[Kde-java] Qt and KDE java package names

[Richard Dale]

Currently all Qt classes are in package 'org.kde.qt.*' and all KDE classes are 
in 'org.kde.koala.*'. I chose these names because I thought it was the 
'correct thing' to do in Java (ie all lower case, 'DNS in reverse' style). I 
assume it was important to have names like this when applets were all the 
range, and we were going download them from all over the net.

In PerlQt and QtRuby, there is a Qt:: namespace with names like Qt::Widget 
with no Q. I assume that there would be a KDE:: namespace for KDE. So why 
should java be different? What advantage do these long names have? How about 
this instead for java:

 'import Qt.*;
...

Widget myWidget = new Qt.Widget();

The disadvantage of the current long package names is that you really need to 
fully qualify classnames in slots/signal connect statements. There is some 
really hacky code in QtJava to 'deduce' the package name from whether or not 
it begins with a 'Q', so you don't have to do that. Who wants to write:

connect(myapp, "SLOT(org.kde.qt.QWidget, org.kde.koala.KPart)", ...

That is fine when all the KDE classes are in one package, but an important 
enhancement will be to split them up into packages which map onto the C++ 
namespace - 'kparts', 'kio' and so on. And as soon as the KDE classes are in 
more than one package, the above solution doesn't work.

Here is an interesting thread which discusses the problems with the java 
packing structure (in terms of ruby, but still relevant to java):

http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/27584

-- Richard