Proposal for reimplementation

[Ralf Nolden]

Hi guys,

I have something to discuss which is to my mind a bit urgent and worth
it. What I would like to propose is that we start implementing the
KDevelop user interface somewhat from scratch which has the following
reasons:

a) the class CKDevelop is spread across the whole project and that makes
changes in the interface much time consuming because it forces
recompilation of almost 50 % of the sources. 

b) the implementation is in most parts so uninsightful that nobody
really can understand what´s going on which makes changes very very
annoying and too difficult. I started implementing the XML gui stuff
today and I really get pissed off after 4 hours searching for a segfault
when commenting out some method calls for the toolbar and menubar
creation as these are so tied into the dockwidget/MDI stuff I can´t
change anything really.

c) It´s very quiet on the commit side. Some developers are trying out
new things but real commits are only done by Falk who´s got at least an
overview about the MDI stuff and the dockwidget implementation. Other
developers are really excluded from any development in most parts as
nobody can´t determine by a clean implementation what´s going on.

d) jbb currently tried to use kparts which he told me makes progress.
This will afford further big changes in the interfaces so we need a
clean up for that as well.

e) Sandy rewrites the project management, the dialogeditor is not even
really planned and other stuff is outdated against KDevelop 1.2, so we
would have to catch up in most places as well. Also the editor interface
will be much more generic with the kparts stuff, so especially CKDevelop
will need a complete revise.

To my mind fixing and running over the methods for that over and over
again will cost much more time and isn´t much fun as well. I have
started beginning to implement a class KDevelop as a replacement for
CKDevelop which will make transitioning much easier as we can leave all
other classes as they are right now and implement method by method into
KDevelop to build a new interface. If most head developers agree on this
big change I would start with committing and the Makefile.am changes
this week which will include the XML gui interface with KActions and the
methods for the slots like they are now in CKDevelop except their
implementation. That is because slots affecting the UI will undergo big
changes due to the KAction stuff, KDoc 2 will be used in the future and
the Project manangement will be reimplemented. The dialogeditor stuff
isn´t needed as well currently and can stay out of sight until we´re
ready with a clean base implementation.

Comments welcome ;-)


Ralf


-- 
Maintainer's Motto: If we can't fix it, it ain't broke.  

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Ralf Nolden

The KDevelop Project
http://www.kdevelop.org

Email: rnolden at kdevelop.de
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