[Kde-games-devel] Re: KDE games strategy

[Stefan Majewsky]

On Wed, Jul 27, 2011 at 2:39 AM, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
> the challenge with having separate UIs is that the maintenance burdon raises
> and for projects with minimal resources this can produce rather unfortunate
> results from spreading focus (see kontact and kontact touch for a good example
> of this).

+1

I tried to hack together a QML/QDeclarativeView-based interface for
KNetWalk some weeks ago. KNetWalk's code already has what I would
consider clean separation between data and code, but for a half-baked
QML port, I ended up writing tons of boiler-plate code to make the
data structures accessible within QML.

I'm not sure if there is value in porting the existing
QGraphicsView-based canvas logic to QML. For the chrome, we probably
need something QML-based, but I don't see how work on this topic in
the Qt/KDE 4 timeframe won't get obsoleted by developments in Qt 5.
This is also the reason why I'm trying to produce interfaces that are
at least optimized (though probably not optimal) for mobile
formfactors, cf. KGameBasicWindow.

> for the kinds of games in the module, if you need a separate UI for touch then
> the desktop UI is also probably sub-optimal. for the kinds of games in the
> kdegames modules (perhaps with a few exceptions) there really should be no
> need for separate interfaces for touch- and mouse-driven interaction.

I agree totally. I also strongly vote against starting mobile ports of
the games now, given our current manpower situation.

> menubars and toolbars, small popup dialogs (e.g. "high scores" dialogs) and
> other such "mouse oriented chrome" are entirely unecessary and even get in the
> way of enjoying the games even on the desktop.

Menubars and toolbars, agreed. KGameBasicWindow seeks to remedy the
situation, until a proper (Qt-5-based?) solution becomes available.
Cf. the highscore dialog: Can you explain how one could improve that?

> oh, and of course, all truly touch-friendly games will quickly end up on the
> Plasma Active image :)

Woohoo! I was very delighted to see KDiamond appear in the default
list of Favorite Applications on plasma-tablet now.

Greetings
Stefan

P.S. BTW, are there stated hardware requirements for Plasma Active?
For example, can I rely on multitouch being available?