Kontact "unable to create calendar"

[Kevin Krammer]

On Saturday, 2014-03-08, 22:52:38, huw wrote:
> On Saturday 08 Mar 2014 21:43:03 Duncan wrote:

> It raises a question in my mind.  I will probably sound like yet another
> whiner and I'm sure it's been said before on this list, but why oh why have
> the KDE devs persisted with Akonadi?

Do you mean with the specific implementation, the architecture or the general 
concept?

In case of the latter (concept of access arbiter service), the reasons are 
clear: there is no other viable alternative.

In case of the other two, I don't think it is a matter of insistence but more 
a matter of investment, especially on the implementation part.

The architecture (cooperative services) also has a couple of nice features 
regarding technology and license compatibility and generally being very 
"unixy" (separation of concerns).

However, changing either architecture or implementation should potentially be 
possible.

> I strongly doubt they've
> had a single email from someone thanking them for the life-saving addition
> of this problematic, hellish...whatever Akonadi is.

Maybe not life-saving, but people do voice their gratitude over thing enabled 
by it.

In a recent example a user wrote: "...I /like/ that I 
can click on it [the clock applet] and bring up a little calendar that has 
integrated perfectly with my Kontact calendar."

The idea that one's data is not confined to one specific application and user 
interface seems to be quite appealing.

>  I've often criticised the Gnome team since Gnome 3.x for
> trying to make too many decisions for the users, but KDE's insistence on
> Akonadi makes me look rather hypocritical.

Not sure I get the reference there, but for perspective, GNOME has already 
been using an arbiter process, at least for addressbook and calendar, for many 
years.

They are also looking into expanding it towards mail, I believe they are 
targetting a release either this year or next year.

> With regard to groupware - apparently, wanting mail + calendar puts me in
> the category of people who need groupware. 

Not necessarily. The term seems to be a bit overloaded, with lots of people 
having different rules when they refer to something as groupware :-)

> So be it, but again I have to
> ask why Akonadi is a must.  Thunderbird apparently manages to integrate
> mail + calendar quite well.

True, but that is a different use case.

Thunderbird is designed for and excels in the category one-in-all solution, 
i.e. a data silo. This approach does have a fewer complexities and does not 
have any negative impact for a vendor with a small application portfolio such 
as Mozilla.

A vendor like KDE (or GNOME for that matter, see above), with a wide 
application portfolio, is naturally more inclined to keep data processing and 
user interaction more separate, in order to share the former between 
variations of the latter.

GNOME, as a frontrunner with the concept of access arbiter service (EDS, 
Evolution Data Server), uses that quite successfully, e.g. providing GNOME 
Contacts and GNOME Calendar in addition to Evolution.

KDE is currently using the concept more in an "under the hood" fashion, i.e. 
allowing non-PIM applications access to the data and related services, but 
there are lesser known efforts on alternative user interfaces, e.g. Zanshin 
for TODOs or the Kontact Touch umbrella initiative.

> However I'm something of a KDE fanboy - despite its ongoing issues - and I
> actually /want/ the "semantic desktop" experience or whatever they're
> calling it.  Here's an example: the system clock, sitting right there in my
> systray.  I /like/ that I can click on it and bring up a little calendar
> that has integrated perfectly with my Kontact calendar.

Well, nothing to do with semantic, but yes, a good example of an alternative 
user interface :)

Cheers,
Kevin
-- 
Kevin Krammer, KDE developer, xdg-utils developer
KDE user support, developer mentoring
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