[kde-linux] Upgrade to KDE-4.7; MORE PROBLEMS

[James Tyrer]

So, I now have KDE-4.7.3 almost running.

A major problem is that I can not get PyKDE to build.  I would take a 
wild guess that this is a dependency issue.  However, it does not say 
which version of PyQt and SIP are required for it to compile and the 
CMake scripts do not check for a version.

Some annoyances:

Someone that deserves a C- in CS 101 appears to have rearranged the GIT 
repository site.  So, I found that I had not installed KATE and KWrite.  
That was easy to fix.  But, I was about to rearrange my GIT repositories 
for KDE and I realized that the genus that rearranged it did not make a 
proper tree.  For the example, see:

https://projects.kde.org/projects/kde/kde-baseapps

There is no node for: kde-baseapps -- so should I add KATE & Konsole to 
the source tree for KDE-BaseApps?  That would be OK if it would build them.

I find that the toolbar configuration in Konqueror has some of the items 
in the list of toolbars improperly named.  I for get if they are still 
that way and that I fixed it myself or if this is a new problem.  For 
example:

     Search Toolbar <searchbar>

The problem is that there is NO "Search Toolbar".  This should be named:

     Location Toolbar <searchbar>

{is this really that hard to understand}.  The first identifier is the 
name of the toolbar where the stuff is located and the second identifier 
is the name of the application of part that provides the stuff.

So, now we go to:

     Filter Toolbar <DirFilter>

And using the implicit schema (yes this is an IQ test) this should be:

     Location Toolbar <dirfilter>

But it gets worse.  The DirFilter widget and the menu based filter 
appear to have gone missing.  The only thing in the menu is:

     --- separator ---

Was this very useful feature removed?  If it is only a bug, shouldn't it 
have been fixed by x.y.3?  If this is just an upgrade problem, which 
file(s) do I need to remove or edit?

So, I would like to dedicate this posting to the memory of Steve Jobs.  
The reason is that KDE has a lot of potential.  However there are a lot 
of rough edges that need to be polished up.  What is clearly needed is a 
perfectionist with a take no prisoners attitude like SJ (irony).  I say 
this with the knowledge that I am too much like SJ for the KDE project 
to be happy with me.  Do I conclude that they want to be sloppy?  
Perhaps.  But the problem should be obvious to any professional software 
engineer.  The little things that need to be done are being neglected 
because developers want to start new projects (which will also be only 
80% to 90% completed) because that is more fun and they are too 
individualistic to conform to standards for a consistent UI and system.  
Just read the messages when you compile KDE from source (well now that I 
have an AMD 4400+ rated CPU they sometimes go by too fast to read but 
they are still there).  Most of them should have been done with KDE-4.0.1.

-- 

James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch