Frameworks 5: KDE Libraries Reworked Into Portable Qt Modules 68
jrepin writes "The KDE libraries are being methodically reworked into a set of cross platform modules that will be readily available to all Qt developers. The KDE Frameworks, designed as drop-in Qt Addons, will enrich Qt as a development environment with functions that simplify, accelerate and reduce the cost of Qt development. For example, KArchive (one of the first Frameworks available) offers support for many popular compression codecs in a self-contained and easy-to-use file archiving library. Just feed it files; there's no need to reinvent an archiving function."
This is a pretty major thing: "The introduction of Qt's Open Governance model in late 2011 offered the opportunity for KDE developers to get more closely involved with Qt, KDE's most important upstream resource. ... These contributions to Qt form the basis for further modularization of the KDE libraries. The libraries are moving from being a singular 'platform' to a set of 'Frameworks'. ... Instead it is a comprehensive set of technologies that becomes available to the whole Qt ecosystem."
The new KDE Frameworks will be layered as three tiers of components, with each tier consisting of three semi-independent groups of libraries (the article explains the category/tier dependencies; it's a bit hairy for a quick summary). A dashboard shows the status of each component.
Really big news for Qt (Score:5, Informative)
There are many things Qt does very well, some not so well and some pieces completely missing. Opening up KDE as plug-in frameworks will fill in the holes in Qt for bringing very strong applications to a whole new generation of embedded and X-platform tools. Also, C11 C++ extensions and more specifically closures have really helped me fall back in love with C++ primarily through Qt.
Re:Isn't Qt a GUI library? (Score:3, Informative)
Qt is practically a complete framework that makes C++ prettier. You can, in fact, make Qt Console applications (I have), and they'll depend on just QtCore and whatever else you use that's not QtGui. Look at the standard library; it tries to have functions for everything.
Re:The enigma (Score:5, Informative)
hiding the cursor when it's over a text field that's being typed in
I just opened Dolphin, clicked on the location control to edit, leaving the mouse cursor over the control, and when I type the mouse cursor disappears. In Kate the mouse cursor vanishes when over the edit area while typing. Same behavior with the search control in the main menu.
allowing for pure alphabetical sorting in file dialogs (not by-inode-type, then alphabetical)
Open Kate, click File, Open; note that folders appear before non-folders. Click the wrench icon in the upper right, click "Sorting" and turn off the extremely useful "Folders First" feature; the file dialog will now sort "pure alphabetical."
Both of these have long-standing bug reports in KDE and are the kind of "little things" that drive people crazy
Someone should probably close those bug reports then; they're clearly both fixed.
Does anyone actually use it?
Yep. Also, some of us even update our systems to benefit from the ongoing and diligent work by KDE developers. That way we're not complaining about flaws from five years ago.