Olinux.com.br: KDE2 is around the corner. Are you curious? [Interview with KDE developer Mosfet]

[ Thanks to Fernando
Ribeiro Correa for this link. ]

“OLinux: What are the main differences
between KDE1 and the next release KDE2?

Mosfet: Pretty much everything 😉 The
libraries have been rewritten to be more extendable, most of the UI
is configurable with XML integrated into the core system, there is
a new internet transparent I/O subsystem, a new browser, new
HTML capabilites with support for things like CSS, bidirectional
text, unicode, and soon Netscape plugins, a new window manager,
help system, configuration system, panel, a whole slew of new
widgets and classes, widget styles and themes… The list goes on
and on.”

The main difference is now KDE2 is heavily component based,
focusing on the browser. All of the KOffice applications (KWord,
KPresenter, KIllustrator, KSpread, KImageShop, KIllustrator,
KChart, and KFormula) as well as many other KDE applications such
as the PS/PDF viewer, mpeg and image viewers, and DVI viewers are
all components now – internet transparent and embeddable in the
browser. You can even embed the terminal application in the browser
and change directories using the arrow buttons 😉 Pretty cool. KDE
easily boasts the most extensive and complete component model
support for Unix desktops.”

“OLinux: Do you consider Corba technology as a
advance for KDE in matters of a better functionality? Do you see a
lot of programmers using it? Give us some advantages.

Mosfet: Well, actually we found it wasn’t an
advance for us 😉 The problem with Corba is the API is not ideal
and it’s very difficult for new programmers to learn. We rely on
components more extensively than any other free desktop project has
attempted thus far, and the requirement to learn Corba in order to
do even trivial KDE development was a huge restriction. AFAIK Gnome
got around this by both using components less and providing easier
function specific bindings where non-Corba experts are likely to be
doing development (such as control panel applets).”

Complete
Story