Here is a list of the new and usual packages for Minbar 0.2. New packages in this post are for Fedora and PCLinuxOS.

Ubuntu

A ubuntu package is available:

minbar_0.2.1-1_i386.deb

Debian

Minbar 0.2 is in Debian thanks to Adnène,
Minbar Debian packages.

(Scroll to the bottom and choose your architecture. Unless you know what you’re doing, yours is likely i386)

Fedora

Fedora packages have been built by Mohd Izhar Firdaus Ismail:

Fedora Minbar and ITL packages.

PCLinuxOS 2007

PCLinuxOS packages have been built by Suleman Khalid:

PCLinuxOS Minbar and ITL packages

ArchLinux AUR

ArchLinux packages have been built by linuxSEAT:

• libitl
• itools
• Minbar

(You need libitl for Minbar. itools is an optional package for command line prayer utilities).
Source

The source tarballs for 0.2.1 can be downloaded via these links (the same in different formats):

minbar-0.2.1.zip

minbar-0.2.1.tar.gz

minbar-0.2.1.tar.bz2

Other distributions

Packages for other distributions will be posted here as they become available. If you know how to build a package, please send it to djihed at gmail dot com.

I have received many emails about Minbar’s prayer calculation method. First, one thing I would like to make sure everyone understands is that Minbar is not supposed to replace a real human Athan call. It is software, and it may have errors and bugs, so make really sure that you check your times with your local mosque and see if Minbar conforms with them. If they don’t, let me know.

Don’t forget to try to change the calculation method and see if the software produces correct times: you can change the calculation method in the second tab of the preferences dialog:

So far, the countries with the most problems are the far east countries: Indonesia and Malaysia. I have received many emails from these two countries. I would like to let you know that I acknowledge this problem and I will work on solving it. I take correct prayer times very seriously and will do my utmost to resolve it.

Minbar uses libitl for its prayer calculation. I have not written libitl, so I am planning to do a code overhaul and look at the correctness and authenticity of the implementation. This may take time, so I apologise for this in advance. In the mean time, feel free to always send me an email when you notice a calculation error; include in your report:

• Your city details: Altitude, Longitude, Latitude, name, country.
• Your country’s time zone.
• The times that Minbar gives you for your city.
• The date.
• Your country’s calculation method: if you know it.
• Your country’s Madhab.

Minbar 0.2 packages have been produced for ubuntu and debian. Please follow this link to my minbar 0.2 post to get them. They are linked at the end.

http://djihed.com/minbar/minbar-02-released

I am pleased to announce the release of Minbar 0.2. The last version is now Minbar 0.2.1 after a small update to fix a bug.
Minbar is the GNOME prayer times application.

Screenshot:

More at: http://files.djihed.com/minbarss/0.2

Amongst the bug fixes and new features are:

• Prayer Timetable (Calendar).
• Ability to start minimised to tray.
• Fix for .desktop installation.
• Store Athan path.
• City names database.
• Qibla Direction.
• Multiple Athan files, Subh Athan file as well.
• Appropriate plurals support.
• Add CLI option to start minimised.
• Better artwork.
• Accept non integer values for time zone for countries like India.
• Close now hides to tray.

Artwork by:

• Yulian Ardiansyah.

Updated and new translations:

• English.
• Arabic: Abderrahim Kitouni, Khaled Hosny.
• Bosnian: Nedim, Alma.
• Farsi: Mohammad Derakhshani
• French: Abdelmonam Kouka, Mohammed Adnène Trojette.
• Indonesian: Andika Triwidada.
• Pashto: Zabeeh Khan
• Spanish: Guillermo Garcia Rojas Covarrubias.
• Turkish: Mustafa Doğan.
• Urdu: Suleman Khalid.
• Urdu PK: Muhammad Ali Makki.

Special thanks to:

• Abderrahim Kitouni: for helping with integrating the city database and many other things.
• Mohammed Adnène Trojette: build files, testing.
• Ahmad Farghal: Testing.

Author:

• Djihed Afifi.

I would also like to thank all those who sent me comments and emails about Minbar, as well as the guys at the ubuntume and zekr projects.

Errors and bugs in Minbar are, of course, solely my responsibility.
Contact:

• For any issues, please comment here or contact djihed at gmail dot com.

Download

Ubuntu

A ubuntu package is available:

minbar_0.2.1-1_i386.deb

Debian

Minbar 0.2 is in Debian thanks to Adnène,
Minbar Debian packages.

