Contributing to KDevelop project...

Fri Feb 21 13:42:48 UTC 2014

Kevin FunkAm Freitag, 21. Februar 2014, 12:16:12 schrieb :
> Am Freitag, 21. Februar 2014, 11:57:18 schrieb Kevin Funk:
> > Am Donnerstag, 20. Februar 2014, 23:12:36 schrieb Milian Wolff:
> > > On Thursday 20 February 2014 22:24:37 Radek Taciński wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > 
> > > Hey Radek! See the bottom of this mail for a response.
> > > 
> > > > I would like to contribute to the KDevelop project - supporting it on
> > > > Windows could be a good start...
> > > > That would be my first open-source project contribution, so I may not
> > > > be
> > > > familiar with all the stuff I probably should know about...
> > > > 
> > > > Let me introduce myself: I'm 33, I live in Poland and I have 7+ years
> > > > professional experience in C++ (+ 2 years of C#.NET before that),
> > > > recently
> > > > (for couple years) more focused on project management, although I
> > > > still
> > > > am
> > > > involved in creating new code as well as find & fix bugs.
> > > > I would like to contribute to this project - mainly to "stop working
> > > > at
> > > > home" after hours :)
> > > > 
> > > > And it would be a good experience for me also...
> > > > 
> > > > If you think I could help in development of KDevelop - please, let me
> > > > know...
> > > > 
> > > > Best regards,
> > > > Radek
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > PS - I could not find an email to send this message to, somehow I did
> > > > not
> > > > want to spam the entire development list...
> > > 
> > > But that would have been the proper address :) I'm forwarding this email
> > > there now, please register to the mailing list and direct further mails
> > > there.
> > > 
> > > If you have windows knowledge and want to get KDevelop up and running
> > > there
> > > this would be an awesome contribution! We are waiting for people to step
> > > up
> > > on that platform for years. Kevin Funk (also registered on this list)
> > > recently played with KDevelop on Windows. He should be able to give some
> > > input.
> > > 
> > > Furthermore, we are in the process of porting the codebase to KF5 (KDE
> > > Frameworks 5), which promises a much more modular foundation for us to
> > > build on. We are not there yet, but maybe it would make sense to put any
> > > windows effort there? The other developers who work on that should give
> > > you some input on this matter.
> > > 
> > > Cheers, and welcome :)
> > 
> > Hey Radek,
> > 
> > Good to hear some Windows guy wants to push KDevelop on Windows a bit.
> > 
> > I tackled some of the root issues for getting KDevelop to run on Windows
> > recently, but there are still issues to be resolved before we could mark
> > it
> > as 'stable'. Unfortunately I'm lacking time to push this on continuously,
> > so any help in this regard is very welcome.
> > 
> > If you want to get started getting up a development environment for KDE on
> > Windows, please conduct
> > http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/Windows/emerge.
> > 'emerge' is basically the package manager used on Windows to build
> > KDE/Qt/whatever sources and to install binaries.
> > Doing a 'emerge kdevelop' eventually then spits out a 'kdevelop.exe'
> > binary
> > which you can just run there. (Fingers crossed, a lot can go wrong when
> > building all the dependencies for KDevelop and KDE resp.)
> > 
> > Currently I'd consider KF5 not stable enough on Windows to play around
> > with
> > KDevelop, so I suggest trying it out under KDE4. There are some issues you
> > can fix there right away, and it would still help us when porting KDevelop
> > to KF5 on Windows at some point.
> > 
> > If you need guidance, feel free to contact me on #kdevelop on Freenode, my
> > nick name is 'kfunk'.
> > 
> > I even have a junior-job for KDevelop on Windows for you already ;)
> > 
> > The issue: KDevelop shows navigation tooltips when hovering declarations
> > (variables, functions, etc.) in source code. These are basically HTML-like
> > popups where you can click on links to jump to files, etc. This is
> > currently broken on Windows (clicks are basically ignored), and it would
> > be a good start to find out what's going on there.
> > 
> > Cheers!
> 
> Ah, and I forgot:
> 
> If you really want to build KDevelop on Windows, you'll need MSVC2012
> (express is fine) at the moment. Nothing else will work (MSVC2010 doesn't
> have C++11 support, Qt4 won't built using MSVC2013 (at least last time I
> checked).
> 
> MinGW GCC might work, too, but I never actually tested it. MinGW GCC also is
> supposed to compile much slower than MSVC [1]. And MSVC of course offers a
> fully-fledged IDE + debugger.
> 
> [1]
> http://stackoverflow.com/questions/8029092/gcc-worth-using-on-windows-to-re
> place-msvc

Houston, we have a problem.

Unfortunately, MSVC2012 isn't really an option anymore as well. Just tested. 
We're currently using too many C++11 features in KDevelop master that MSVC2012 
doesn't support yet [1] (initializer-lists, alias templates). So we're back to 
these options:

- Make KDevelop build with MSVC2012
  - Discouraged, because that means we have to go one step back
    and revert stuff

- Check whether Qt4 and the KDE4 stack compiles with MSVC*2013*
  - According to [2], Qt4 as of 4.8.6 should build fine
    (that's news to me, didn't test yet)
  - KDE4 under MSVC2013 is likely untested, and I have no idea how much effort
    it'd be to get it running
    (might only require a few compile fixes, maybe not)

- Target KF5 right away
  - Setup might be tedious, because emerge doesn't support KF5 yet AFAIK.
    That means you'd have to clone/compile all the frameworks on your own.
  - Alexander Richardson is doing a lot of work regarding KF5 on Windows,
    maybe we want to contact him (arichardson.kde at googlemail.com)

Odd situation, I know... Right now I'd vote for going the KF5 route, as it is 
the most future-proof. And that also means KF5 on Windows gets more traction.

At any rate, #kde-windows on Freenode is a good place to ask on how to 
proceed.

Greets

[1] http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vcblog/archive/2011/09/12/10209291.aspx
[2] https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-36135

-- 
Kevin Funk