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On Thursday 10 February 2005 22.17, Lokheed wrote:

>  From what I have read and the replies, it appears KDE does not have
> really any official stance but my main concern is the stability. I have
> yet to read about stability issues in splitting up kde like this. I was
> under the assumption that some components (kcontrol for example) where
> critical for kde to function, but I have not read anything to disprove
> or prove this.

It's less about stability, than about expected behaviour of applications. =
=20

=46or instance: If someone asks how to configure flash, we can tell them wh=
ere=20
it is in kcontrol.  It's needlessly confusing to the user if it's not there=
=20
where we tell them, and means that well meaning users who read the=20
documentation or google for the answer first, will by the time they get to =
us=20
be doubly confused.  So they have to first go install a separate package to=
=20
add the capability to use plugins to konqueror first.  And we have to=20
remember to nag users to tell us what distribution of what os they're using=
,=20
before answering their question, since the answer will vary widely dependin=
g=20
on what that is.=20

One that used to come up on debian a lot (not in a long time, it was fixed)=
:=20
The laptop monitoring daemon and the GUI to configure it, were quite=20
separate.  Many users would install the daemon, and have no way to configur=
e=20
it.  A couple managed to install the gui, without the daemon, and wonder wh=
y=20
changing the settings had no effect. =20

Dependency chains on this granular a level are just a nightmare to manage=20
without getting into a loop somewhere, and people manage to circumvent even=
=20
fairly careful checking, if they're determined enough.

I should note, breaking things up above the kdebase level is much more=20
successful  - the boundaries between applications becomes so much clearer. =
=20
I tend to describe kdelibs the build-time dependencies for KDE-the-desktop =
and=20
kdebase the runtime dependencies for KDE-the-desktop, and indeed most of us=
=20
when offering help tend to assume that *at least* all of kdelibs and kdebas=
e=20
are present, even if the rest is only piecemeal.    Sure, most apps will ru=
n=20
fine without kdebase, but you'll have a hard time configure a lot of=20
behaviour, application internal commands may not work as expected, resource=
s=20
may not be available to you, and there may be no easy way to change things.=
 =20

=46or instance, it's short sighted to avoid installing konsole because you =
don't=20
want to use, without also installing the parts of kcontrol that allow you t=
o=20
tell all KDE apps what you *do* prefer.  Or to not install arts, but then n=
ot=20
install the knotify tools that would let you use an external player for aud=
io=20
notifications, and so on.  KDE as a desktop is actually quite accomodating =
to=20
people who don't want to use the default applications.  KDE as a pile of=20
semi-randomly selected bits and pieces, not so much. =20

or my favourite: Konqueror, with no kioslaves installed.  That one actually=
=20
*was* asked on IRC a couple of times in the last week.

Regards,
=2D-=20
Lauri Watts
KDE Documentation: http://docs.kde.org
KDE on FreeBSD: http://freebsd.kde.org

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