Frameworks/Epics/Splitting kdelibs

kdelibs splitting epic

Important Forewords

If you are working on splitting a framework, make sure to consult our list of common issues. It will give you an overview of the solutions you're supposed to use to deal with some of the dependencies.

Also, when splitting out a framework, it is part of being done to comply with the KDE Frameworks Policies, it will also need to follow this Epic Policies. Any framework in the staging area cannot move to its final place without following those policies.

And last but not least, if you create a new framework, please consider being its maintainer as well. We need people to ensure the stewardship of all the frameworks.

Existing frameworks

Definition of done:

No dependency on kdeui or kdecore
Modularized CMakeLists.txt
Installs a Config.cmake file for itself
Does not install any Find*.cmake modules itself
All Find*.cmake modules needed by the framework and used also by other frameworks have been upstreamed to extra-cmake-modules (via the kde-buildsystem mailing list) or directly to cmake (via the cmake list)
Follows the policy on directory organization
Unit tested
Has an appointed maintainer
Maintains source compatibility over kdelibs

January Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer	Comment
DONE	itemmodels	Tier 1	Functional	Stephen Kelly
IN PROGRESS	libkauth	Tier 1	Integration	Dario Freddi	Not following directory organization yet Unit tests?
IN PROGRESS	libkdbusaddons	Tier1	Functional	Kevin Ottens	Not following directory organization yet Wrongly named libkdbus
IN PROGRESS	libkplotting	Tier 1	Functional	??	Maintainer missing
IN PROGRESS	solid	Tier 1	Integration	Alex Fiestas	Not following directory organization yet
IN PROGRESS	threadweaver	Tier 1	Functional	??	Not following directory organization yet Maintainer missing
IN PROGRESS	sonnet	Tier 2	Functional	Mario Fux	Not following directory organization yet Maintainer missing
IN PROGRESS	libkcoreaddons	Tier 1	Functional	Romain Perier	Not following directory organization yet Unit tests? Why is it still in staging?

February Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer
TODO	kguiaddons	Tier 1	Functional	??
TODO	idletime	Tier 1	Integration	Dario Freddi?
TODO	window management	Tier 2	Integration	Martin Graesslin?
TODO	color widgets	Tier 2	Functional	??
TODO	job widgets	Tier 2	Functional	Kevin Ottens
TODO	widgets	Tier 2	Functional	??

March Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer	Comment
IN PROGRESS	libkarchive	Tier 1	Functional	Mario Bensi	Depends on KSaveFile Depends on KMimeType
TODO	kconfig	Tier 2	Functional	Helio Castro?	Details on KConfig/DConf, etc.
TODO	kconfiggui	Tier 2	Functional	Helio Castro?
TODO	itemviews	Tier 3	Functional	Stephen Kelly?
TODO	dialogs	Tier 3	Functional	??

April Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer
TODO	kservice	Tier 3	Solution	??
TODO	XMLGUI	Tier 3	Functional	??
TODO	emoticons	Tier 3	Functional	??
TODO	kbookmarks	Tier ?	Functional	??
TODO	kio-core	Tier ?	Solution	David Faure
TODO	kio-widgets	Tier ?	Solution	David Faure

May Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer	Comment
IN PROGRESS	KDE Notifications Frameworks	probably tier2+3+5	Functional or integration	Sune	Work not really started, plan exists in Sune's head Will give a 'low level' collection of notifications Something like KNotification today No knotifydaemon Some gui thing for integration widgets as today
IN PROGRESS	libplasma2	Tier 3	Solution	Aaron Seigo, Marco Martin	libplasma2 already well under way need to identify and break out candidates that belong in lower tiers (e.g. ConfigReader -> kconfigxt++) QGraphicsView and QML libraries Eventually the runtime bits from kde-runtime and the Plasma QML pieces Source compat is priority, but more relaxed than the rest of Frameworks as QML destroys any realistic possibility of that Porting notes Various identified issue/improvements to be made
TODO	kcmutils	Tier 4	N/A	??
TODO	kparts	Tier 4	N/A	??

June Iteration

Status	Framework	Tier	Type	Maintainer	Comment
IN PROGRESS	kde4support	Tier 4	N/A	David Faure
TODO	kde "consistency"	Tier 4	N/A	??

Backlog

For reference, find the class by class analysis produced during Platform11 on the kdelibs dependencies page

This list is non-final, hence why it is not integrated in the table above, when the scope of a lib gets defined and worked on, it is removed from this list and go in the table above.

Yet to be produced frameworks (foreseen tier and type, not set in stone):

Tier 3
- libkdebug (Tier 3 / Functional) / Depends on the results coming from qDebug() in Qt5

And probably more...

Finalization tasks

To be executed to complete the epic when all the frameworks are "done":

Remove libinqt5
Port to qt master (likely upcoming 5.1)
Split into its own git module; pre-existing history will remain in the kdelibs repository and be accessible with git graft

Policies

Strive for Source Compatibility

Avoid removing API from the frameworks branch, even if it is replaced or deprecated. Prefer to implement the old API in terms of the new API.

In some cases this is very easy. For example, many APIs in KGlobal will be replaced as part of the frameworks effort.

KGlobal::charsets() -> KCharsets::charsets()
KGlobal::dirs() -> KStandardDirs::global() (or something?)
KGlobal::ref() -> qApp->ref()
KGlobal::deref() -> qApp->deref()

etc.

Removing this API from KGlobal is not necessary in most cases, and it introduces a porting burden which is best avoided.

There is unlikely to be a 1:1 mapping of old API to new API in every case, so how to implement the old API may not always be obvious. However, attempting to ensure that the older API remains useful should be at the front of our efforts and standards in the frameworks branch.

Binary compatibility policy relaxed

During the execution of this epic, the binary compatibility contraints from the global policy list is lifted.