[dot] The Road to KDE 4: SVG Rendering in Applications

[Dot Stories]

URL: http://dot.kde.org/1167723426/

From: Troy Unrau <troy.unrau at gmail.com>
Dept: KDE4-buzz-complete-with-svg-bling
Date: Monday 01/Jan/2007, @23:37

The Road to KDE 4: SVG Rendering in Applications
================================================

   Since KDE 4 development is in full swing with plans for a KDE 4.0 
release sometime later this year, I thought I'd put together a  weekly
piece entitled The Road to KDE 4. The idea is to  have a short overview
of one or two of the features that show  progress in KDE 4. For my
inaugural issue, the goal is to show off some of the great SVG work that
has taken place so far. Read on for the details...

     Since many features are covered in personal blogs via the KDE
Planet [http://planetkde.org/], I'll try to cover those that receive
less public coverage, or need more public coverage.

     The first thing I'd like to point out is that KDE 4 builds,
installs, and runs well enough that I can test many of the ported KDE
3.x applications, and most of them are pretty stable. The real joys come
when you look more closely at those improvements that are afforded by
the changes in the base technologies. Today, I'll talk about one of the
eyecandy features provided by QT 4: SVG rendering in applications.

     There are many other KDE applications reaping the benefits of SVG
drawing to make them more pleasing, and more scalable. Check out some of
these posts:
Albert Astals Cid renovates blinKenKDE 4 games SVG status wiki

     Today I'm going to focus on a handful of apps, providing before and
after screenshots to compare the KDE 4 development version (pre-alpha
stuff) to the existing KDE 3.5.5 equivalents.


     To begin, I'll look at the KDE System Guard, a useful utility
packed into KDE that you can pull up as 'ksysguard'. It does all sorts
of neat things like display charts of memory and CPU usage, and a
process table (also accessible via the Ctrl-Esc keyboard shortcut).

     Here's how it looked in KDE 3.5.5:



     And now, in the KDE 4 development series (the lines are
antialiased, the graphs are translucent and the backgrounds are SVG):



     As you can see, it is visually much improved from its current and
very functional form.


     Next we'll look at some of the diversions shipped in the kdegames
package. KAtomic is a puzzle game. It's fun, semi-educational, and could
definitely have used an image overhaul. Here it is in it's spartan KDE
3.5.5 glory:



     And now, with much improved oxygen-style [http://oxygen-icons.org/]
graphics in the development series:




     KMahjongg ships in the kdegames package, and is a staple of puzzle
gaming. Here it is from KDE 3.5.5 looking like a game that escaped from
the   Best of Windows Entertainment Pack
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Best_of_Windows_Entertainment_Pack]:



     And now, with a much-improved SVG-powered tileset in the 
development series:




     And last but not least, is one of the more frequently used parts of
KDE: the "Run Command" dialog (Alt-F2). Previously this:



     Now, thanks to desktop interface guru Aaron Seigo, it's a SVG
themable, really slick element of the Plasma [http://plasma.kde.org/]
desktop. Still a work in progress, but you'll get the idea from this
screenshot (It does run apps already though! :)).



     Until next time folks, when I reveal yet another KDE 4 feature
under development. Cheers.