From kde-core-devel Tue Sep 04 21:14:57 2007 From: John Layt Date: Tue, 04 Sep 2007 21:14:57 +0000 To: kde-core-devel Subject: Status of KDEprint in 4.0, and offer of help Message-Id: <200709042214.57954.johnlayt () yahoo ! com ! au> X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=118894054414468 Copy to k-c-d, seeing as original cc: bounced... ----- Hi Cristian and the KDEprint team, There has been some recent discussion on the core-devel list expressing concern about the state of KDEprint in KDE4.0, you can read the threads at http://lists.kde.org/?t=118859658700001&r=1&w=2 and http://lists.kde.org/?t=118873017700002&r=1&w=2.  A couple of people, myself included, have stuck up our hands as willing to help out on the boring bits if needed to get things cleaned up in time for 4.0. Before we step on any toes, however, I thought it best to check with you on the status of things: how you see the state of KDEprint in 4.0, what you think needs to happen between now and 4.0, and if our help would be useful. The problems identified in the threads seem to fall into 3 categories: 1) General fit and polish of the KDE4 port 2) UNIX domain socket support 3) Incomplete CUPS support The last two probably require a level of expertise in KDEprint we can't offer (and are of debatable necessity for 4.0), but the first one is something we can help with, and is needed to be working. Primarily, we need to be sure that people can perform their basic printing requirements in 4.0, i.e. print a document using CUPS. Getting more advanced features to 100% while desirable for 4.0 could be deferred to 4.1 if needed. The first step though is to work out exactly where we are and what really needs doing. Aaron has suggested we set up a page in the TechBase wiki to help co-ordinate efforts (probably under http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/KDEPrint).  The sorts of things we could do there are: 1) Matrix of KDEprint features to be tested under 4.0 2) Special hardware/software scenarios to be tested for 4.0 3) Links to bugs that must be fixed for 4.0 4) List of tasks to defer to 4.1 5) Migrate the developer documentation from printing.kde.org 6) Matrix of distro's, their cup's version, sockets usage, etc 7) etc... Do you see this as being useful? Do you have any existing resources or documentation for this that we can leverage off? Cheers! John. P.S. One thing I have noticed in the Public API in KPrinter are methods marked as KDE_DEPRICATED or “For internal use only”. Are these still needed in KDE4, or are they artifacts left over from KDE3 to be deleted or moved to private? These are the sorts of issues that must be sorted in time for 4.0, after that we’re stuck with them due to the kdelibs BC and API policies. I’d be happy to do a review of the public API for such issues to see if there is anything that can be done there (and compare to to the latest QPrinter as well). I'm probably exposing my ignorance here, but how much of the API is supposed to be external public, there seems a lot of classes that are exported that perhaps really are internal use only? -- -- Send instant messages to your online friends http://au.messenger.yahoo.com