[Kst] kst 2.x: dbus interface / datasource API

[Barth Netterfield]

On Monday 08 March 2010 10:51:46 Brisset, Nicolas wrote:
> activity on kst2 was a bit slower in the last days. I suppose Barth has
> had other stuff to take care of...

Last couple weeks... redesigning the department's Ph.D. qualifying exam 
system, going through a draft of one of my student's Ph.D. thesis, editing 
another student's paper we hope to submit 'soon', planning a CSA meeting, and 
trying to get the BLASTpol telescope ready to fly...

> I would like to know how things look for the next future, and also ask 2
> questions:

We are funded, finally.  I am also trying to get the paperwork in order to 
hire.
 
> - could we try to go through the data source API discussion because I
> had started adapting ASCII to read in units, but when I saw the relative
> mess that it is (with many classes and many places where the config is
> written or read) I was a bit discouraged... And there are also
> CDF/netCDF to be ported to kst 2, which should be easy once the new
> design if finalized.

data source API is a good 'high in the priority list' item.  

> - what are the plans wrt the dcop interface? I believe dcop has been
> replaced with dbus in Qt4/KDE4. My understanding is that it is still
> applicable even when we don't run under KDE4, but I'm not sure. And I
> don't know whether it has already been adapted, whether this adaptation
> is difficult and if there are different plans for kst 2.x.

DCOP and javascript haven't been ported at all.  They are very similar jobs 
though. 

-DCOP is dead.  If we do something like this, it will be DBUS.

-We will probably not try to be 100% compatible with kst1's javascript.

> Hoping kst 2.x picks up some pace in the short future again, so that we
> can release a first 2.0.0 version in finite time...
> 

A big lurking issue is getting kst2 compatible with KDE releases.  There are a 
number of requirements for being a KDE extragear project, which we do not 
fulfill (like, for example, using KDE).