.
> - The Unicode character data tables have been updated to version 6.0
>
> of the Unicode standard.
> - Wine is translated to French, German, Spanish, Italian, Dutch,
>
> Swedish, Finnish, Portuguese, Catalan, Hungarian, Polish, Russian,
>  Slovenian, Lithuanian, Japanese, and Korean. It has partial
>  translations for another fifteen languages.
>
> *** User interface
> -
>
> The new Vista style of file dialogs is supported.
> -
>
> Common controls are improved, particularly the calendar, tree view,
>
> system link, and image list controls.
> -
>
> Parts of the Game Explorer API are implemented.
> -
>
> Wine can take advantage of the GStreamer framework for audio and
>
> video playback. This makes it possible to support all formats that
>  have a GStreamer codec. On Mac OS X, the QuickTime framework is used
>  for the same purpose.
>
> *** Desktop integration
> -
>
> System tray notification balloons are implemented.
> -
>
> The system tray is displayed as a task bar at the bottom of the
>
> screen in desktop mode.
> - The system tray is automatically registered again when the Unix tray
>
> manager is restarted.
> - The standard mouse cursors are remapped to the cursor theme of the
>
> Unix desktop.
> -
>
> Drag & drop of OLE objects across applications is supported.
> -
>
> Icons for menu entries are exported in multiple sizes and in PNG
>
> format.
> - Icons are displayed for the Unix desktop "Open with..." menu
>
> entries.
>
> *** Internet and networking
> - The built-in Internet Explorer has a user interface, including a
>
> menu, an address bar, a tool bar, and configuration dialogs.
> - There is an "Internet Settings" control panel that allows
>
> configuring various aspects of web browsing, as well as managing
>  security certificates.
> -
>
> The VBScript language is fully supported.
> -
>
> The built-in (Gecko-based) web browser engine supports ActiveX.
> -
>
> The Gecko engine has been updated to the version from Firefox 8.
> -
>
> The Gecko engine is packaged as an MSI file, and its installation
>
> can be managed from the "Add/Remove Programs" control panel.
> -
>
> The Gecko engine is available on 64-bit.
> -
>
> Persistent HTTP connections are supported.
> -
>
> HTTP proxies are better supported, including PAC scripts.
> -
>
> Changing network passwords is supported.
> -
>
> The HTML Help support is improved, including a nicer user interface
>
> and better navigation support.
> - Asynchronous I/O on network socket is improved, particularly
>
> asynchronous accepts. This helps with various networked games.
>
> *** Direct3D
> - Reloading sRGB textures uses either EXT_texture_sRGB_decode or FBO
>
> blits when available. This is much faster. This affects Source
>  Engine games and Unreal Engine 3 games in particular.
> -
>
> WineD3D supports multisample anti-aliasing.
> -
>
> D3D8 and D3D9 properly support v-sync / swap intervals.
> -
>
> The WineD3D blitter code is improved both for correctness and
>
> performance.
> - The WineD3D graphics card database has been updated to recognize new
>
> graphics cards and Mesa drivers.
> - WineD3D no longer uses COM for its implementation. This makes it
>
> much nicer to work with.
> - The context management code is improved. The window being destroyed
>
> while the WineD3D device is still active in particular is handled
>  much better.
> - There have been some performance improvements related to WineD3D
>
> state management and resource updates.
> - Focus and device window handling work better for D3D8 and D3D9. This
>
> mostly affects things like changing graphics settings, switching
>  from full-screen to windowed and back, etc.
> -
>
> NVDB is supported on cards that support GL_EXT_depth_bounds_test.
> -
>
> The INTZ and NULL formats are supported.
> -
>
> Depth surface blits are implemented in WineD3D.
> -
>
> Depth bias handling is improved. This fixes flickering shadows and
>
> decals in a couple of games, like Mass Effect 2 and Unreal
>  Tournament 2004.
