[KDE/Mac] Fwd: Article: Slackware Developer Not Happy With KDE5 Development

[René J.V. Bertin]

On Tuesday October 28 2014 12:55:43 Mario Fux wrote:

Hi again,

> > You're probably right, though I don't see how it couldn't do that while
> > still being KDE4-based itself.
> 
> I see it. They lack (wo)man power. They need to concentrate and focus.

Well, yes, that aside of course.

> > Yup, very true, at least for myself. Which is part of why I won't be doing
> > substantial work on KF5 until it becomes the environment I can do the rest
> > of my work in. Unless I start getting paid to do so ;)
> 
> Would be nice to have some paid KDE Mac developers. Are you searching 
> actively?

Actively looking for a job, yes (or contract, but I'm really not very good at being a "self-entrepreneur").

> Might be. But I'd prefer to change "on our end" to "in our group". You're not 
> at one end of KDE. You're part of KDE. A relatively new and young one but 
> important one nonetheless.

Ok, how 'bout "in our corner" then ... or is that secluding ourselves too much?
> 
> That's simple to answer as well. If there are no Win oder Mac developers in 
> KDE at a certain time they can't give feedback. That changes now and Marko 

Of course that's true. It just strikes me as surprising that none of the KDE devs had the idea to use a Mac before (while they did use OS X as a kind of example).

> already blocked a KF5 release from the Mac side (there, real feedback from 

Blocked? He's got a CI set-up running, but he's, well, blocked trying to go substantially beyond building individual applications (apparently they don't even find installed themes).

I know, we do get feedback, but it isn't always the most encouraging kind when it concerns things that have little to nothing to do with advancing KF5 ...

> > now, but it's an impression I've been getting. Oh, there's the thing with
> > menu items (actions) being rearranged across menus through text-based
> > heuristics (their term) by Qt, of course.
> 
> Nice, more progress.

Not really. It seems that the side-effects of that heuristic algorithm bite mostly KDE applications (pure Qt apps work around them or don't even encounter them because they don't have extensive frameworks of their own in place to help set up standard menu structures?). As a result, I've had only very few interest from Qt maintainers on this. Maybe I just ought to try and do the equivalent of a review request (or on KDE's own Qt review board?) of a proposal to deactivate (comment out) this dumb Qt "feature" at least for the most problematic menu actions and see what kind of feedback I can get to (finally) turn it into something that can be switched off.
(Conceiving such a switch myself seems a bit daunting when you hardly know Qt like I...)

Cheers and thanks to you for the encouraging feedback,
René