Version 5 of KDE Frameworks is nearing completion

Conclusions

The developers of KDE Frameworks 5 seem to be on the right track. The libraries are platform-independent, leaner, and more modular. Programmers can also selectively pick out the frameworks that their program needs and no longer need to deliver a bunch of unused libraries. All Qt and KDE developers will benefit from transferring the ownership of the source code to the Qt project. They will also benefit from the standardized development guidelines and tools that use a style similar to Qt.

However, KDE Frameworks 5 still comprises more than 50 individual components through which developers must navigate. The division into types and tiers confuses rather than helps – a simple list of all the existing libraries and their dependencies would be clearer and more meaningful. According to Aleix Pol, however, two reasons speak for these classifications: "They helped us in communicating and gave us a picture of where things were going. In addition, nobody wanted to list the dependencies of KIO" [19] (see Figure 3).

Infos

  1. "Repositioning the KDE Brand" by Stuart Jarvis: http://dot.kde.org/2009/11/24/repositioning-kde-brand
  2. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/Terminology: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Terminology
  3. Qt governance model: http://qt-project.org/wiki/The_Qt_Governance_Model
  4. "Qt 5.2 – Foundation for KDE Frameworks 5" by Jos Poortvliet: http://dot.kde.org/2013/12/17/qt-52-foundation-kde-frameworks-5
  5. KDE-Community-wiki – Contributing to Qt 5 epic: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Epics/Contributions_to_Qt5
  6. "Frameworks 5 Tech Preview" by Jos Poortvliet: http://dot.kde.org/2014/01/07/frameworks-5-tech-preview
  7. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/Policies: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Policies
  8. KIO API: http://api.kde.org/4.x-api/kdelibs-apidocs/kio/html/index.html
  9. Dependencies graph of KDE Frameworks Version 5: http://agateau.com/tmp/kf5/kf5.png
  10. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/List: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/List
  11. "KDE Frameworks 5: A Big Deal for Free Software" by Jos Poortvliet: http://www.linux.com/news/software/applications/755768-kde-frameworks-5-a-big-deal-for-free-software
  12. Inqlude: http://inqlude.org
  13. "KDE Release Structure Evolves" by Howard Chan: http://dot.kde.org/2013/09/04/kde-release-structure-evolves
  14. Git repository: https://projects.kde.org/projects/frameworks
  15. Source code of the Tech Preview: http://download.kde.org/unstable/frameworks/4.95.0/
  16. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/Coinstallability: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Coinstallability
  17. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/Epics: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Epics
  18. KDE Community wiki – Frameworks/Building: http://community.kde.org/Frameworks/Building
  19. KIO dependencies: http://agateau.com/tmp/kf5/tier3-kio-simplified.png

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