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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: [PATCH] XMLGUIfy kiconedit
From:       tech () bishop ! dhs ! org
Date:       2002-10-07 5:07:56
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On Mon, Oct 07, 2002 at 12:45:45AM -0400, ben@meyerhome.net wrote:
> Yah! Glad to see more applications getting converted over that havn't been.
> 8 months ago or so I converted a dozen or so apps, but know that there are
> more.  Maybe we should start up a KDE-Janitors group to go around and fix
> up old/abandoned kde apps to the new kde technology. Such things as
> 
> -Making sure all app use XMLUI/KAction stuff
> -Making sure GCC3.2 compiles and fixing any errors
> -Making sure they don't have icons that kde already has
> -Converting all of the current kde games to use the KGamesLib (Or those
> that are left)
> -Making sure they all use the KDEAboutBox
> -Making sure they all use KWidget vs QWidget (KApplication vs QApplication
> for example)
> -Removing any calls and or classes that are outdated with the new ones.
> -Remove any custom QInputDialog etc classes that were made by developers
> who didn't know enough of Qt
> -Removing all C calls for replacemnt Qt calls that exists (use QDateTime!!!)
> -Making sure they all use the args class and not their own string parsing
> -Using the built in icon loader, kconfig, library loading etc (i.e. dump
> the custom duplicate code!)
> -Removing X11 calls when not really needed or putting them in ifdefs for a
> possible fb version of kde
> etc, etc
> 
> I am sure that there are many more things that people can list off the top
> of their heads.  These types of tasks are not the most fun and in many
> cases getting close to grep will make it easier, but it _is_ needed in
> helping to make all of kde more consistant.
> 
> On the plus side this would be an excellent way for many developers to get
> into helping on the kde project.  They wouldn't have to join one project
> and get to see alot of kde/qt while working on small simple things. And it
> would require not much more then a file in CVS containing the listing of
> current projects and a one or two page website.
> 
> Feedback?  Good bad idea?
> 
> -Benjamin Meyer

It's a great idea, and one that I've been doing in my spare time for the
last few months.  I fit your mold almost perfectly, that is, a fairly
newbie developer that wants to learn QT and KDE, but doesn't want to
have to join a specific project and "commit".  So far I've ported KMamerun, 
kfocus, almost all of KDEStudio, and have started work on Lyx (going 
from QT->KDE).  I find the part that has been holding me back the most 
is outdated or incomplete documentation.  Specifically, the one tutorial 
(Rik's) on converting to an XMLgui is fairly useless, if you have 
anything but StdActions (i.e., almost every app).  I've been personally 
contacting people to ask them to update it, to include adding icons to 
non-StdActions, dealing with menubars, selectable items in menus (i.e., 
a "checkbox" in a menu), and much more.  So far, no luck :-(  Consider 
this your personalized invitation, Ben ;-)

For all of you lurkers, who're sitting around wishing you had as much
time, energy, and programming chops as Faure, well, tough luck. He's 
not really human. *grin* But if you want to embark on the road to
someday being there, I would highly suggest starting out here, in the
trenches, looking over how other people do things, why the KDE-way
changed, what advantages it has, and so on.  I've easily become three
times as knowledgable and "street smart" (vs. book smart) since doing 
this.  Two thumbs up to this idea.

D.A.Bishop


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