Please, if you port something to QML, make it at the very least exactly the same as the C++ version!

[Mark]

Hi folks,

I really have to stress this out. It annoys me to even see it since it
seems so obvious (to me).
When you port some GUI part of KDE from C++ to QML i would expect the
porter to keep:
- feature parity
- visual parity
- functional parity

So, i just installed KDE 4.9 RC 1 with high hopes of QML in some
places thus i happily started testing that. That's when i got some
"WTF" "No, you got to be joking!" moments.

The first thing i tested out was the shutdown dialog which is in QML
now. While it may have feature parity, it certainly lacks visual
parity and probably some functional parity as well. The first thing i
noticed was missing drop down shadows in corners. I leave the rest up
to the bug reports i made for it:
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303216
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303215
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303214
https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=303213

Seriously guys, how can we even accept this in KDE? Why did this even
pass the review:
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/103621/

It's lacking in a lot of places (just look at the bug reports above
with the attached images). I don't want to step on someone's toes, but
i must say that this port ... (expressing myself nicely) ... needs
some attention.

Now if this where to be the first time then i probably wouldn't have
written this mail, but it isn't. Some time ago in reviewboard someone
approved a QML port that was far from visual parity! I had to step in,
telling that i don't agree and gave the porter some pointers to things
he might use to get visual parity:
https://git.reviewboard.kde.org/r/104959/

Now with the widget explorer and activity explorer i also see things
(tiny and not bothering much, but annoying me nevertheless) that
really should be fixed or someone should take a good close look at
them to make them look as good as in KDE 4.8 or better, certainly not
worse!
The issues i see in those 2 QML ports from a quick overview:
- search field does not have the text vertically centered (or line height)
- there is more spacing above the search field then there is below it
which gives it a bit of a compressed look. Not needed at all!
- the bottom scrollbar is hugging the panel to much, it should be
raised by 5 pixels or so.
- when you scroll all the way to the right the last widget has it's
border hugging the screen edge. A bit more spacing there as well
please.

Fellow KDE people, we are - right now - in a Release Candidate state!
RC 2 is going to be tagged tomorrow and i'm running RC 1. This is no
RC 1 quality for the ported parts. Please, if you see a port, take a
good and very detailed look. Things should improve with this, not
degrade. Don't just approve something because it is "QML".. It must be
good and at the very least on par with the thing it replaces!
Otherwise we might as well stick to the ones we had in KDE 4.8.

Anyway, i volunteer to take up all the ugly parts in the shutdown
dialog since that didn't get any updates since the end of February. Is
there currently a maintainer for that one as well? Otherwise i
volunteer to take that role.

Lets make KDE 4.9 rock solid!

Cheers,
Mark