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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Move KSirc to extragear
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2007-01-24 22:36:22
Message-ID: 200701241536.34102.aseigo () kde ! org
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On Wednesday 24 January 2007 13:44, Bill Sanders wrote:
> > > KStars falls into EXACTLY this category and I don't see anyone
> > > bickering for its removal, despite the fact that it is an ungodly huge
> > > chunk of code.
> >
> > it's not about size. it's about the educational software collection:
> > astronomy is, in that scope, a huge area of endeavor and interest.
>
> So is marine biology....?  Hence an edu program about such...?

i could fathom (har, har!) a biology app in KDE/kdeedu, just as we have apps 
for chemistry, astronomy and geography. an app that explores marine 
crustaceans (the example i used earlier) only would be more of a stretch 
imho.

> > > What happens to kcharselect and khexedit?
> >
> > a character picker is a critical utility for what should be obvious
> > reasons. in the scope of a developer's toolkit, a hex editor is similarly
> > critical.
>
> I thought the point about not including an IRC client was because its a
> niche app?  Isn't a hex editor - which will only be used by developers, and
> only *some* developers at that - also a niche app?

that's why it is in kdesdk versus kdebase. the modules are addons for specific 
genres of interest, no?

so viewed within their respective context, a hex editor is probably more 
generally relevant to the topic of software development* than a stand-alone 
irc client is to the average computer network usage.

* (or at least used to be? seems fewer programmers have need for hex editors 
these days ... )

> Anecdotally, I know way more people who use IRC (who aren't necessarily
> geeks, fwiw) than would even begin to understand what a hex editor does,
> let alone have used one

would these people probably install a software developer's kit (kdesdk) at 
all? 

> > > How come an IRC client doesn't
> > > make the cut but a DICT client and an LIRC program does?
> >
> > dict client: because looking up the meaning of a word is common and DICT
> > is designed to do just that.
> > lirc program: because without that you can't (easily) use IR hardware.
> >
> > irc program: exhibits none of the above attributes.
>
> FACK on the dictionary client, but LIRC?  I've never even met anyone who
> owned IR hardware for their computer,

many laptops (used to?) come with irDA ports.

> and that's certainly a case where the 
> idea of "if you know what it is, you know where to find the software for
> it" would come into play, I'd think.

when it comes to hardware i want it to just work. i like that i don't need to 
install extra software to get the volume keys on my keyboard to work and put 
up a cute little volume meter or to assign functions to the other extra keys. 
even if not everyone has keyboards with funky extra keys, it's still worth 
providing support for that kind of stuff out of the box. is this a common 
expectation for users to have?

if irDA is a dead or dieing technology which has become rare "in the wild", 
then you're probably right that it should be moved out of the main module.
i don't keep up enough with hardware trends of that sort to know, hopefully 
someone else does =)

> I suppose its all moot, as it doesn't appear that anyone wants to take over
> ksirc and the konversation folks are content where they are, but I have to
> agree with Jason that this isn't a win for KDE.

... and that sentiment is something i'm still trying to understand. so far 
i've got:

 - the added work for developers who have to release their own apps is onerous
 - it will make it harder to find the application
 - people should have every application possible installed so they can explore 
them

am i missing any bullet items there?

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)

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