From kde-core-devel  Sat Mar 25 15:54:39 2000
From: Geert Jansen <g.t.jansen () stud ! tue ! nl>
Date: Sat, 25 Mar 2000 15:54:39 +0000
To: kde-core-devel
Subject: New KIconLoader
X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-core-devel&m=95400814328277

Hi!

As you might have guessed, I just committed the new iconloader. I'll try to
give you guys some updates:

Notes for porting to the new iconloader.
 
1. The key difference is that icons are loaded by group, not by size. Groups
   are locations on the screen where icons are used, for example: Kicker,
   Desktop and Toolbar. Per group configuration will be central.
 
2. The new iconloader has functionality for loading icons with a specific
   size. However, you should try to avoid this, as this will not honour the
   user's global preferences. Code currently using iconsizes are the XML-GUI
   framework and konqueror.
 
3. The new iconloader is mostly source compatible with the old one. It will
   spit out debug messages when old size-based code is used so you can see
   which apps need to be ported. In time, this compatibility code will be
   removed. I'd like to kindly ask the authors to port their applications.
 
4. Icon names need to be more unique now. It's not allowed to have an icon
   with the same name, only differing in context anymore. I.e. if the "unknown"
   icon for the context "MimeTypes" is different from the "unknown" icon of
   "Applications", they need a different name. Related to this, you can
   only load  an icon by its name. It's never allowed to prepend it with a
   subdirectory, i.e. loadIcon("mimetypes/unknown") .

Things that are next on my todo list are:

1. Rename a lot of icons in the modules other than kdelibs and kdecore and
   check their compilation.
2. Check for uniqueness of the icon names
3. Write the control module.
4. Help porting some applications.

If you have any questions, please ask them. I'll also put the specs on the
KDE2 architecture site (and Torsten can put them on his artist site, too)

PS: Thanks to everybody who offered to help the porting effort. I
decided to make the iconloader (mostly) source compatible, so this isn't
necessary anymore (although you're more than welcome to port the apps, but
at least they _will_ compile unmodified now)

Greetings,
 -- 
    Geert Jansen                       email: <g.t.jansen at stud.tue.nl>
    Phylosopher, Physicist,                    email: <jansen at kde.org>           
    KDE enthusiast                                 PGP key ID: 0xD2B5E7CE