A Qt Blog

The KDE project today removed the inter-application communication system DCOP from the head of its Subversion repository; it is being replaced by FreeDesktop's D-BUS. Thiago Macieira explains:

D-BUS brings us better interoperability with many other programs. While DCOP was pretty much restricted to KDE applications (yes, I know there were C bindings, but not many people used it...), D-BUS already comes with bindings for several other major frameworks: glib, Java, Python, Perl, Mono, etc. D-BUS has been designed from the ground up to be an interoperable IPC system and also to replace DCOP when the time came. And so it did.

D-BUS also allows us to better talk to our own system: projects like HAL and Avahi are already being used by many Linux distributions to let normal applications get access to some privileged resources. In time, I also hope the Portland Project to come around and use D-BUS for its IPC needs, thus freeing us from using a special library with its own protocol to do what D-BUS already does.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:09 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A set of plugins for the KOffice graphics application Krita has been released. It includes basic colour filters, colour transfer, adjustable blur, unsharp mask, and an anti-redeye tool. These plugins will be shipped with KOffice v1.6. Download at KDE Apps; requires KOffice 1.5.1.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Syntext has released a beta of version 3.0 of its WYSIWYG XML editor Serna. This version features ContentMap, an "advanced replacement of TOC representing full document tree on the left pane", with a wider choice of tree views in the left pane than just the old Table of Contents, the ability to install multiple versions of the software, DocBook v4.4 support, various bug fixes, and more. A functional trial version is available; the application works on Windows, Linux and Mac OS X. Serna uses Qt 3; for pricing details see here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 3:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.3.8 of the PostgreSQL administration app KPoGre has been released. This version contains a fix for compatibility with KDE 3.5.2 and removes an obsolete library workaround. Screenshots here, downloads (source and SUSE 10 RPMs for app and PG library) here. Requires KDE 3.5.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:10 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.9 of Piklab, an IDE for PIC and dsPIC-based microcontroller applications, has been released. This version has the usual new support for various devices (full list of supported devices here), "faster loading, smaller executable, and smaller memory footprint", other improvements and bugfixes; see KDE Apps for more details. Screenshots here, downloads (source and Mandriva 2006.0 RPM) with requirements list here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 2.0.4 of KDbg, a KDE front-end for the GNU debugger, has been released. This version adds support for the Qt4 QString class, fixes the Czech translation and a bug preventing the KDbg window being raised when the debugged application stops at a breakpoint. Screenshots here, source downloads here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A new development version of Gambas, a Visual Basic-like development environment for Unix with a KDE-based front-end, has been released. Version 1.9.31 adds a number of improvements to the Multiple Document Interface in the IDE, and a dialog for importing CSV files; there are a number of bug-fixes also (changelog here. Downloads are here (source only). The stable version is 1.0.16, and Gambas recommend using this for any production work.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Ubuntu has released a first release candidate of version 6.06 (Dapper Drake), along with the KDE version Kubuntu: announcement here, with upgrade and download instructions. The project will also be shipping Kubuntu CDs for free through the Shipit scheme - you'll need to get a Launchpad account (start here), although shipping starts in early June and could take up to six weeks, by which time the final version will be out (perhaps that's the idea, but they don't make that clear). Screenshots here at OSDir; Kubuntu features KDE 3.5.2 and KOffice v1.5.0 (see here for where to get 1.5.1.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:20 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.3.2 of Catkin QTM, the blogging client (written by this author) for MT, Wordpress etc, has been released. This version adds Technorati tag support and fixes a bug involving the encoding of special characters; it can also now submit edits properly on Wordpress. Screenshots at KDE Apps; downloads (currently source only) there and at SourceForge.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Boudewijn Rempt reports that a review in Linux Format of KOffice 1.5 actually covered a beta release without pointing this fact out. (I have to say, I'm pretty sick of seeing reviews of beta and RC versions of software, particularly Linux distros, in the UK Linux press when the editors just can't wait for the actual release to come out. Beta versions by definition will never be as good as the actual release, so why bother wasting two pages on a review of unfinished software?)

