News Archive for March 2000

"It is looking like Konqueror can run most Java applets, and support for Java is growing at an amazing rate in KDE2." The full report can be found at: KDE Weekly Roundup

New Icon Scheme Implemented. In a series of rapid-fire announcements this week, Geert Jansen both proposed and implemented a new icon scheme for KDE2. The new scheme, based on a proposal from early March by Torsten Rahn, divides icons into themes, groups, and contexts. The new code is source-compatible, though it will provide debugging messages when old size-based code is used to assist in porting applications.

KDE Eduware Mailing List. Uwe Thiem announced the creation of a new KDE mailing list, kde-edu@kde.org. The list is for those interested in developing and discussing eduware, as well as teacher to developer feedback.

KDE Crash Handler. Timo Hummel has added a crash handler to KDE2, in order to provide appropriate user feedback in the event of an application crash. Check here for a few of his prototype dialogs.

Java Support. Java support has been ported to the new KDE2 khtml widget, according to Dima Rogozin. Although the code is a basic Java implementation, most applets should display properly. In addition, a Java console is available, as well as a detailed Konqueror control module.

Mosfet.org Redesign. Daniel M. Duley writes in to note that mosfet.org, another source of KDE development news, has been redesigned. The new format takes into account reader feedback, providing a less cluttered and easier to read page.

Qt-copy Updated. Qt-copy has once again been updated to the latest Qt beta, qt-2.1.0-beta3. Updating to the new version is highly recommended.

Suggestions, comments, and especially contributions to soudan@kde.org. You can always find the current edition of KDN at http://developer.kde.org/news/weekly/, as well as archives of past editions. KDN is published weekly, written and edited by Bill Soudan (soudan@kde.org) and Prasanth Kumar (kumar1@home.com).

If you'd like to have each issue of KDN automatically emailed to you as soon as it comes off the press, send an email with the subject "subscribe kdn-announce" to soudan@kde.org.

This is great work and excellent news, and come to crown the huge series of improvement announcements issued recently related to konqueror and khtml, strenghtening our persuadation that konqueror will be one of the best browsers. Many congrats to all developers and bug reporters involved.

There are also a few subscribed tasks, that already have a main maintainer, but it's sure you can still contact the later and offer your help if a specific task looks interesting to you.

Of course, all these are barely news for most of you, but please notice that KDE-2 is very near to a historical release (sometimes later this year) and help is needed now more than ever.

Come over here, we need you, and there's enough for everybody, the glory of the revolution.

New KDE Icons. The KDE artists team has been hard working as ever in coming up with new icons and other graphics for KDE2. Check out Torsten Rahn's screenshot of the icons for the Konqueror toolbar and (Rivyn) Casey Allen Shobe's screenshots of many other applications.

Redhat KDE2 RPMs. For those who missed it last week, Bernhard Rosenkränzer of Redhat informed the group of the availability of experimental KDEs RPMS for Redhat 6.2. Be warned that KDE2 is still in development when trying out these packages. Check out http://people.redhat.com/bero/experimental/ for the downloads.

KDE 2.0 Programming Book. David Sweet announced this week that a new book on programming for KDE 2.0 will soon be published. The contents will be covered under the Open Publication License, and a copy will be placed online for download once it has been completed. Many KDE developers have contributed so far, but there are still a few chapters remaining. Those interested in getting paid to write OSS documentation should contact David at dsweet@kde.org.

KHTML Help Request. Lars Knoll is requesting assistance to finish a few essential features in khtml such as text selection, printing support, and keyboard navigation. Although he's currently working on his thesis, Lars offered his assistance to anyone willing to help. Contact him at knoll@kde.org.
Small update: Text selection is already mostly done :-)

Suggestions, comments, and especially contributions to soudan@kde.org. You can always find the current edition of KDN at http://developer.kde.org/news/weekly/, as well as archives of past editions. KDN is published weekly, written and edited by Bill Soudan (soudan@kde.org) and Prasanth Kumar (kumar1@home.com).

If you'd like to have each issue of KDN automatically emailed to you as soon as it comes off the press, send an email with the subject "subscribe kdn-announce" to soudan@kde.org.

• LinuxUK now has a weekly KDE roundup column.
• KDE2 now supports convenient one-button URL launch (aka dingus) for all applications.
• The KDE2 Control Center and application specific configuration dialogs have been enhanced with a new icon view interface.
• KDE2 toolbar usability has been improved, allowing the optimum use of workspace real estate.

Mosfet.org is updated often and we don't always provide updates, so be sure to go straight to the source for the latest.

It's nice to see KDE becoming a recognized standard.

KDE 2.0 Release Plan! The KDE 2.0 release plan has at last been announced, as designed by the release coordinators Kurt Granroth and Preston Brown. The schedule is very aggressive, with a true KDE 1.9 beta due out at the beginning of May. Please refer to http://developer.kde.org/development-versions/kde-2.0-release-plan.html for the text of the plan and up-to-the-minute information.

Magellan news: Development snapshots for Magellan are now available using rsync. Check the Magellan web site at www.kalliance.org for details and some impressive screen shots. Thanks to Klaus (k.woelfel@gmx.de) for the scoop!

