[Kde-bindings] KjsEmbed - what is now and what will be?

[Ian Monroe]

On Sat, Feb 27, 2010 at 4:34 PM, Andreas Marschke
<xxtjaxx at googlemail.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone!
>
> I had been trying to work with kross in the last few weeks to get kross
> working with an  application I'm working on (Bangarang) and in that context
> worked and tested it with Javascript(aka. KjsEmbed / Kjs).
> The problem was that it mostly crashed even though I tried to implement it as
> lean as possible.
> I asked before why Kjs/KjsEmbed/Kross was so crashy and not as accepted
> between other big projects in the KDE landscape as implementing pure
> QtScript(Amarok) and ignore most of the greatness and variety that bindings to
> Python and Ruby allow us to use.

We (=Amarok) wanted to limit the dependency creep that sets in when
you depend on Ruby or Python (since they will inevitably depend on
other ruby and python libraries). Amarok 1.4 allowed scripts to be
written in any language and they became really difficult for users to
install.

Also we weren't sure about embedding python and ruby, though in
retrospect probably going that route would've been better since their
Qt bindings were better developed (this issue will be fixed soon with
JSmoke though).

> As I had been told most of Kjs and KjsEmbed, where I dont even see where  the
> difference between the two is, seem to be completely or halfway unmaintained
> since the people who wrote it have other more important things to do which is
> absolutely legitimit and not intended to offend them.
> I would rather like to help.
>
> So can you guys give me pointers to where I should go and help out codewise to
> start fixing these issues?
>
> I would also appreciate a small walk through on where the ruogh edges are and
> where one can wave his hand to help.

Isn't there a QtScript backend for Kross? I remember a talk at Akademy
07 where a KJS dev compared KJS with QtScript and more or less said
that QtScript was a great looking technology. And now QtScript uses
JavascriptCore from Webkit, so its future seems well established
(though honestly a bit buggy at the moment due to the change).

Kross of course allows Ruby and Python so the success of QtScript
isn't to the determinant of Kross. Especially because I'm pretty sure
it has a QtScript backend. :)

Ian