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Frameworks 5: KDE Libraries Reworked Into Portable Qt Modules

Posted by Unknown on from the kde-for-the-masses dept.

jrepin writes "The KDE libraries are being methodically reworked into a set of cross platform modules that will be readily available to all Qt developers. The KDE Frameworks, designed as drop-in Qt Addons, will enrich Qt as a development environment with functions that simplify, accelerate and reduce the cost of Qt development. For example, KArchive (one of the first Frameworks available) offers support for many popular compression codecs in a self-contained and easy-to-use file archiving library. Just feed it files; there's no need to reinvent an archiving function." This is a pretty major thing: "The introduction of Qt's Open Governance model in late 2011 offered the opportunity for KDE developers to get more closely involved with Qt, KDE's most important upstream resource. ... These contributions to Qt form the basis for further modularization of the KDE libraries. The libraries are moving from being a singular 'platform' to a set of 'Frameworks'. ... Instead it is a comprehensive set of technologies that becomes available to the whole Qt ecosystem." The new KDE Frameworks will be layered as three tiers of components, with each tier consisting of three semi-independent groups of libraries (the article explains the category/tier dependencies; it's a bit hairy for a quick summary). A dashboard shows the status of each component.

13 of 68 comments (clear)

  1. Re:"available to all Qt developers" by NoNonAlphaCharsHere · · Score: 2

    I don't know about you, but I look BETTER with a cashew permanently affixed to my forehead.

  2. The enigma by MetalliQaZ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    KDE does so many interesting things. I love modular, general purpose, and cross-platform tools that combine into a greater whole. This news item and also their work on a common desktop framework for mobile and desktop fall into that category. QT also has so much going for it.

    But why then is the KDE user experience so awful?? I just can't use it. Coming from Windows for Office, web, and gaming, and GNOME2 on my servers and workstations, trying KDE is like a huge regression. It looks bad, it feels clunky, it is always broken somehow. I just don't understand why they can't get it together. Does anyone actually use it?

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    1. Re:The enigma by phantomfive · · Score: 2

      I would guess you are using KUbuntu, which in my experience has matched that description. Ubuntu traditionally has been a Gnome distro, and KDE is tacked on the side. When I've use KDE with Slackware, it's really nice.

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
    2. Re:The enigma by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 3, Insightful

      But why then is the KDE user experience so awful??

      Many of their defaults have very poor usability. The project has to be willing to listen to people who have HCI training who are not C++ developers for this to get fixed.

      Two small examples: 1) hiding the cursor when it's over a text field that's being typed in. 2) allowing for pure alphabetical sorting in file dialogs (not by-inode-type, then alphabetical). Both of these have long-standing bug reports in KDE and are the kind of "little things" that drive people crazy. ... Does anyone actually use it?

      Yeah, millions. They probably waste a huge amount of time switching defaults. I switched away from GNOME when they started to embrace mono - I felt my bug reporting efforts were better used on something not-GNOME that would eventually be the most popular desktop. It's still not here yet, but the direction is still good.

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    3. Re:The enigma by geek · · Score: 2

      KDE does so many interesting things. I love modular, general purpose, and cross-platform tools that combine into a greater whole. This news item and also their work on a common desktop framework for mobile and desktop fall into that category. QT also has so much going for it.

      Agreed. The technology behind KDE is fantastic

      But why then is the KDE user experience so awful?? I just can't use it. Coming from Windows for Office, web, and gaming, and GNOME2 on my servers and workstations, trying KDE is like a huge regression. It looks bad, it feels clunky, it is always broken somehow. I just don't understand why they can't get it together. Does anyone actually use it?

      You said it yourself, "it looks bad". The KDE team are aesthetically challenged, always have been. They need good designers to compliment their great work. KDE can look like anything but the default is so bad that every time I boot into it I want to log back off without configuring anything.

      You shouldn't have to spend a week tweaking the DE to make it look somewhat decent. GNOME for all its functional impairment at least gets the aesthetics right.

      I've been hoping KDE would get it together for years but they just dont seem to have a clue. If it's ugly, no one wants to touch it.

    4. Re:The enigma by Nerdfest · · Score: 2

      I find the built-in setting quite easy to use, although they're spread across about 3 different groups. In general, You end up tweaking your display configuration and preferences once, to exactly the way you want them, and never really need to do it again. It's worth the initial effort and you get get a very nice result.

    5. Re:The enigma by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Funny

      As a KDE user for the last 6 years I have never noticed either of those bugs.
      However now that you mention them they are annoying as hell. Thanks a lot for that.

    6. Re:The enigma by Tailhook · · Score: 4, Informative

      hiding the cursor when it's over a text field that's being typed in

      I just opened Dolphin, clicked on the location control to edit, leaving the mouse cursor over the control, and when I type the mouse cursor disappears. In Kate the mouse cursor vanishes when over the edit area while typing. Same behavior with the search control in the main menu.

      allowing for pure alphabetical sorting in file dialogs (not by-inode-type, then alphabetical)

      Open Kate, click File, Open; note that folders appear before non-folders. Click the wrench icon in the upper right, click "Sorting" and turn off the extremely useful "Folders First" feature; the file dialog will now sort "pure alphabetical."

      Both of these have long-standing bug reports in KDE and are the kind of "little things" that drive people crazy

      Someone should probably close those bug reports then; they're clearly both fixed.

      Does anyone actually use it?

      Yep. Also, some of us even update our systems to benefit from the ongoing and diligent work by KDE developers. That way we're not complaining about flaws from five years ago.

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    7. Re:The enigma by someSnarkyBastard · · Score: 2

      Or maybe somebody will create a new desktop based on the QT libraries?

      They did, it's called Razor-Qt. It's still in heavy development last I looked but they have packages available for several of the major distros out there.

    8. Re:The enigma by Draconix · · Score: 2

      I think the problem is, as stated before, the defaults. I thought KDE sucked at first with the default installation from the Ubuntu repositories, but I played around with it more and more and took a liking to it. I found more and more useful features, and I configured it to fit my ideal work flow. I don't really like using anything else any more (especially Windows) because everything else feels far too restrictive to me. I've got my KDE desktop configured such that the applications I use regularly start up exactly how I want them: dimensions, position, workspace... hell, I even have my IRC, email, and RSS clients set up to group together into a single window with tabs separating the applications! And I've got the menu-bars and widgets I need exactly where and how I want them.

      But that's the "trouble" with KDE. It doesn't give you something amazing right from the start, it gives you the ability to build something amazing for yourself.

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  3. Really big news for Qt by Dino · · Score: 4, Informative

    There are many things Qt does very well, some not so well and some pieces completely missing. Opening up KDE as plug-in frameworks will fill in the holes in Qt for bringing very strong applications to a whole new generation of embedded and X-platform tools. Also, C11 C++ extensions and more specifically closures have really helped me fall back in love with C++ primarily through Qt.

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  4. Re:Isn't Qt a GUI library? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Qt is practically a complete framework that makes C++ prettier. You can, in fact, make Qt Console applications (I have), and they'll depend on just QtCore and whatever else you use that's not QtGui. Look at the standard library; it tries to have functions for everything.

  5. Re:PySide? Javascript? Widgets? by Noughmad · · Score: 2

    Qt 5.1 comes with Qt Quick Controls. These are widgets. Why they didn't hold the 5.0 release to add QML widgets beats me, but it's true.

    See here: Qt Quick Controls

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