RFC: KSplash in KDE4

[Lubos Lunak]

On Wednesday 28 of February 2007, Gary L. Greene, Jr. wrote:
> While I understand that you are looking to speed things up with the initial
> startup of KDE, I've a few comments on your post...
>
> There are a number of folks that would be mighty upset if we limit the
> splash screen implementation like this.... The folks that developed Moodin
> are a good example, as they require a fair amount of extra eyecandy in the
> splash system to pull off some of their effects in the splashes.
> Additionally, having images containing i18n strings makes the task of 
> translation that much harder.

 I've already said what I think about the usefulness of i18n strings in 
splash, but if people disagree, I don't think it'd be that difficult to 
create such images automatically using e.g. ImageMagick at build time.

> If we go to this I will guarantee that there 
> will pop up a replacement on kde-view to bring back many of the features of
> KSplashML.

 Fine with me, just like I'm fine with all other replacements there are for 
people who have higher demands in some area than the majority. Does that mean 
it'd be ok if I removed KSplashML from kdebase, possibly just leaving a hook?

> Now that I've said that, here are a few constructive things to say on
> another approach. Lubas, you said that much of the slow down is caused by
> KSplashML pulling in kio, et el. Is there maybe a way to refactor this so
> it doesn't, while retaining the abilities it has now?

 No, not if you insist on the splash being the first thing launched. Loading 
KDE libraries from the disk takes time and there's nothing KDE can do 
directly about it, besides not loading them.

> If so, then the speed 
> issues are dealt with, and the feature-set remains high.

 The feature set is high, high enough IMHO. It's just that the limit is lower 
than the sky.

-- 
Lubos Lunak
KDE developer
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