[Digikam-devel] Talking about the future task (later 0.9.0-final)

[Marcel Wiesweg]

> Hi all,
>
> i have started my first investiguations about the 2 next major jobs to do
> later 0.9.0 final release :
>
> - Qt4.0/KDE 4.0 port
> - CMake port.

I think the CMake port will be done at the same time as the KDE4 port, because 
KDE4 uses CMake and for KDE3 CMake is not well supported.
I would see the three, Qt4, KDE4, CMake, as parts of one task.

>
> The first one is not very complicated. We just need to use the new API. To
> have a look into Qt 4.0 and digikam source code, i think it's a long but
> trivial task.

I have been playing with Qt4 a bit and I like the new API and I am happily 
looking forward to throw away some code in digikam ;-) (flicker 
optimizations, inter-thread communication with custom events, QDeepCopies of 
QStrings)

Of course I have no experience how much the automated tools will help.

>
> The question in suspend is : when we will port digikam to Qt 4.0,
> DigikamImagePlugins, kipi-plugins, and libkipi need to be port at the same
> time ?
>
> The second task is more complicated, because this require than all
> extragear applications migrate at the same time. Right? If yes, a solution
> is to use a branch instead trunk. What do you think about ?

Main KDE uses a branch for KDE3 and trunk for KDE4.
What needs to be changed is the "How to compile from svn" for all kipi-based 
apps, and packagers need to pack from the right place, and developers need to 
switch their svn copy if they continue to use KDE3.


>
> Others question is : both jobs must be done at the same time or can be
> separate ?
>
> Note : I think that Qt 4.0 port must be done before to add new features in
> digiKam (new DB interface for example).

Agreed.
Though I am already imagining how to make use of new Qt features ;-)

>
> Comments are welcome.

Time frame needs to be considered.
We plan 0.9 as "Edition Noel" on December 24 ;-)

Colin quoted Martin Aumueller. According to Linux.com, Aaron Seigo:
"The goal right now, says Seigo, is to have KDE 4 done "in the first half 
of '07." Some distributions, like Kubuntu and openSUSE, will put out KDE 4 
packages right away when KDE 4 is released. ... However, Seigo says 
that "mainline" distros will probably be slower to incorporate the new 
release and their users won't start seeing KDE 4 until the second half of 
2007."

I would assume we need a KDE4 digikam in a year, a beta in 10 months.

We can start thinking now, and coding after 0.9 release.

Marcel