From kde-core-devel Thu Dec 12 18:16:41 2002 From: Vadim Plessky Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 18:16:41 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: Re: Looking for feedback on Gnome/KDE article X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=103972021918839 Matthias: Thanks a lot for the link. Hopefully, KDE developers & users would be able to post thier comemnts, as previous artiucle looks like too much GNOME/RedHat-specific. Frankly, there is a difference between what subject says (Looking for feedback on Gnome/KDE article) and article itself ( "Hooray for Bluecurve", http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6476) Since what time BlueCurve became synonym for GNOME? BlueCurve is Window Decoration/Widget Theme (Engine), and installing it (instead of default) one is just one part of Desktop Customization process. [I posted this as a comment to the article few minutes ago] Supposing that Marco Fioretti is indeed interested in "what could be improved in the current efforts for a Free U*nix Desktop", I'd like to note that there are on-going standartization efforts, check mailing list for details. Those efforts are not limited to GNOME/KDE, but other interested parts of Linux community are participating, too (ROX project). I also believe that a lot of work which would help Linux (UNIX) Desktop to succeed has to be done at XFree86 (not KDE or GNOME, not GTK or QT) level. There are new & important technologies which are now in XFree86 CVS (XF-4.3.0 branch), like RandR extension, updated/enhanced RENDER ext., there is an on-going work on Xr/Xc extensions (which would provide SVG-like, PostScript-like drawing API, in kind of higher-level library than Xrender itself). Besides, there are new Xcursors, and those new mouse curosrs/pointers look like very cool (I am on XFree86 CVS now so can test those) I'd like also to comment on those parts of your artcile: * Making the cut-and-paste option always work between windows. VP: it works, and it works very nice, since a long time It's know that Mozilal was broken for some time with its cut'n'paste support, but AFAIK it works even with Mozilla now, no?.. * System-wide Unicode, instead of n different solutions for the Euro symbol. VP: Unicoide is supported in KDE already for sometime. You can print fro, say, KWord or Konqueror in quite exotic languages, and text in thos elanguages can be easily mixed. Are you concerned with missing Unicode support in some othe rprojects? Well, you can't demand from authors of Open-Source projects *what* they should implement and *how*. Obviously, there are several reasons why those people use/selected some solutions. I'd like to hear, though, why there is no keyboard switcher in GNOME. In its current state, GNOME2 is useless for Cyrillic-based language (like my native, Russian) * One standard, centralized, font management system, for both display and printing. VP: it's called FontConfig. KDE 3.1/Qt-3.1 use FontConfig. * A method for easy definition of the same hot keys across different applications. --> what application do you speak about? * Documentation written for end users, not people debugging a program. VP: this is very valid point, but it's more concern for *distributors*, not for developers or advanced users. It's fine with me to write detailed documentation for, say, Konqueror. But: how you can explain to user, say, instalation procedures for Flash plugin, if user doesn't know what Flash is? :-) (do you see my point?) KDE developers do not know, from the beginning, *what* experience each KDE user has. There are, obviously, more serious problems out there (like: missing binary KDE packages for RedHat; open bugs at bugs.kde.org; making KDE/KOffice usefull for penetration to Corporate Desktop) which should be fixed *before* thinking about documentation for novice users. Don't get me wrong: documentation *is* important. But it's not priority for majority of current users. KDE is very user-friendly, and many people who have very little computer expereince feel theirself quite comfortable in KDE. I know this, as they use my KDE Desktop from time to time, and I haven't heard from them any complaigns. :-) Best Regards, Vadim Plessky On Thursday 12 December 2002 5:51 pm, Matthias Kalle Dalheimer wrote: | ---------- Forwarded Message ---------- | | Subject: Looking for feedback on Gnome/KDE article | Date: Thu, 12 Dec 2002 15:42:12 +0100 | From: "Marco Fioretti" | To: "kalle" | Cc: "m.fioretti" | | Hello, | | I am putting together a followup to this article: | | http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=6476 | | The follow up should take all the replies posted on the | website into account, and start from there to look more | in depth to what could be improved in the current efforts | for a Free U*nix Desktop. | | For obvious reason, I would really appreciate any feedback | from both KDE and GNOME: comments on the article, on the | replies sent to LJ, errors, missing issues, whatever. Of | course, you are welcome to pass this request to any developer | or forum you think appropriate. If you do so, please let me | know, however, so I can get involved in the discussion. | | I look forward to hear from you. | | Best Regards, | Marco Fioretti | | ------------------------------------------------------- -- Vadim Plessky SVG Icons * BlueSphere Icons 0.3.0 released http://svgicons.sourceforge.net My KDE page http://kde2.newmail.ru (English) KDE mini-Themes http://kde2.newmail.ru/themes/