Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 13th Jan 2008 20:09 UTC
KDE 4.0.0 has been released on January 11th, after a number of delays; the months preceding the release, the KDE developers tried very hard to downplay expectations. KDE 4.0.0 was just the first release in the KDE 4 series, and such, should not be seen as the best possible representation of the KDE 4.0.0 vision. So, when I installed KDE 4.0.0 on my Ubuntu Gutsy installation last Friday, I knew what to expect: KDE 4 Developer Release 1 (yes, I am a BeOS guy - how did you know?). Read on for a few quick first impressions.
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Member since:2007-02-17
"As I understand it, KDE 4.0 is a complete re-write, from the ground up.
A lot of stuff has changed but it's certanly not a rewrite. Rewriting KDE would take ages. "
Well, it did take ages. I can't think what bits of KDE weren't changed heavily, so it may as well be a re-write:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kde_4
The "last bit" of KDE 4 is the most visible part that is the least developed ... it is called Plasma.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plasma_%28KDE%29
"Plasma is a fundamental rewrite of several KDE technologies, most notably the widget engine, into a more unified and flexible application for KDE 4. Plasma's applets are collectively called plasmoids, but range from informative widgets to mini-applications like calculators and dictionaries. An important feature of Plasma is that there is no longer a distinction between panels like the taskbar and widgets; they will be both created the same way."
See? It does say the magic words "fundamental rewrite".
The bulk of KDE 4 is not released yet in KDE 4.0.0.
Edited 2008-01-14 12:22 UTC
RE[6]: Comment by OSGuy
by anda_skoa on Mon 14th Jan 2008 13:42
in reply to "RE[5]: Comment by OSGuy"
Member since:2005-07-07
See? It does say the magic words "fundamental rewrite".
This is referring to Plasma, which is totally new and replaces the software pieces previously responsible for desktop and panels, thus being the part where some features of those old pieces have not been implemented yet.
There are other new portions of code in the libraries but they are mainly additions, not replacements of previously existing code.
While it is true that most KDE code has been changed during the transition, the changes are almost always refactoring and cleanup, i.e. getting the code into a better form (e.g. more obivous for new comers, better maintainability), not some form of rewrite and definitely not a "complete" one
Member since:2005-11-12
RE[5]: Comment by OSGuy
by KugelKurt on Mon 14th Jan 2008 12:21
in reply to "RE[4]: Comment by OSGuy"
Member since:2005-07-06
A lot of stuff has changed but it's certanly not a rewrite.
Phonon, Plasma, etc. have been written from scratch. Rewriting KDE would take ages.
How long do you think KDE 4.0 was in development? A month? IIRC development started about two years ago. Edited 2008-01-14 12:27 UTC
Member since:2005-11-12
Yes, plasma, phonon etc. was written for KDE 4.0. But that doesn't mean KDE was rewritten.
Two years isn't that long compared to how long it would take to rewrite KDE.
Using the same argument you could say Vista was a rewrite of windows just because the GUI and networking stack etc. was rewritten which of course is wrong.
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Member since:
2005-11-12
A lot of stuff has changed but it's certanly not a rewrite. Rewriting KDE would take ages.