> - GL_ARB_draw_elements_base_vertex is supported. This allows draws to
>
> be more efficient in some cases.
> - GL_ARB_map_buffer_alignment is supported. This allows for more
>
> efficient mapping of textures and buffers in some cases.
> - Handling projected textures works better in early shader model
>
> versions.
> - Shaders are strictly checked against the hardware capabilities. This
>
> means we won't try to create e.g. a shader model 3 shader on shader
>  model 2 hardware.
> - D3D9EX texture creation from system memory is supported. This
>
> affects some Source Engine games like Team Fortress 2.
> - The D3DX9 shader assembler is mostly finished. It is now part of the
>
> new d3dcompiler dll.
> - Various parts of D3DX9 are more complete, including:
> - The surface / texture loading functions.
> - The mesh creation and manipulation functions.
> - The vertex declaration handling functions.
> - The effects framework, binary effect parsing in particular.
>
> *** DirectDraw
> - OpenGL is used by default for DirectDraw as well, just like D3D8 and
>
> D3D9. For most applications this is an improvement, but nevertheless
>  the old GDI renderer may still work better for specific applications
>  or if the graphics driver's OpenGL implementation is inadequate.
> - Flips are properly supported. The back buffer now contains the front
>
> buffer contents after a flip instead of being undefined.
> - Improved support for viewports in early versions of DirectDraw that
>
> include an extra clipspace transformation. This affects the original
>  Half-Life.
> - Fixes for cooperative levels and associated window handling and mode
>
> changes.
> - DirectDraw clippers are supported.
>
> *** Kernel
> - DOSBox is used to run DOS applications on platforms that don't
>
> support vm86 mode.
> - The Windows console is emulated as best as possible on Unix
>
> terminals without requiring switching into curses mode.
> - Volume label and serial number can be retrieved from UDF filesystems
>
> (used on DVDs).
> - Side-by-side manifests are installed for a number of built-in
>
> libraries to make them more compatible with applications using
>  manifest resources.
> - The Wine preloader is also used on 64-bit for a more compatible
>
> address space layout.
>
> *** Installer support
> - Applying installer patches is supported. This is needed for various
>
> Service Pack installers, particularly for the .NET ones.
> -
>
> Installing side-by-side assemblies is supported.
> -
>
> Rollbacks of failed installs is supported.
> -
>
> Installing services is better supported.
> -
>
> MSI installers can be created entirely under Wine, using the
>
> 'cabarc' and 'winemsibuilder' tools.
>
> *** Build environment
> - The IDL compiler (widl) can generate format strings for both
>
> old-style and new-style COM interpreted stubs.
> - Registrations for dlls and typelibs are based on scripts generated
>
> at compile time, for faster Wine prefix creation and updates.
> - The Resource Compiler (wrc) and Message Compiler (wmc) can generate
>
> translated resources from po files, as well as create po files from
>  existing translated resources.
> - Fake PE dlls are generated and installed for all built-in dlls,
>
> since many applications expect to find the PE dlls on disk.
> -
>
> The ARM platform is supported by the Wine tool chain.
> -
>
> The windows.h header can now be used in Wine code, the compile time
>
> gains are no longer worth the header incompatibilities.
> - Some headers have been modified to make them easier to share with
>
> the Mingw-w64 project.
>
> *** Platform-specific changes
> -
>
> Wine compiles on ARM platforms.
> -
>
> On Mac OS X, the secure channel implementation uses the Security
>
> framework instead of the GnuTLS library.
> - On Linux, dynamic device management can use the new UDisks service
>
> in addition to HAL.
> - Stubless OLE proxies are supported also on 64-bit platforms.
>
> *** Built-in applications
> - The new 'cabarc' program allows manipulation of cabinet files,
>
> including creation of new cabinets.
> - The new 'wscript' program implements the Windows Script Host, to run
>
> VBScript and JavaScript scripts.
> - The new 'taskkill' program allows killing Windows processes by name
>
> or process id.
> - The new 'ipconfig' program displays the IP configuration seen by
>
> Windows programs.
> - The new 'hostname' program displays the hostname seen by Windows
>
> programs.
> - The 'explorer' program implements a shell namespace explorer instead
>
> of launching the file manager.
> -
>
> The 'view' program can display enhanced metafiles.
> -
>
> The 'dxdiag' tool outputs real information about the system.
> -
>
> The new 'winemsibuilder' tool allows creating MSI installers; it is
>
> used to build the Gecko add-on package.
> -
>
> Almost all built-in applications are fully Unicode.
> -
>
> All applications installed to /usr/bin have a manual page.
>
> *** Quality assurance & debugging
> - The test suite no longer attempts to support Win9x platforms, this
>
> was too much effort for little benefit.
> - The Wine debugger offers to save crash information to a file, to
>
> make it easier to provide good information in bug reports.
> - Parsing of debugging information from various object file formats is
>
> improved, which should yield better quality crash information,
>  particularly for 64-bit.
>
> *** Miscellaneous
> - XML support is improved, including support for schemas, namespaces,
>
> MSXML version 6, and an XML file writer. This is particularly useful
>  for the new Microsoft Office XML-based document formats.
> - The new "secure" versions of the C runtime functions are almost all
>
> implemented.
> - There is an initial implementation of the Microsoft C++ standard
>
> class libraries, including string, locale, and stream classes.
> -
>
> Creation of compressed cabinet files is supported.
> -
>
> There is an implementation of the OpenCL library, as a wrapper
>
> around the equivalent Unix library.
> - Print jobs are submitted to CUPS directly instead of requiring the
>
> 'lpr' command-line tool.
> - There is support for managing multiple .NET runtime versions and
>
> their corresponding Mono versions.
>
> *** New external dependencies
> -
>
> The XInput 2 library is used for mouse control in games.
> -
>
> The libopencl library is used by the OpenCL wrapper dll.
> -
>
> The libgettextpo library is optionally used at build time to update
>
> po files from the rc sources.
> - The msgfmt tool (from the gettext library) is used at build time to
>
> compile po files.
> -
>
> The zlib library is used to implement cabinet file compression.
> -
>
> The libfreetype library needs to be at least version 2.2, older
>
> versions are no longer supported.
> -
>
> The libdbus library is used for the UDisks device support on Linux.
> -
>
> The smbpasswd tool (part of Samba) is used for changing network
>
> passwords.
> - DOSBox is used to run DOS applications. It is recommended to use the
>
> latest SVN version of DOSBox since it contains some Wine-specific
>  improvements.
>
> *** Useful configuration options
>
> Note: More details abouts these and other configuration options can be
>      found at http://wiki.winehq.org/UsefulRegistryKeys
> - The correct audio driver is detected automatically, but can still be
>
> overridden through the HKCU\Software\Wine\Drivers\Audio key like in
>  previous versions. It is recommended to delete this key entirely to
>  enable the auto-detection.
> - Multisample anti-aliasing can be disabled by setting "Multisampling"
>
> to "disabled" under HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D.
> - Setting "AlwaysOffscreen" to "enabled" under
>
> HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D simplifies sharing depth / stencil
>  surfaces between on-screen and off-screen render targets in
>  WineD3D. This will likely become the default for the next release.
> - The DirectDraw renderer can be switched back to the old GDI mode by
>
> setting "DirectDrawRenderer" to "gdi" under HKCU\Software\Wine\Direct3D.
>
> *** Known issues
> - Support for PulseAudio is improved, but very recent versions of
>
> PulseAudio (>= 1.0) and alsa-plugins (>= 1.0.25) are required for
>  good results, since older versions contain various bugs.
>  See http://wiki.winehq.org/Sound for details.
>
> --
> Alexandre Julliard
> [e-mail]