Application-Starting Indicator. A great deal of discussion on how to provide user feedback while an application is starting took place this week. Rik Hemsley came through with specific details on how this should be implemented, which was submitted as a job on www.kde.org/helping/jobs/ to await a willing coder. Those interested can submit patches directly to Rik.

KDE Usability Crew Proposal. During the discussion of the app-start indicator, Timo Hummel threw out an excellent idea: forming a KDE Usability Crew comprised of a variety of both developers and users. The crew would provide input to the KDE developers to further KDE's ease-of-use.

Multi-threading with Pth HOWTO. Roberto Alsina has created a new KDE HOWTO from his work with creating a threaded version of KRN. Qt is not reentrant-- therefore it is tough to truly implement a Qt application using threads. Roberto's code uses the GNU Portable threads library, however, which skirts this particular problem by using cooperative user-space multi-threading. His HOWTO can be found here.

KDE Quickies. Chris Lee has updated his Vitreus theme as announced last week. The new version is much smoother, and Chris is interested in comments. Roberto Alsina has hacked together the beginnings of a PDF QPaintDevice, and is offering his very raw version here. In practical terms, this will give KDE applications the ability to directly generate PDF files, once complete. Daniel Duley (aka Mosfet) was interviewed by LinuxUK. You can find the article, complete with reader comments, here.

Suggestions, comments, and especially contributions to soudan@kde.org. You can always find the current edition of KDN at http://developer.kde.org/news/weekly/, as well as archives of past editions.

If you'd like to have each issue of KDN automatically emailed to you as soon as it comes off the press, send an email with the subject "subscribe kdn-announce" to soudan@kde.org.

KDE Weekly News is back! Look for new, weekly editions, covering both the kde-devel and kde-core-devel lists, as well as any other newsworthy KDE items we can get our hands on. Currently, the new KDE Weekly News crew consists of Bill Soudan (soudan@kde.org) and Prasanth Kumar (kumar1@home.com). If you're interested in joining the crew to provide additional KDE development coverage, please contact us!

KDE @ CeBIT 2000. Chris Schlaeger submitted a short report from CeBIT 2000. The KDE demos and presentations were a great success, with over 100 attendants at each presentation, flooding the aisles as well as the neighboring booths. Check here for some pictures of the huge crowds, and here for some more pictures of the KDE booth and presentations.

KDevelop. Both KDevelop 1.1final and KDK1.1 final have been released. Major new features since the 1.0 version include seven new application templates, a complete integrated debugger, and extended documentation including a KScribble tutorial. Check the KDevelop home page at www.kdevelop.org for more information. In addition, Roberto Alsina reports a hardcopy of the documentation that comes with KDE and KDevelop is available here. Up to 40% of the profit will benefit to the KDevelop project, so if you don't want to spend hours printing docs on your laser printer, this may be a nice option.

Qt-copy updated. The qt-copy branch of CVS has been updated to Qt 2.1beta2. Dirk Mueller also notes the upgrade is not necessary to compile KDE2, although it is recommended.

More KDE-Gnome Collaboration? In response to Yet Another Volatile Gnome vs. KDE Discussion, Charles@altair.dhs.org brought up the possibility of forming "an independent ... commitee just for standardization of X11 based applications". Several KDE developers immediately expressed interest, and Charles followed up by contacting several outside people and the gnome-devel list. He later discovered Havoc Pennington has already begun such a beast, and decided to join forces. As dep@snet.net aptly pointed out, this may be a significant step forward for all Open Source productivity software. Keep us updated, Charles!

KDE Quickies. Chris Molnar wrote in to mention the 2-28-2000 build of the KDE2 CVS was particularly clean. If you've yet to see KDE2 in action, www.nebsllc.com has the 2-28-2000 binaries in both tar.gz and rpm format. Kurt Granroth has made some major conceptual changes to KToolbar, as well as sparking a discussion on moving the progress indicator to the menubar instead of the toolbar. He also took the liberty of preparing a concept prototype, look here for the screenshot. Stefan Westerfield has added network transparency to aRts, KDE2's next-generation sound system, and is seeking volunteers to test the new code on a variety of systems. Chris Lee has been hard at work with a new KDE2 theme dubbed Vitreus, modeled after a popular unnamed theme from Apple. Screenshots, of course, have been provided.

Suggestions, comments, and especially contributions to soudan@kde.org. You can always find the current edition of KWN at http://developer.kde.org/news/weekly/, as well as archives of past editions.

If you'd like to have each issue of kwn automatically emailed to you as soon as it comes off the press, send an email with the subject "subscribe kwn-announce" to soudan@kde.org.

On the icon front, Torsten Rahn is proposing a series of specs (1, 2, 3, 4) for improving and extending the icon handling in KDE2. It's nice to see the artist team so active.

A decisive role in our presence at this large international fair pertains to SuSE, who provided booth space.

Our team's work was very well received, and journalists particularly underlined the remarkable interest of the public.

Many thanks to the users who long for KDE-2.0 already. Our gratitude to the KDE developers who voluteered for the presentations and the animation at the booth.