[kde-edu]: Step without kdelibs? Conclusion

[Anne-Marie Mahfouf]

Hi,

Just a remainder: the KDE-Edu project is for KDE based programs i.e. ones that 
use kdelibs.
You can do a Qt-only based Step but it won't get included in KDE-Edu. 
Marble was an exception and there's no way this exception will be extended 
(last I heard, I was told the Qt part would be moved if I remember well). I 
don't see any use cases for a Qt Step when there's a KDE one. 

All your theory about kdelibs being too big a dependency is non valid. Proof 
is that Edubuntu, probably the best known LiveCD Educational GNU/Linux 
distribution, had all KDE-Edu programs on a GNOME desktop.
Users do not care about dependencies, they don't even know this word. You 
won't find a GNOME user using only GTK based software (and when I say user, I 
mean Joe user, not some weird geek). Especially for Free Educational Programs 
as they are few of them and they all have different dependencies.

Nowadays they even run on Windows and MacOS.

If you need help in porting Step to Qt, just ask your questions on the kde-
devel mailing list. 

Best regards,

Anne-Marie

On Friday 12 February 2010 02:08:37 v_2e at ukr.net wrote:
>   Hello!
> 
> On Thu, 11 Feb 2010 22:14:53 -0200
>  
> Tomaz Canabrava <tumaix at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It uses CMake for building
> > 
> > lt uses KDE dinamic library system for easily building a dll on
> > windows, or a .so on unix.
> > 
> > it uses KHTML, the kde html rendering library
> > 
> > it uses KXMLGuiWindow for building the menus and toolbars dinamically
> > from a xml file.
> > 
> > KDE's configuration mechanism  ( KConfigXT )
> > 
> > the core is Qt only. but the ui is heavly based on KDE stuff.
> > 
> > take my word for it, if you think that's too much trouble to program
> > because of the kdelibs dependency, I can take a few days to guide you
> > througth the code till you feel confident to try.
> > 
> > don't discard anything without trying.
> > _______________________________________________
> > kde-edu mailing list
> > kde-edu at mail.kde.org
> > https://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-edu
> 
>   Hello!
>   Thank you for your explanation! :)
>   Now I can see there really is a strong kdelibs dependency, but
> writing a Qt GUI for Qt-based application seems just a question of time
> to me.
>   You may think I have nothing to do and that is why I have decided to
> "invent another bicycle". But this is not true. At least, this is not
> completely true. I do have my regular work to do and I don't have much
> time to spend for my hobby-programming, but I do like the idea of "the
> only dependency". Besides, like I have already mentioned, I have a
> number of friends who uses GNU/Linux operating system. Not everyone of
> them uses KDE. And the problem is not only that those who don't use
> KDE as their everyday desktop environment do not want to install "any
> part of KDE", but the fact is that not everyone who does use KDE every
> day knows about KDE-Edu project. I'm serious. I had been using KDE for
> a couple of years and I have learnt about KDE-Edu project existence
> only after stopping using KDE on my PC (that is about few months ago)!
>   Now I can see a lot of very nice and very useful (!) programs inside
> of KDE-Edu project and I would like to help developing them and
> presenting them to people who doesn't know about it yet.
>   Still, there is a strong belief among many people I know that "if I
> use Gnome - I need only Gnome's libraries and I do not want any other
> libraries; if I use KDE - I want to see only KDE libraries on my system
> and do not want to see any other and so on". At the same time I know
> that every one of my friends has both Qt and GTK libraries
> installed on his/her machine. That is why they won't even hesitate
> installing such great programs on their machines knowing that those
> programs has only one dependency (it would be ideal) and that that only
> dependency has been satisfied "a priori" on their PC.
>   I believe it would be great and it will help spreading an information
> about KDE-Edu project and will surely attract some new users and
> developers to it. I cannot see anything bad in it.
> 
>   Now, talking about a technical side of a question, as now I know
> there is no possibility to use Step without kdelibs so far, I think I
> should do the following:
> 1. install Step and get into its source code;
> 2. find "KDE-dependent" pieces of source code there;
> 3. think about the possible ways to implement the same (or very similar)
> functionality without using kdelibs;
> 4. in case of successful finding such ways, try to reimplement all the
> necessary pieces one by one - step by step.
> 
>   I will definitely need some help from the people familiar with Step's
> source code at least during stages 2 and 3.
> 
>   But I will be grateful for any help, useful information and advices
> at any time!
> 
>   By the way, I know about a possibility to make a "fork" of the
> project and do whatever I want there, but to be honest, I do not like
> such behaviour and I do not want to do that. But even if I did, my
> "programming power" is definitely not enough to maintain such a
> project. That is why, most of all, I would like this program (if it
> becomes a reality) to be a part of KDE-Edu project. I think, this is
> the only way to help each other.
>   I must note that when I say that I always keep in mind Marble. I
> think it's just an excellent program and an excellent idea to make it
> useful with- and without KDE dependencies. I like it very much and
> that's why I would like to spread this idea on some other useful
> software. :)
>   Hope, you understand my reasons a little better now.
> 
>   Regards,
>   Vladimir.
> -----
>  <v_2e at ukr.net>
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