Problems getting into programming

[Christian Loose]

Am Dienstag, 11. Mai 2004 18:14 schrieb Thomas McGuire:
> How often should I update my CVS repository ?
> I suspect that the most bandwidth comes from comparing the files,
> not from downloading updates.
> I really do not want to spend 1MB on comparing files when the
> downloaded updates only contain 10KB.
> If I had a DSL connection, this wouldn't be a problem, but with my
> modem, an update takes quite some time.

Hi Thomas,

It depends on what you are working on. Maybe the following helps to get an 
idea what to do. As maintainer of kdesdk/cervisia with DSL, I do:

- update & compile kdelibs & kdebase a few (2-3) times a week. Especially 
before I try to fix a bug or work on a feature that depends on a change in 
kdelibs.
- update & compile main packages like kdepim, kdemultimedia & kdenetwork at 
least once a week or when an interesting change happened. Actually I work 
with KDE CVS on my laptop since it's pretty stable most of the times.
- update & compile the rest once a month.

I know that some developers update much less often.

>
> How do I actually WORK with my local CVS repository?
>
> Should I simply modify some lines of code, then
> run ./module-build.sh (which will probably take hours), start a new
> KDE session and test if all behaves like I intended ?
> Or should I just go to the directory and do make; make install?
> This would of course be MUCH faster, since the above script allways
> rebuilds the whole module, but it seems to be still not very
> practical.
> Will a "make install" from a subdirectory (e.g. kdebase/konqueror)
> succeed?

You don't have to compile the whole module all the time. If you just work on 
one application, then you can just do make; make install in that directory. 
You only have to build the module when you change parts that other apps 
depend on, e.g. libkcal or libkdepim in the kdepim module.

> How do I work with KDevelop? Most apps do not have a .kdevelop file
> (which is a shame), so do I have to import a makefile-based
> project?

The following link should help:
http://wiki.kdenews.org/tiki-index.php?page=How+To+Use+KDevelop+with+KDE+CVS

[Some KDevelop questions I can't answer]

> Also I think the site (quality.kde.org) should be more visible. It
> is a great site for beginners to learn about how to contribute to
> KDE, but who knows he has to follow a link with 'quality' in it?
> I did not see any links in developer.kde.org to here, and only one
> link on kde.org, together with many others like usability.
> I really think this situation should improve.

AFAIK when you have a KDE cvs account you can change the pages on 
developer.kde.org. :-)

> Oh, and maybe you could correct any mistakes I made in the mail - it
> is the only way my English will improve.

I'm afraid my english is worse. ;-)

Bye

-- 
Christian Loose
Cervisia - http://www.kde.org/apps/cervisia