Qt 3.2 requirement

[Martin Konold]

Am Montag, 28. Juli 2003 11:46 schrieb Bernhard Reiter:

Hi Bernhard,

> It goes to the core of a something I criticise about the KDE development
> process. (As flames often ignite faster than I like, let me add that I mean
> friendly criticism. It is meant to help improving the already nicely
> working process not bashing it.)
>
> Naturally some people want to play with new stuff, that is perfectly fine.

This is not about playing with some unstable new stuff but about using the 
improved (read bug-fixes) and supported new _stable_ library.

> Others want to keep stuff stable, that's also a worthwhile  goal.

Which in now way contradicts with using the latest stable Qt. Currently the 
stability of KDE HEAD is determined much more by the stability of KDE code 
than by Qt.

> As KDE gets bigger and more successful or widespread with users
> the latter group is growing in size. If your force the latter group,
> you put a limit on the stability you can reach.

This is incorrect. Please be aware of the fact that we are refering to KDE CVS 
not a released stable version.

> One approach to help this, would be to increase to
> have each software layer "defend" its own goals against the other layers.
> This not yet a full worked out proposal, just an idea on how it might work.

No I think this is the totally wrong approach. Qt and KDE are living in a 
symbioses world where coordination and help is best for both projects. 
Fighting/defending about goals is wrong here!

Coordination here basically means that Qt implements the features we urgently 
need (e.g. support for many scripts/languages) and fixes bugs / design flaws 
in the evolution of Qt.

KDE as a whole very much benefits from the current development pace of Qt. In 
contrast to other GUI toolkits (which you might or might not prefer) Qt has a 
very good record in breaking either source or binary compatibility rather 
seldom and only for very good reason.

Basically it boils down to the fact that it is in ther very interest of KDE to 
test the stable Qt 3.2 as much as possible in order to get a very good and 
stable new KDE released later this year. 

Regards,
-- martin

Dipl.-Phys. Martin Konold
e r f r a k o n
Erlewein, Frank, Konold & Partner - Beratende Ingenieure und Physiker
Nobelstrasse 15, 70569 Stuttgart, Germany
fon: 0711 67400963, fax: 0711 67400959
email: martin.konold at erfrakon.de