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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    Re: Developing applications for KDE4
From:       "Aaron J. Seigo" <aseigo () kde ! org>
Date:       2007-02-02 13:33:44
Message-ID: 200702020633.45669.aseigo () kde ! org
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On February 1, 2007, Dirk Stoecker wrote:
> On Mon, 29 Jan 2007, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > On Monday 29 January 2007 23:23, Ian Wadham wrote:
> This is not an KDE only problem, but it seems a general problem of open
> source software. I took over development of of GTK application and have
> the same problems there. Changing interfaces, bad transition docs and lots
> of maintenance for already working code (I think at least docs for KDE
> are better).

how much work is there on a kde3 app for this? pretty much zero.

there is a lot of work going into high level documentation for kde4. we do 
need more effort there, but i'm happy with the pace of things at the moment. 
we'll easily eclipse what kde3 had in this regard.

we also have porting docs which i expect to get better as people start porting 
more apps and therefore using this documentation more.

> > i'm all ears for rational and constructive criticism, but the current fad
> > of negativity is more than i can bear, and i suspect i'm not the only
> > one. it's dragging me down.
>
> Well. I do not see anything of KDE4. I'm no full time KDE developer and I
> will never be. I will switch to KDE4 when it is released and ready to be
> used as is KDE3 now. I think there are many like me who want to develop
> for KDE3, but do not want to be a KDE devloper (much other things to do).
> You also can see that in the number of development effort going to KDE3
> still.

which is fine, afaic.

> But as Ian said I also fear the "2 system problem". I already stopped to
> report bugs for KDE3 as they have plainly been ignored.

it's true that minor bugs are more likely to be fixed in trunk/ thank in 3.5, 
but bugs are certainly being fixed.

> you should do is SETUP A TIMELINE. NOW.

a couple of people have said this in this thread already. it falls into 
the "captain obvious" category.

> KDE4 may be great. But it needs to be available to users. And I already
> see the problems of KDE4:
> - lots of quirks and problems which need to be fixed (it's a new system,
>   there will be many),

yep. this is a reality of software development, not a problem. a problem would 
be us not accepting this as reality and fixing these quirks.

> - but still the same problems with bug fixes and ignored bug reports,
> - and a probably better running KDE3.

i would hope so; kde3 is the result of some 6 years of development progression 
and hammering on it by millions of users and dozens of OSVs.

> - All this together with bugs that have been fixed in KDE3 and reappear
>   in KDE4.

which bugs are these? we have a forward porting policy so this should be kept 
to an absolute minimum. or is this just hand waving?

> I do not know what the reasons have been to have KDE4/KDE3 developments
> seperated, 

binary compatibility and new approaches to existing and approaching challenges 
drawing on the experience we've gathered.

the separation is largely symbolic, however, as its the same people working on 
both. branching is nothing new in the software development world.

> but from my point of view and compatibility layer and smooth 
> transition would have been better.

the math on the human resources and time required to do this then compare 
against reality and you'll find out why this doesn't happen.

-- 
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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