[kde-linux] Kget "My Downloads" [Is this MS Windows?]

[James Tyrer]

On 04/21/2013 12:40 PM, Kevin Krammer wrote:
> On Saturday, 2013-04-20, James Tyrer wrote:
>> On 04/19/2013 10:11 PM, Duncan wrote:
>
>>> that no longer has a real maintainer, and that is simply being
>>> held together by hacks from some other kde dev when something
>>> breaks, until it eventually gets to be no longer worth
>>> maintaining, would explain the hacks you see in the code, etc.
>>
>> This might explain why it wasn't fixed, but doesn't explain why it
>> was written wrong to begin with.
>
> It might not have been that way originally. Some things get added
> later on due to changes in the environment, e.g. XDG based paths
> becoming available, or original implementors might not have been
> aware of standard paths and somebody else added it, etc.
>
> One would basically have to traverse the whole commit history in
> order to understand why something is implemented the way it is.

It does appear to be related to XDG and there is the tale.  In
kget/core/kget.cpp a default directory of $XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR was added.
However, although the coder appears to be skilled at writing C++, he was
not skilled at actual programing.  He hard coded the name of this
"Group" as: "My Downloads" and chose an inappropriate _global_ icon, but
none for that group.  Rather than using the name of the
$XDG_DOWNLOAD_DIR directory as the default for the name of the "Group"
and the directory's icon, if one was chosen, or otherwise:
"folder-download" as the default icon.  As well as using "folder" as the
global default icon for the "Groups".

The code uses the name of the "Group" ("My Downloads") for a flag.  This
is poor design.  The name of the group should be renameable and there
should be a Boolean flag in the structure to indicate that the "Group"
is the default group.

Also, since this is to be the default Group, the: "Regular expression"
window should say "Default" rather than "*movies*" and it should not be
changeable since all downloads not going to other groups go to the
default group.

In short, it needs work.  I have to say that today I am well enough to
help someone to design it and to tutor someone that knows C++ better
than I do with the actual programing.  But, I am not well enough to fix
it myself -- to do the coding -- yet.  Maybe I will get better, maybe not.

>>> Meanwhile, kde5 aka kde frameworks is being designed to be far
>>> more modular, and already they're gradually splitting up the
>>> formerly huge monolithic tarballs into individual repos, with
>>> the core desktop
>>>
>>> intended to be much smaller and all these individual apps that
>>> are
>>>
>>> now part of the six-month core kde update and release cycle, will
>>> probably be shipped separately and updated on their own
>>> schedule.
>>
>> Does this mean that KDE-4 is already being abandoned by the
>> developers?
>
> No.
>
Rhetorical question, and not really to be taken literally.

>> Do you think that there is any chance that KDE-5 will ever work, or
>> will it just be the same story?
>
> It is quite likely that there won't be such as thing as KDE-5.
> Experience has shown that the benefits of releasing multiple
> independent products together, e.g. more media attention, is
> nowadays outweighted by drawbacks such as people misunderstanding
> relations or their absence between different products.
>

I may have acted strange in the past few years due to a stroke, but I
still have SJS (Steve Jobs Syndrome) and I was born that way.  I just
have this strange idea that things should work very well, not just 80%
to 90% and I would like to see KDE develop a release process that could
produce a 99% working product as well as producing new nifty features.

-- 
James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch

-- 
James Tyrer

Linux (mostly) From Scratch