(Scroll to the bottom and choose your architecture. Unless you know what you’re doing, yours is likely i386)

Fedora

Fedora packages have been built by Mohd Izhar Firdaus Ismail:

Fedora Minbar and ITL packages.

PCLinuxOS
PCLinuxOS packages have been built by Suleman Khalid:

PCLinuxOS Minbar and ITL packages

Source

The source tarballs for 0.2.1 can be downloaded via these links (the same in different formats):

minbar-0.2.1.zip

minbar-0.2.1.tar.gz

minbar-0.2.1.tar.bz2

Other distributions

Packages for other distributions will be posted here as they become available. If you know how to build a package, please send it to djihed at gmail dot com.

Finally, minbar 0.2 is nearing release. What is left is just a bit of testing and translations.

First, if you would like to translate Minbar then now is the right time. Get this file and start translating, then send it back to djihed at gmail dot com.
Minbar.pot

For detailed instructions on translating, please see end of post.
Also, if you have the ability to package software for any distro (.rpm, .deb etc) than I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks to Yulian Ardiansyah, we now have a new shiny icon and logo:

And this is a screenshot of the new version, emphasis has been placed on elegance.

Amongst the features and the fixes of the new version are:

• A new Qibla direction feature.
• City selection using a database of cities.
• Ability to specify different Athan files for Subh and other times
• Ability to specify half hour GMT correction for countries like India
• Ability to start minimised.

As always, the code resides in Arabeyes CVS.

If you have never translated a .po for .pot file before, here is what you need to do:

• Download the file: Minbar.pot, right click and choose save.
• Install poedit: a software that helps you translate these files. You can either install it using your distribution’s repository (Linux) or you can download it: Download poedit.
• Open the file minbar.pot with poedit. Make sure to fill up both “settings” and “preferences”. For encoding, choose “UTF-8″.
• Translate the file. When you are done, save it and send it to my address: djihed at gmail dot com.

NOTE1: Minbar 0.2 has already been translated to Arabic, Indonesian, Spanish, French, Urdu (Pakistan), Turkish, Bosnian and Pashto.
NOTE2: Those wishing to translate it to Norweigian or Farsi can update the preexisting 0.1 translations: Norweigian: no.po , Farsi: fa.po

The first release of Minbar was somewhat hurried, and was more intended for personal use, and as a test of whether Muslim Gnome users really want something like this.

It turns out a lot of people are happy about the idea, and there is an acceptable level of adoption amongst Gnome users. Thanks everyone! This encouraged me to work together a better Minbar for next release, and may be, just may be, build it and distribute for Windows.
So this is meant to get some ideas from people on what they want. Currently I am thinking of:

• City names list, choosing a city instead of entering its details.
• Hide window on start-up (Already in CVS).
• Windows port.
• Fix the menu icon.
• Package it for deb and rpm distributions.
• …? (Your idea here)

Any more?

Thanks to Adnene Minbar is in debian experimental. It is not yet in testing because of dependancy issues which should be solved when the debian guys update some packages.

Get the .deb for debian based distributions. I would also very much appreciate it if someone could package it for Fedora, Suse and other rpm based distros.

Minbar, the Gnome Prayer Application is finally done. This first release does the Athan call (prayer call) and notifies before the time of the prayer. It uses ITL for prayer calculation, which has a high level of accuracy. It is initially available in Arabic, English and French.

Download the source tarball from here. You need a few libraries to build it, the enclosed README lists them. If you have any problems, I will be happy to know about them. There is a debian .deb to be released soon for debian derived distributions. If you can package this for your own distribution that would be great!

This screenshot shows it with its tray icon (the Kaaba shaped icon). Click for a larger version.

Many thanks to Abderrahim Kitouni and Mohammed Adnène Trojette for the great help!

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NOTE: It has come to my attention that many people are being redirect here from Google for Minbar. The latest about Minbar is available in this entry: Minbar.

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Gnome is sorely missing Islamic/Arabic applications. There has been some attempts in the distant past, like a gnome applet called “akemsalatak” (cool name). Unfortunaly it won’t build, and I have not been able to establish contact with its maintainer.So here is a new Gnome Prayer Application. It is still very much a work in progress, I welcome any suggestions or contributions. The code resides in Arabeyes CVS here.

One of the cool libraries it uses it libglade. Libglade makes GUI’s so easy to make it’s almost a sin. The application uses gstreamer for Athan playback, and libitl (the Arabeyes islamic tools) to calculate the times.

Pre-Beta screenshot:

UPDATE: Minbar 0.1 has been released, please bookmark this link for the latest details: Minbar