FW: [REMINDER] Upcoming KDE 4.0 Milestones + Nepomuk

[Aaron J. Seigo]

On Wednesday 11 April 2007, Dirk Mueller wrote:
> On Tuesday, 10. April 2007, Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
> > > I'll take a look on this in the next two weeks but it would be nice to
> > > make it optional until 4.1.
> >
> > this would realistically mean application integration in 4.2 or later.
>
> No. There can be applications making use of nepomuk by 4.1, and then we can
> include a polished and tested version of it in kdelibs for 4.1.

you really think that will happen if nepomuk isn't commonly available? one of 
two things will happen:

- apps will use nepomuk in meaningful ways (e.g. perhaps amarok would use it 
for its metadata db) and everyone will install it -anyways- meaning that we 
haven't actually gained anything for the user base at all, except to require 
one extra piece of software to be installed

- apps won't use nepomuk and nobody will actually install it.

looking at how the realistic adoption of features in kdelibs tends to happen, 
applications tend to lag 1-2 versions behind what is both available and well 
known in kdelibs. many application developers, including those who write apps 
we ship with kde releases, do not develop against libs from trunk/. which 
means they first get access to features when a stable libs release happens.

and then usually we have to do some awareness work to get people actually 
using it.

> if we put nepomuik into kdelibs for KDE 4.0, then we have to stay
> compatible with it (also binary compatibility).

there is no reason we have to guarantee binary compat of new frameworks in 
4.0. in fact, it may actually make sense -not- to do so for 4.0 so that we 
have the opportunity to get them right in 4.1 should we need to. kdecore, ui, 
kio, etc.. should remain BC, but the new stuff? i don't see a hard and fast 
reason why it must.

> Just because its not in kdelibs doesn't mean applications can't make use of
> it.

my concern is not that they can't, but that they won't.

> It just means its not part of 4.0. And thats great.

great? no, it would suck. we can live with it, sure, but let's not pretend it 
would be some sort of success on our part.

> Remember, there is  
> life after KDE 4.0 (at least if we ever manage to release 4.0 instead of
> cramming every possible new feature in it (2nd version syndrome).

erm ... i don't think that's what this is at all. this isn't asking for any 
extension of the release schedule. this is a library that has been a long 
time in the coming and expected for some time, not something brand new out of 
nowhere.

heck, we already have apps using it now in svn so i can't see how it's 2nd 
version syndrome at all.

i think there is lots of good prioritization happening with things being moved 
off to 4.1 on several fronts. that is indeed good. however, none of the 
points i raised as to why it would be a good idea to put nepomuk in kdelibs 
have been addressed.

-- 
Aaron J. Seigo
humru othro a kohnu se
GPG Fingerprint: 8B8B 2209 0C6F 7C47 B1EA  EE75 D6B7 2EB1 A7F1 DB43

Full time KDE developer sponsored by Trolltech (http://www.trolltech.com)
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