[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread] 

List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Unified document viewer, lack of communication
From:       Piotr Szymanski <djurban () pld-dc ! org>
Date:       2005-06-04 16:12:38
Message-ID: 200506041812.38229.djurban () pld-dc ! org
[Download RAW message or body]

Hi,
Stefan Kebekus (Saturday 04 of June 2005 17:14):
> I, as the maintainer of KDVI was not informed about this, in particular,
> since Wilfried Huss and me have been working on a unified viewer for quite
> a while now, and have already produced a good viewer, with a
> well-documented API that already supports 3 file types.
I wanted to take that bounty and extended kpdf, is the viewer you wrote 
capable of everything that kpdf does? The idea is to merge those apps 
(kghostview, kdvi and kpdf), kpdf was chosen because of it being clearly 
superior to the others. 

> I am naturally worried about duplicating functionality in KDE. My motivation
> to work for the KDE project would be near zero if I need to fear that one
> morning I will have to learn that a student with more time than me re-did
> all the programming I did the last months in his summer vacation, and that
> all my efforts were worthless, just because someone didn't care enough to
> write an e-mail to me explaining their intentions.
Ive been contributing to kde for over 3 years now and really i have no 
intention neither as a student nor as a developer to take away your 
motivation for working on KDE. 

> Assuming that you are no persons who like to frustrate others, or who
> simply don't care, I suggest that we keep in touch, so that duplicated
> programming efforts can be avoided. Do you agree to that? Do you believe
> that we can find a modus vivendi where everyone can contribute, or do you
> believe that people like me who have only limited time should better not
> work for the KDE project?
I am pretty sure one of the projects kpdf or kdvi will have to die. They just 
duplicate functionality. My proposition would be to merge as much of your 
ideas as possible into the new viewer. 

> Can we agree on a transition process that will preserve the work that I
> plan to do in the next few monthes (good printing support for DJVU,
> bookmark support for KDVI (mostly done), some more) will not be lost? Do
> you already have a well-documented API that one could use? How much of the
> API that I have documented recently do you plan to use?
I dont have an API documented yet as I am just starting to work on it. I will 
have a fully designed api by the end of june if that is satisfying you. 
Another option would be to take your plugin api and integrate it in kpdf, i 
dont have anything against it and i can do it too. 

The problem is will google allow it or should i search for a new bounty 
(forwarding to bounties/kde\org) ? 

> Do you plan to keep that DCOP-interface of KDVI that is used, e.g. by KILE?
> How do you plan to integrate forward/inverse search?
Havent looked into kdvi yet.
-- 
Piotr Szymanski
djurban@pld-linux.org
 
>> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
[prev in list] [next in list] [prev in thread] [next in thread]