Fading Memories : So tiresome...

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

More unexpected build success - Bobulate

Adriaan de Groot reports that KDE PIM "just builds" using Qt4 and KDE 4:

No tweaks, no hacks (except for enabling compilation against kdelibs trunk). Just CMake, make, make install... This means that -- without kdebase, so you'll need some other window manager like twm -- you can run KDE PIM apps right now from KDE4. Which in turn means that it's a viable development platform to work one.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 2:43 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (1)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.5.0 of CrossVC, the Qt3-based CVS client formerly known as LinCVS, has been released. Changes in this release include compatibility with GCC v4.1, the ability to show or hide the toolbar via the menu, and a large number of bug fixes (full changelog here). Screenshots here, downloads (source and generic Linux binary) here. A commercial version, CrossVC XXL, is also available (current version 1.8.2).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Version 1.5.1 of KOffice, KDE's set of office applications, has been released (full announcement here). This release improves the OpenDoc support, particularly in KSpread and fixes problems in the graphic manipulation app Krita concerning the rotating and scaling of images; full changelog here. Details of source and binary downloads (so far, SUSE 10.0/10.1 and Kubuntu) are in the announcement.

The KOffice Project - Press Release: KOffice Version 1.5.1

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.5 of QtiPlot, a Qt-based open-source clone of the scientific plotting and data analysis app Origin, has been released. This version now uses the latest version of liborigin and fixes a compile error on Mac OS X.4 (Tiger), with a few other improvements and fixes. Screenshots at KDE Apps; downloads (source and some binaries in return for a donation) here. Please see homepage for full library requirements.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:14 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Via Riverbank Computing, Gerard Vermeulen has announced a new version of the PyQwt library, an extension of the Qwt library which "contains data plotting widgets for scientific, engineering and financial applications". The new stable version is v4.2.1 and is based on Qt v3.3, PyQt v3.16 and SIP 4.4, now includes support for NumPy, and can coexist with version 5 snapshots; there is also a new v5 snapshot.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Dot News:

KDE has joined the ODF Alliance, the organisation for promoting the XML-based Open Document Format, the data format used by KOffice and OpenOffice.org, "as a market leader in document exchange and storage". The alliance already includes Oracle, Sun, Mandriva, IBM and the Andalucian regional government.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.4 of kdesvn, the KDE client for the Subversion source control system, has been released. This version fixes a bug in which the "revision tree sometimes failed while detecting renamed items", and answers two feature requests. Screenshots here, downloads (source and Fedora 4&5 RPMs) here. Requires KDE 3.4.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:56 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.4 of the KDE-based personal finance manager KMyMoney has been released. There is a huge list of bug-fixes and improvements listed at KDE Apps. Screenshots here, downloads (source bz2 and some SUSE RPMs) here. Requires KDE 3.2.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A new development version of Gambas, a BASIC programming environment for Unix with a KDE-based IDE, has been released. Version 1.9.30 includes a substantial number of improvements to both the IDE and the language implementation itself; changelog here. Source downloads here. The stable version remains 1.0.16.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:48 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Trolltech has released Qt 4.1.3 - and there is a huge list of improvements to just about every part of Qt this time around. The package is downloadable from the usual FTP sites, but Trolltech has yet to update its website; however, it can be downloaded by opening the directories in which the 4.1.2 downloads are located, and downloading the 4.1.3 bundle instead.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:34 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.4.0 of amaroK, the KDE audio player with support for playlists and various other features of interest to the serious music lover, has been released (announcement here). The new features include tag support for all major formats (OGG, MP3/4, FLAC and RM), improved media device support (including iPod, iRiver and generic devices), gapless playback with xine, and a user-based rating system. Source download at Sourceforge; the amaroK download and screenshot pages is currently broken.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

