Non-C++ Apps in KDE Main Modules (Was: Guidance in KDE Admin)

[Andreas Pakulat]

On 28.03.08 09:41:28, Nicolas Ternisien wrote:
> >
> >  Here is one of the main problems: those apps will work only if you have
> >  their bindings installed. But the bindings need to be generated whenever
> >  something changes in the libraries, so you might end up with a none-
> >  working app in a main module because the bindings were not yet updated.
> >
> >  My other concern is speed and memory usage. If we start to have a mix of
> >  different scripting applications that you have to run in order to have a
> >  usable KDE... I have no problems having extensions or even full apps in
> >  those languages as long as I am not forced to run them.
> 
> Why will your Python app will use something new in the KDE API before
> having the binding ready and updated ? Moreover, changes in the KDE
> API will only massively be done for major version (KDE 4 ->5), and in
> this case, all KDE source code will be broken at once.

Did you follow PyKDE3 releases? Its always been lagging behind KDE3.x
changes quite a bit due to time constraints at the authors side. And its
not just the big changes of major versions that need changes in the
bindings, there's plenty of API that gets added between minor releases.
Thats one of the reasons why PyQt bindings are only provided for rc's
and releases (and sometimes beta's) of Qt.

> About the memory usage, we are currently talking about integrating
> *Python* scripting language only, not "a mix of different scripting
> applications".

As soon as you allow one scripting language in a main KDE module you'll
basically have to allow all or try to fight all those naggers that file
thousands of reports asking for their preferred language.

> I must admit that I was sceptical the first time I
> heard guidance was in Python, but in any machine I used it, it always
> start fast.

Thats also what I've seen, except a few performance problems with
model/view classes in erci4 - though that was more than 6 months ago.

Andreas

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