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KDE Developers Discuss Merging Libraries With Qt

Posted by samzenpus on from the merge-ahead dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A proposal has been brought up with KDE developers by Cornelius Schumacher to merge the KDE libraries with the upstream Qt project. This could potentially lead to KDE5 coming about sooner than anticipated, but there's very mixed views on whether merging kdelibs with Qt would actually be beneficial to the KDE project, which has already led to two lengthy mailing list talks (the first and second threads). What do you think?"

6 of 196 comments (clear)

  1. Focus on the now. by Tamran · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Keep the specifications as they are. Fix all the current issues and make a SOLID product. It's good, but could be a LOT more stable and tight. When that's done, then go for the big merge and add new features.

    Tamran

  2. What about Qt? by bieber · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'm sure it would be convenient for the KDE folks, but wouldn't this be a little superfluous for everyone using Qt on non-KDE platforms? Qt is a pretty massive runtime as-is...piling in the KDE libraries seems to me like it would be adding a lot of weight for relatively little benefit to anyone other than KDE. I don't use KDE myself, but I have been developing for Qt for a while...anyone who knows more about the KDE libs feel free to correct me if there's actually some great benefit I'd yield from having the KDE libs included in Qt...

    1. Re:What about Qt? by KugelKurt · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I'm sure it would be convenient for the KDE folks

      If you read the mailing list threads, you'll see that many KDE people don't find that proposal convenient at all because it has the consequences of massive restructuring, different release cycles that don't match SC's, Nokia's currently lacking code submission process, etc.

      Maybe and just maybe some select KDE components may end up in Qt but that can legally only happen if Nokia moves away from the currently mandatory "right to relicense" (not the same as copyright assignment but similar in practical terms).

    2. Re:What about Qt? by Carewolf · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The idea was to merge the parts that would be usefull in Qt, so that answers the questions: Yes, for the parts that makes sense it would be a benefit: Better datetime classes, better config system, asynchronous IO, MIME parsing etc.

      It is also obvious that some parts of kdelibs (especially runtime parts, such as ), really wouldn't make sense in Qt anyway.

  3. Oh, hey, look -- by aussersterne · · Score: 4, Insightful

    KDE considers yet another massive reorganization and new version! Certainly this won't affect usability or the long term future of the project at all, just like the transition from KDE3 to KDE4 didn't!

    --
    STOP . AMERICA . NOW
  4. Not yet... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How about they fix the steaming bloat-fest that is KDE4 before thinking about KDE5?

    LK

    --
    "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano