The (unknown) KDE-Platform-independent libraries

[David Gil Oliva]

Hi!

I'm David Gil, and it's only some days since I arrived to the KDE
Frameworks project. I don't want to criticise the work you're doing, which
I think is great, but the fact of saying thoughts aloud makes them clearer.

I have read many old messages from the mailing lists that stress the fact
that many developers don't use KDE related libraries. Sometimes developers
don't want to use libraries that have many dependencies, but sometimes
there are other causes, which I'm sure you know.

--For example, the Ubuntu page for ThreadWeaver
http://packages.ubuntu.com/quantal/libthreadweaver4 says "ThreadWeaver
Library for the KDE Platform", which suggests that a) it's only for KDE
software b) you can't use it in your Qt-only programs, which seems to be
false, looking at the dependencies c) it's only for Linux

--Aptitude, about the same package: "This package is part of the KDE
Development Platform libraries module" :-/

--From Wikipedia: "*ThreadWeaver* is a programming library developed for KDE
4 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KDE_Software_Compilation_4>[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadWeaver#cite_note-CNET-1>by
Mirko Boehm that allows developers to easily take advantage of
multi-core
processors <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multi-core_processor>.[1]<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ThreadWeaver#cite_note-CNET-1>In
ThreadWeaver the workload is divided into individual jobs, then
relationship between jobs (what order they should be completed or which has
a higher priority); from that ThreadWeaver will work out the most efficient
way to execute them. Krita <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krita> has
implemented visual filter previews using ThreadWeaver to prevent GUI
lockups."

I think that the fact that developers don't use KDE-Platform-independent
libraries won't cease until something is done about the texts of these
packages. Something like "Multiplatform C++ Qt-based multithreaded library"
would be so much appealing! I know I can use ThreadWeaver because I have
entered this project. Otherwise, I would have never considered it.

And the naming is perhaps important. I perceive KDE Frameworks 5 as the
project that modularises kdelibs, integrating some features into Qt,
deprecating stuff, separating what can go alone,etc. But, what's the name
of the set of libraries that can be used alone, without KDE dependencies?
Does it have a name? What I mean is that making good libraries is
important, but advertising them is crucial if you want them to have users.
Selling X as "all the stuff you can use in your Qt programs (made by the
KDE people)" is perhaps more appealing than "this KDE stuff that happens to
be independent enough for you to use, although many people say that it's
(only) for KDE".

By the way, ThreadWeaver can be built on Windows? Wikipedia says it's only
for Unix, but I have read people saying otherwise. In any case, it would
also be nice for developers to have this type of libraries built for
Windows, so that it's easier for them to use them. This is the moment that
I expect you to tell me something about the lack of people and maintainers
;-)

My 2 cents (which you already knew)

Best regards,

David Gil
www.hackingastrology.net
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