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Ars Technica: Deep Inside KDE 3.2
binner writes "Ars Technica features an article 'Deep inside the K Desktop Environment 3.2' written by Datschge and Henrique Pinto. After introducing KDE and the project's structure the authors present some new applications of KDE 3.2. After that they explain the key KDE technologies KParts, DCOP, KIO, Kiosk and KXMLGUI and give examples for code reusage and an overview of efforts to integrate non-KDE applications. For developers Umbrello, Cervisia and Valgrind with KCachegrind are introduced and of course KDevelop 3.0. An examination of licenses precedes the positive conclusion."
This series of articles I wrote with a friend might also be of interest.
:-)
It outlines some practical nicities that are a result of the technologies like KIO slaves mentioned in the Ars Technica piece, including:
Managing web sites (handling content without an FTP application, web gallery creation)
Extending Konqueror with view profiles (replace FTP/Samba applications with Konq, and browse Google easily)
Using KPrinter in any app
Enjoy
fan of gnome who always stayed away from kde and then evanutally dropped gnome in favor of fluxbox. I have to admit, that I tried the 3.2 release an I'm hooked. I will still run flux on machines that just can't hand;e KDE's needs but KDE has come a *very* long way. My suggestion to others now is to run kde if their machines are fast and flux if it is slow (like my old p3 500).
"and as someone who will go on record as disliking Trolltech and their business model,"
But why did you dislike their business model in the first place? I mean they've bent over backwards for the OSS community and they've also produced some dam fine software. Want to write free software? QT is Free. Want to write closed source software? Pay for QT just like you do with your software tools in the win-32 world. Should Trolltech have busted their ass for the last 7 years for for Free just out of the goodness of their hearts? Why do you begrudge someone who wants to support OSS but also wants to be able to make a living? Do you just dislike any company who wants to market a product and make money? Geez.
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
...I've found that most of the smaller tools, that are typically shareware in Windows, is GPL'd in Linux anyway.
At least when it comes to hobby projects that grew into a "shareware" size project, it's very convienient to grab some GPL code here and there - and then you don't have much choice but to GPL it all, if you want others to use and enjoy it.
Shareware makes Windows what it is today? Huh? If I look at my programs they're usually either a) Free (as in beer, not speech) or b) Full-blown commercial. What's shareware? Mirc and a few other, not much.
Unless you count those that are "trial" or "evaluation" versions, but they are typically what I'd consider full-blown commercial, stuff like e.g. Paint Shop Pro doesn't strike me as standard "shareware". That'd be more like Mastersplitter or some such tool someone whipped up on a slow day.
If anything, it is the lack of shareware that makes Linux what it is. Somewhere around there's this tool that'll do what you want, or reasonably close, and it's free. And you can tinker with it until it *does* what you want.
What I really miss on Linux is the juggernaughts... when you *know* GIMP etc. just won't cut it, but there is no real powertool available, no matter what you're willing to pay.
In addition, you can take the "the market knows best" position. Trolltech is a business, trying to maximize profits. Issuing shareware licences would cost them basicly nothing. Since any company would want free profit, why aren't they offering one? Either Trolltech is irrational, or there simply is no interest, no volume.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
Personally, I find apps that have options not available in the GUI to be personally offensive. Text files are not intuitive, they are generally poorly documented, and are a poor way to configure a program.
If a feature is only available through modifying configuration files, I consider it incomplete.
The problem is this: lets say I want to change a setting. I can
a) search through the menus - hopefully I will find it before my third attempt or
b) use a programmer style configuration. This involves
- determining if it is in a text file or is a command line option
- determining which text file it is in
- determining what the name of the command/flag/whatever is
- determining the form of its parameters
- determining what its operational limits are
where in a GUI system, that is all handled out front. The worst part is one of getting help. Where do I look for help on a config parameter? I can't just point and wait for the tooltip, or pop-open a context sensitive help system. I have to find where the developer has hidden the documentation.
