Kolf: Rumours of its death have been much exaggerated

[Ian Wadham]

On Mon, 6 Jul 2009 8:29:00 am Stefan Majewsky wrote:
> Am Sonntag 05 Juli 2009 21:24:30 schrieb Michael Pyne:
> > I'm assuming the API docs didn't mention that the list would be sorted?
> > Unless that was the case it's definitely an application bug, no one
> > should ever expect a list to be sorted in any fashion unless the API
> > documentation states so.
> > 
True, the API docs do not mention that and true, the application writer
should not expect such a thing.  The problem, from an application
writer's point of view, is that some KDE doco is so brief that you have
to guess what the library does or conduct an experiment in your code.

The trap you fall into then is that you cannot distinguish easily between
a feature and a side-effect.  Worse still, if the doco is not good, you may
completely miss finding and using a valuable feature.

KConfig doco and all KDE doco has improved tremendously since the
time Kolf was written, several years ago.  I would like to help make it
even better, but there is a Catch 22 ... how can I write about something
I do not fully understand?  I would need some expert help to review
anything I wrote.

> From what I have heard, Kolf's usage of KConfig::groupList() is fixed now.
>
Yep.  I fixed it with a QStringList::sort() and will backport soon to KDE 4.3.

Not an ideal solution, but Kolf 1 is nearing the end of its life and will soon
be replaced by Kolf 2, thanks to you, Stefan.  Meanwhile, continuity of
KDE Games releases will be preserved.

All the best, Ian Wadham.
Melbourne, Australia.

P.S. To introduce myself a little to this list: I started in computers in
1964 and have performed almost every kind of job in the industry,
except salesman and computer operator.  For a time I was even
manager of an academic Computer Centre and Technical Director
of a 50-man software company.

My programming and design work have been in device drivers, O/S
kernel (not LInux), real-time systems and on-line database applications.
I am now retired and claim to be KDE's oldest developer, at age 71 ... :-)
I was the white-haired guy you may have seen at Akademy 2008.