From kde-freeqt Wed Dec 02 17:53:02 1998 From: Avus Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 17:53:02 +0000 To: kde-freeqt Subject: [freeqt] Open KDE Initiative Proposal X-MARC-Message: https://marc.info/?l=kde-freeqt&m=91299741401313 Open KDE Initiative Proposal One of the die-hard prejudices concerning KDE is that it isn't 'flexible' enough, with respect to other programming languages, window manager, toolkits etc. In the current discussion of the main arguments against Qt is that when KDE becomes very widespread (some would say de-facto standard), so does Qt. And as Qt costs money for proprietary programmes, this may be bad for the adoption of Linux in the commercial world. Harmony should therefor play the role of a "charity" for shareware authors, to promote the market for (cheap) shareware. This idea is based on the wrong assumption that KDE application == Qt application. It's true that KDE itself (libraries, basic applications) makes use of Qt, but this will never be a problem as all of this is free software. KDE compliant applications, however, can of course use other toolkits, they only have to follow the KDE standards. Prominent examples are StarOffice 5 and the upcoming Wordperfect 8. The Open KDE Initiative would try to promote those aspects of KDE that are not part of the 'standard' distribution, like o other KDE compliant window manager than KWM (currently Blackbox) o - " - file manager o support libs for other toolkits, following the example of K/Tk (for TCL/Tk). Especially gtk and V. o gtk KDE theme, KDE Pluggable Look&Feel for Java ("Java Swing theme") o Corba interaction based on the KOM/OpenParts object model, to be used with other toolkits o More language bindings for the KDE libs The Initiantive could present the already available alternatives on a web site for end users, while the developer information would be available at developer.kde.org. Especially in the case of Corba objects examples and documentation for the usage from other toolkits would be very important. In addition to that, OpenKDE could define a set of KDE features that a programme has to implement to be called KDE compliant. Please let me know if this sounds like a sensible suggestion to you. Regards Avus