[kde-edu]: KTouch code port

[Andreas Nicolai]

Hi everybody!

I would like to contribute some code to KDE-EDU, basically its a code port of 
an existing application: KTouch. 

I'm writing to this newsgroup because I couldn't get an answer from the 
current maintainer Håvard (he's probably on holiday). Anyway, this is just 
ment as an information in case somebody else is working on KTouch in the 
moment...

So, while adding some new features to KTouch I cleaned the code and 
restructered the class hierarchy and basically rewrote most of the program. 
The intention was to add new features but also to bring the API up to date 
and have it consistent throughout, so that other developers may easily add 
new parts (it also helps a lot maintaining it). At this place a big 
compliment to Håvard who wrote the KTouch program initially - his 
implementation ideas have been an excellent guide to re-write this program. 
My code port is not yet complete (see end of this mail) but here is a list of 
things I've done with KTouch:

- rewrote most of the API and wrote a documentation for the new API.
  It can be found here: http://141.30.41.205/ktouch/api-doc/index.html
  (or you can regenerate it with doxygen)
- added a lecture editor
- created a current KDE-style preferences dialog (with some more features)
- rewrote the calculation algorithm for the sliding lines (so that the cursor 
placement is now correct, the sliding problems are fixed, the rescaling works 
... etc.)
- made the program aware of the global KDE colour settings (so you can now use 
whatever color style you like and the program will still look good - the 
keyboard has still to be improved, though).
- restructered the classes: centralised the training part in KTouchTrainer, 
all the settings in KTouchSettings etc.
- redesigned some widgets and removed unnecessary ones
- made the program more robust (more error checking and message boxes, better 
commit-or-roll-back behavior etc.)
- some other small stuff... (including speeding up compile times)

You can find a current development version (which is already working) under 
http://141.30.41.205/ktouch/ktouch.tar.gz
It is simply a tarball of my (gideon) development directory but works with the 
typical configure/make/make install commands....
(NOTE: the new KTouch uses a different ktouchui.rc, so make sure to replace 
the old one before running the program).

The following features are yet missing, but will be added this weekend:
- keyboard colour schemes, maybe a keyboard layout editor
- statistics (first a rather simple version, for the more complex I would like 
to get your opinion first)
- toolbar buttons for start/pause/stop training and statistics
- session management (partly working already)

So, because I'm quite new to KDE-Development stuff (after an unsuccessful 
attempt last summer I just started a month ago with KDE programming), I have 
a lot of questions about the actual system used in the KDE development team. 
Maybe you can help me answer these questions:

1. Can I just post my .pot file here and ask for translations?
2. Which requirements has a program to fulfill to be added to an official KDE 
release? Are these already fulfilled for a code-ported program like KTouch, 
which was included already?
3. How do I get an CVS account?

Well, apart from these questions I just wanted to give you an information 
about my current work. I'll try to contact Håvard in the meantime and maybe 
we can already have a "new" KTouch in the next KDE release.

Bye and thanks for reading all that stuff :-)
Andreas