As you might see on the left if you are reading the main blog page (click Main above), I have started a new section called Qt4 Package Watch, providing links to where Qt4 developers, as well as people who want to use Qt4 applications, can find up to date packages for their system. Many distributions have been slow to provide up to date Qt4 binaries, notably Fedora (many of those in my list are actually contributed packages and not provided by the distro suppliers). I hope to launch a more automated package watch section in the future rather than my present hand-coded HTML list, but I hope this will be useful in the meanwhile.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:23 PM | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A second beta of version 0.6 of KBlogger, a KDE kicker app for submitting entries to blogs using XML-RPC, has been released. This version adds support for links and a fix for a kicker crash bug. Screenshots and downloads (source and various Linux distro binaries) on the KDE Apps page. Requires KDE 3.1.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:22 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.4 of QtiPlot, a Qt-based freeware clone of the scientific plotting application Origin, has been released. New features include an improved project explorer with support for folders, various other UI improvements and various bug fixes including one for "a bug affecting the reload of Box Plots from project files". For screenshots see the KDE Apps page; downloads here (free source, binaries for Windows, Mac, and Linux in DEB and RPM form in return for a donation). Requires Qt 3 and a number of other libraries (see home page).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.5.1 of LabPlot, a KDE data plotting and function analysis app which "tries to emulate most of the functions supported by programs like Microcal Origin or SPSS Sigmaplot", has been released. For changelog (there are many new features), see KDE Apps link above; screenshots here, downloads (source, packages for Gentoo and several Red Hat, SUSE, Mandrake/Mandriva and Slackware variants) here. Requires KDE 3; also uses QSA.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 7:07 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

froglogic has released a beta of Squish version 3.0. Squish is a commercial test tool for Qt; this version adds editions for Tk and web applications. A list of new features can be found here; they include improved Qt 4 support, more script APIs, IDE improvements and binary packages for common systems. A press release can be found here. Existing customers should find the beta in their download area; the official release is expected at the beginning of June.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:50 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Version 10.1 of the OpenSUSE distro (the open-source version of Novell's SUSE Linux) has been released: a five-CD download is available here along with a sixth add-on CD of proprietary software (Sun Java, RealPlayer and the like). There is also a DVD download, which contains a lot more software, while the double-layer retail DVD will contain more still. This version includes KDE 3.5.1 and Qt 3.3.5 and 4.1.0; however, a supplementary library ([1], [2], [3]) is already available containing KDE 3.5.2 and Qt 4.1.2.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.6.1 of KPowersave, the KDE front-end for the powersave daemon, providing battery monitoring and suspend/standby triggers and related features for KDE, has been released. This version fixes three bugs affecting use on SUSE, one affecting multi-processor and multi-core machines, updates four translations and the README, and adds a configure check for dbus-1-qt3-devel headers. Source download here; RPM binaries here; note that your distro may have a binary, albeit an out-of-date one.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

KDE and Business: AEI Interview

KDE Dot News publishes an interview Aaron Seigo conducted with Caleb Tennis, design engineer for Analytical Engineering, Inc design engineer and author of a book on Ruby/Qt. The discussion centres on AEI's use of, and relationship with, KDE.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 4:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In response to a bug report I filed regarding Ubuntu Dapper's inclusion of Qt 4.1.0 with its notoriously slow QTextEdit widget class, I received an email in the past few minutes from Ian Scott informing me that Dapper now contains version 4.1.2, in which the performance has been improved.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 4:42 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.9.90 of KDiff, a utility for comparing and merging directories which can show differences by line and character and merge across networks, has been released. This is purely a bug-fix release. Screenshots here, downloads (source with Windows executable) here. While normally a KDE application (requires version 3.3), there is also a Qt 4 support package.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:39 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 2.21 of Beesoft Commander, a twin-panel file manager based on Qt 3 which doubles as an FTP client, has been released. The biggest new feature is an ability for sysadmins to restrict which directories users can access using the application. Screenshots on homepage; downloads (source, GZipped binary and links to various distro binaries) here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

