[Ktechlab-devel] Kde4

[Richard Rondu]

On Sun, Oct 25, 2009 at 6:32 AM, Alan Grimes <agrimes at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> I took a look at porting to kde4 today and pretty much gave up in
> frustration.
>
> You see, there are certain parts of ktechlab that I've been studying
> carefully for many years and can explain in pretty good detail including
> problems that it solves and fails to solve.
>
> However, there are other parts of the program that I've never even used,
> code I've never looked at, and things that I just don't understand. =\
>
> Software development these days really must be a team effort because the
>  sheer volume of knowledge required to put together an application on
> the scale, and scope of ktechlab is far beyond what any one programmer
> has time for. What am I good for? thermionic valves, and little else. =P
>
> A major issue is that there is a vast chasm between kde3 and kde4. They
> are almost completely different systems. You can't just load ktechlab
> into the new kdevelop because the build systems are completely different
> and kdevelop 3 doesn't support the new one, and kdevelop 4 doesn't
> support the old one!!! The howto said I needed am2cmake but I don't have
> it. (maybe someone can patch svn and unilaterally upgrade it to cmake
> for us).
>
> Then we have two major chunks of code that we've stolen from other
> projects:
>
> canvas (stolen from some old version of qcanvas for the sake of having
> custom geometry calculations that allow for negative coordinants.
>
> Then we have stolen the MDI framework from some ancient version of kate
> (see katemdi.h/cpp). I would imagine the state of the art in MDI's has
> advanced considerably and that we should move to one of the newer
> external frameworks, thereby improving our features and lightening our
> codebase.
>
> These are very sophisticated issues that would require the mastery of a
> whole bookcase worth of material. =( I'm just not the man to do this. My
> main programming interest is in AI, I am seriously not in the mood to
> become a desktop applications expert just to get a vacuum tube
> simulator. =(
>
> I beg anyone who has done some kde4 work for ktechlab to spill it, mail
> it to Zoltan or lainwir3d who is in the IRC channel in the afternoons
> France time.

I am also in the ML ;-) It might be easier to contact me this way.
I found this guide to help porting to kde4:
http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Tutorials/KDE4_Porting_Guide
I'll read it to see if it can be of any help.

>
> #### project of the day:
> When saving icn documents (circuits and flowparts), normalize the
> coordinants of the circuit by taking the average of the positions of all
> parts and then subtracting it from all parts.
> ###
>
> --
> New president: Here we go again...
> Chemistry.com: A total rip-off.
> Powers are not rights.
>
>
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-- 
Richard Rondu
Recherche et Developpement
IUT de Cachan - Génie Électrique et Informatique Industrielle 2