Frameworks/Epics/Splitting kdelibs

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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 Comment
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 Comment
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.