SoK/2021/StatusReport/Claudio Cambra

Improving technical documentation

Kirigami is one of KDE's most important frameworks. It is used by KDE developers to produce attractive applications that work across desktop and mobile environments and across many operating systems.

However, the Kirigami developer documentation on the KDE Develop site was scarce in content. This made it difficult for newcomers to fully uncover Kirigami's capabilities. A significant part of my Season of KDE work has been devoted to addressing this, working towards the goal of making the Kirigami documentation detailed, complete, and beginner-friendly. We are now much closer to this goal than we were in January.

Working on this project has also helped me learn a lot about Kirigami too. One of my personal projects, DayKountdown, has gone from being a blank window to being a (relatively!) usable, convergent application. DayKountdown now forms part of the Plasma Mobile namespace on KDE Invent and the aim is for it to eventually become a showcase of Kirigami's capabilities. Right now, it just counts down the days towards a date (with a few neat extra pieces of functionality).

Throughout Season of KDE, I have improved several additional areas of the KDE Developer documentation. I have also assisted other community members in the writing and drafting of new documentation.

Links

Upstream repository for develop.kde.org Downstream working repository for develop.kde.org Repository for DayKountdown

Timeline

January 2021

• MR1: Fixing exemplar code in KDE Frameworks 'Getting Started' section
• MR2: Fixing develop.kde.org repository README instructions
• MR3: Larger fixes to KDE Frameworks 'Getting Started' section
• MR4: Uploading a missing screenshot from 'Getting Started' section (oops)
• MR5: Upload new screenshots for develop.kde.org to address open issue over low-resolution screenshots

February 2021

• MR6: New set of Kirigami tutorials
• MR7: Changes to Kirigami tutorials introduction text

March 2021

• MR8 (Still open): Fixes to new Kirigami tutorials and existing pages
• MR9: Fixes and touchups to KConfig KCM page
• MR10: Created new page with information for beginners to Kirigami

April 2021

• MR11: 9 new Kirigami components pages added