Icebreaker.Net

Plasma Roadmap Update

December 29th, 2005 at 12:49 pm (KDE)

With all the buzz in the air about the exciting future of KDE4. I decided to take a moment to post a status update on what is left to be done in order to bring Plasma onto the Linux desktop and how YOU can help!

The SVN Roadmap

Inside the trunk/kdebase/kicker directory of the KDE SVN repository is a file called TODO_KDE4 that sheds some light on where we are in the roadmap. For simplicity I have duplicated it in HTML below:

Itemized list of works need to be done in kicker for KDE4 porting and Plasma framework.

Work:

• Port kicker to KDE4/Qt4
  • Get kicker/libkicker building (minimal port)
  • Get applets, extensions and menuext building
  • Move KPanel* classes from kdelibs/kdeui to libkicker
  • Qt4-ize kicker (remove remaining Qt3* classes)
  • Make the kicker actually run

• Create Plasma libraries (for applets and extentions)
  • Decide what to offer to applets
    • Split libkicker to become libplasma and libplasmaext
    • Wrappers for common needs (like an html widget)
  • Harmonize with superkaramba’s library
  • Decide and implement graphics framework
  • Create bindings for libplasma
  • Revisit KPanel* classes
    • Tie the KConfigXT settings into these classes
    • Move hiding/etc code from ContainerExtension to KPanelExtension
    • Rethink placement code
    • Allow for Extentions to communicate the form factor to contained items
    • Allow applets to adapt to various form factors with as little code as possible

• Extend kicker to become the plasma manager
  • Make plugin, etc. management classes ready for plasma
  • Revisit Container* classes
  • Removal of cruft

• Implement desktop widgets
  • Subclass KPanelExtension
  • Start working on a layout and positioning scheme
  • Decide on the requirements
    (must be easy, must allow autopositioning/growing of applets, etc.)

• Implement new Plasma elements
  • Revisit kickertip to make it better
  • Agree on a list and overall architecture of the required elements
    • Extenders
    • New buttons
    • New applet management UI (handles on panels, $SOMETHING on the destop)
    • ? Interoperability of applets over the network

• Use new Plasma library in applets and extentions
  • Port existing applets and extentions
  • Create new noteworthy applets and extentions

• ? Build an applet creator/studio for packaging JS/Ruby/Python applets

• Provide a development framework
  • Test suite
  • Documentation standards
    • Diagrams of plasma structure
    • API documents for libplasma
    • Applet development tutorial

How to Help

The best way you can help right now is by setting up a kdesvn-build environment of KDE4 (see the guides here and here. Once you are all setup and have a working build, try to find some QT3 cruft to remove with a command like “find ./kdebase -name “*.c*” -exec grep -H Q3 {} \; | grep -v svn”. Once you port the old syntax to QT4 (see this guide) do an “svn diff” and post it to the kde-core-devel mailing list. Have fun!