This month's Linux Format, issue 80, has a negative review of KOffice 1.5. The reviewer Andy Channelle notes that KWord has superfluous features and is prone to crashing, that the spreadsheet has serious improvements over its predecessor "such as the ability to run for more than 25 minutes" but its Excel importing was poor, and that the image editor Krita "falls over seconds after trying to add an adjustment layer". Only Kexi (the database) and Kivio (flowcharting app) are recommended; the review gives the suite only 4 out of 10. (Note: it transpires that the magazine reviewed a beta version, not the final release, for which there has already been a maintenance release. See here and here.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:36 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.80.2 of Kuroo, a KDE front-end for Gentoo Portage developed with openusability.org, has been released. I cannot find an up-to-date changelog. Screenshots here, installation instructions and downloads here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 2.2 of KPhotoAlbum, formerly KimDaBa, has been released. The new version includes a "new and improved" thumbnail viewer and the ability to search photos by EXIF data (that is, details about the camera and exposure etc. included in JPEG images). There are other improvements and bug fixes; see news page. Screenshots here, downloads (presently source only) here. Requires KDE 3.4.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The KDE project announces that its legal and financial representative body KDE e.V. has become an associate member of the Free Software Foundation Europe, the European sister organisation of RMS's Free Software Foundation.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8 of Piklab, an IDE for developing applications on the PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers, has been released. This adds support for yet more hardware, "option to run tools with wine", and numerous improvements and bug fixes. Screenshots here, downloads (source, Slackware and Mandriva 2006 packages) and requirements list here. Requries Qt/KDE 3.3.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:16 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Dot News:

A write-up of the talk by Mark Shuttleworth (Canonical / Ubuntu) to the recent LinuxTag in Wiesbaden, Germany, on the proposed improvements to the KDE desktop in Ubuntu; this includes shipping free CDs of Kubuntu as well as of the GNOME-based Ubuntu. It was also announced that Canonical is to hire people "from the KDE world" to work on K/Ubuntu.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Qt4 QtRuby windows port progress | www.kdedevelopers.org

Richard Dale on progress he's made porting QtRuby to Windows using the GPL version of Qt 4, partly thanks to funding from Caleb Tennis's company. Dale also reports that QtRuby for Qt4 also works on OS X on Intel Macs.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:48 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

KDE are on stall 937a at the LinuxTag in Wiesbaden, Germany (near Frankfurt am Main), where they will be showing off the developments for KDE 4, plus what's new in KDE 3.5 and KOffice 1.5. Other KDE-related activities include talks by Ariya Hidayat on plans for KDE 4 and Daniel Molkentin on Qt 4. For more details see KDE Dot News.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:36 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.0.16 of Gambas, the object-oriented Basic system for Unix which uses Qt and/or KDE for its IDE, has been released. This version "fixes the annoying bug in Subst(), and the display of tooltips in view controls like TreeView, ListView...", and also fixes the Czech language ISO code. Downloads here (source only, with links to contributed binaries).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.9.7 of Maintou-Mail, a Qt-based mail client which uses PostgreSQL to store the mail and a Perl daemon to send and retrieve it, has been released. This release includes "a revamped full text search engine, a new online help system using Qt assistant, modularized Perl code for the mail-database exchanger, along with a number of small bugfixes and enhancements". It now compiles on BSD and Solaris. Screenshots here, source downloads here. Installation is described as "not newbie friendly" and the application comes in three parts. Requires Qt 3.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 1:01 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.3 of kdesvn, the KDE client for Subversion, has been released. Changes include three bug fixes, including a big memory leak. Screenshots here, downloads (source bundle and RPM, FC4 and FC5 RPM) here. Requires KDE 3.4.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)