[Digikam-users] Digikam and the KDE

[Paul Verizzo]

David Vincent-Jones wrote:

Message: 4
Date: Fri, 07 Oct 2011 10:32:39 -0700
From: David Vincent-Jones <davidvj at frontier.com>
To: digiKam <digikam-users at kde.org>
Subject: [Digikam-users] Digikam and the KDE
Message-ID: <1318008759.1767.131.camel at david-desktop>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"

Of course this is plain heresy but .... looking at digikam installation
problems I have had and that others share on the forum, many of the
difficulties appear to be rooted in the tight integration of the program
along with the requirements of its desktop environment.

As far as I can tell this is the only program running on my system that
requires a very large desktop emulator, and of a specific release build,
to operate correctly. To me, this is more than highly reminiscent of the
Microsoft bloatware from which I fled some years ago.

Are there graphic, or other, functions that can only be done under this
environment? I hardly think so. Is my desktop improved by the use of
this emulator? If so I do not see it.    ....... Are there any thoughts,
or moves towards, extracting Digikam into a more neutral environment?

David

David, I posed the same question when I started using digiKam via the Windows KDE project.  That was before Giles and Friends started compiling DK for Windows. It was a monster installation due to all the KDE support structure and mandatory inclusion of apps that I would never, ever use like a scientific calculator.  

On a scale of 1 to 100 what I know about programming is about a "2".  And I'm very much struggling with all this "desktop environment....but wait, it's really an OS or something, too." But I do know this: I see a lot of programs out there that furnish apps for all of the Big Three OS's. Off the top of my head, most browsers except IE, Picasa, and Xnview.  The latter is a nice graphics program, although not near the pro level of DK.  

A few weeks ago I pointed out here that DK consumes huge amounts of RAM, even just sitting without anything open.  It was several times that of my Adobe Elements 8, and I think of Adobe as being the true bloatware company, moreso than Microsoft. The culprit in Windows is repeated sessions of "kioslave.exe" running, which - I think - come and go with photos or processes.  

Charles Kettering, inventory of the electric starter and the diesel electric locomotive, is famously quoted today still as a reminder for engineers: "Parts that aren't there cost nothing and never go wrong."  Decades later and with computers I very much see how lots of code tends to lead to lots of things going wrong.  

I hope I don't sound unappreciative to the DK team, nothing is further from the truth. But like you, I look at the project with clean, emotionally unattached eyes and am compelled to ask, "Why?" And then, "Is to too late or too big of a project to divorce DK from KDE?"

Thanks for listening, Giles and Friends!

Paul Verizzo