If its not available in some intuitive, context-documented options screen, then its not finished. I do not work for my applications - they work for me.
IMHO, more focus on framework is needed. Make a configuration file system where for each option you simply describe a simple widget and its tooltip. Keep it super simple so developers would be encouraged to use it as it would be quick to describe a new variable. Then, just make all the little widgets appear in an "advanced options" menu. No layout, no struggling, just a giant scrollable list of widgets with pop-up documentation. That's what a modern config file should be. And make it work on a text file in the back-end so that power-users can do their thing.
About installation ease of use, I guess.
I've read a lot about KDE and KOffice, enough to try and get it to work on my little Cube (mac). For a couple of weeks I've tried a number of approaches.
- First, install Yellowdog on my main machine. No Go, unless they'll get the Boot from Firewire Disk problem resolved. I'm not convinced I have the skills to install this on my main computer on the main hard-drive.
- Next: installing the OS X "native" alpha, which indeed installed nicely but managed to do exactly nothing.
- Finally I've tried the X11/fink route which was very entertaining (if you're into that kind of mind-numbing fun) but in the end - despite following lots of advice I didn't really get from faq/help/manuals/fora, it managed to do just the same: nothing.
Now why would I share this with a bunch of geeks who can do this with their eyes closed?
Not to be humiliated by you, I'm already quite used to "you're stoopid, zat's ze problem" comments.
But to make you aware that a no-nonsense/no command line/no "first install this, then that, then go through the manuals, then ask help" installer should be highest priority in every project that tries to bridge the gap between superhuman users and regular users.
Of course I'm stupid. But I'm also quite adept on my own platform, I've been using it for the last 20 years (god, I'm old).
Let's wrap this up and tell you what I'm now considering, and please remember that I'm not a regular patient. I'm one of those people who still wants to use something even after being told he's actually too stupid to even install it. The normal reaction - I think - would be to feel better about ones own OS and think less of the one that doesn't want to be friends with you.
My next options are:
- waiting a couple of months until I can safely install Yellowdog on a Tangerine iBook I still have here, but which is still needed as backup machine for me and my wife in case our computers blow up.
- waiting a couple of months until the "native" darwin version of KOffice is out. I think they take installation ease of use very seriously. Although ultimately useless, the installation process was painless. That at least is pleasantly reassuring.
What I'm not going to do: tinker and tinker until I get KOffice to work under the X11/Fink setup. It's just too much of a hassle. There's no joy, and in the end I already have everything I really *need* to enjoy my computer. Curiosity can kill some other cat.
Rant over, have a nice day!
I think, therefore I am...I think.
i've been using kde3.2 for a while...
..
Today this rather wonderful dialog popped up just after I clicked to send an email in Kmail...
Attachments?
Often its the little things that really make the difference.
nick
Electronic Music Made Using Linux http://soundcloud.com/polyp
I run it on my 300Mhz P2-laptop and it's fast enough. I also tried it on my 1GHz P3 laptop, and it ran REALLY fast.
On my laptop, full-blown KDE-desktop with Kopete and Konsole uses about 50 megs of RAM (well, that's an estimate. Running CLI-only showed about 5 megs of RAM being used, adding Xfree, KDE and Konsole in to the mix, bumbed that figure to about 58megs. So I would say that KDE might be using under 50 megs of RAM, rest being used by Xfree Konsole and Kopete. I don't consider that to be that much)
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Then you'll love what is, for me, one of the killer features of KDE 3.2: prevention of focus stealing.
Go to "Desktop", "Window Behaviour", "Advanced" and at the bottom there's an option "Focus stealing prevention level". I've set mine to 'high' and I love it. Never again will a popup in another application, window, or desktop mess with what I'm typing. This is especially important for me because I have to deal with a flaky mail server all the time, and at least once while I was typing this short message, it popped up a window saying "... the server may have gone down or there may be a network problem".
Now I have a beef with the Mozilla/Thunderbird developers for such a stupid UI and way of dealing with transient network issues, but that's another topic.