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List:       kde-devel
Subject:    A Massive Undertaking
From:       James Bryant <jbryant () muranowak ! com>
Date:       2001-08-08 17:31:59
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Hey there all, James Bryant here.

I'm currently working on a rather challenging application for KDE that will 
allow users to install programs in an InstallShield or Windows Installer type 
fashion. I'm hoping to integrate this into KDE 3.0 to increase the user 
interoperabililty between the user interface and the compilation process. 
There are several goals I have for this system.

* Uses existing GNU configure and make tools for compilation
* Allow user feedback to see how far along the installation/compilation 
process is, i.e. a QProgressBar
* Allow the user to select options that will alter the ./configure process, 
such as having checkboxes or something to append --with-* to the end of the 
configure command
* Require minimal effort on the developer end to port existing GNU make based 
packages to the new Install Manager
* Let the program be flexible enough to allow developers to alter graphical 
components of the Install Manager with some sort of scripting engine

As you can see, these goals are extremely complex in nature. Being a native 
Perl programmer as I am, I was hoping that I could use KDE bindings to write 
the program, which would obviously make implementing the scripting engine 
much easier. However, as you know, the are little to no KDE bindings for 
Perl. Given the lack of C++ knowledge that I have, I know that I will be 
unable to implement many of these goals in that language.

Usability studies that I have one within my family and friends always seem to 
bring up the fact that compiling programs is such a hassle and gives novice 
users no usable feedback whatsoever as to what is taking place. Therefore, I 
know this is desperately needed in KDE 3.

If there is anyone out there that would be willing to join my devel team and 
help me out with the coding details, I would be very, very thankful. I have a 
feeling that this will probably not occur, due to the fact that the porting 
to Qt 3 will be consuming most developer's time soon. But if you could lend a 
hand, please do.

 
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