01: June 2005
This month in SVN
KDE Development news
This is the first of a new series of articles that keeps you informed of what’s happening in KDE development. The hottest new features to hit SVN every month will be tested and sneak preview screenshots posted. To start with, KDE 3.5 development will be tracked and later on this year we’ll get a look at early KDE 4 development.
Kicker:
Since the maintainership of Kicker was taken over by Aaron Seigo, Kicker has been fast becoming more stable, feature rich and streamlined. Some talented new developers have recently joined Kicker, adding to the flurry of innovation.
Minipager:
The minipager has seen plenty of enhancements. Windows can now be dragged and dropped between desktops on the panel minipager itself. Text labels on the pager have been made visually more pleasing. Windows on the pager now show the application’s icon, making it easier to distinguish between sometimes fairly uniform squares.
The pager now also can display a thumbnail of the desktop’s wallpaper as its background for each desktop as well as its previous transparent mode and non-transparent mode, renamed ‘elegant’. The currently selected desktop is also subtly highlighted with a brightening of the background.
Applets:
Adding applets to Kicker is now taken care of with a new Add Applet dialog. This dialog makes use of large icons and applet descriptions to clarify the purpose of your applets. A small incremental search field at the top of the dialog lets you narrow the selection down and find what you’re looking for sooner.
Taskbar:
The taskbar now has three appearance settings to suit every theme. ‘Elegant’ is the new default, with flat taskbar buttons and plain text. ‘For transparency’ has flat taskbar butons with shadowed text, for a striking and easily readable transparent panel. Finally, those who liked the old taskbar can select ‘Classic’ to have things as they were in KDE 3.4.
Kopete
Kopete has seen a boom in features since KDE 3.4. It’s rumoured that a Skype protocol will find its way into 3.5. Yahoo users will be pleased to note that Yahoo’s “buzz”, buddy icons and webcam support are all planned for KDE 3.5. Matt Rogers, one of the lead Kopete developers, has recently been sponsored by Linspire to add certain features to Kopete and work through some stability issues. This sponsoring should help Matt find the time to make Kopete an even more professional product. The specific features they’re interested in having implemented are AIM Chat Room support, AIM Buddy Icon support and vertical tabs in the chatwindow.
Identities:
Kopete now has the capability to export a global nickname and display picture via the global identity. MSN and Jabber have support so far and other protocols are expected to follow soon.
KHotNewStuff:
Shortly after KDE 3.4 KHotNew stuff support was added to Kopete. Icon themes and Kopete stylesheets can now be downloaded from kde-look.org within the client by clicking the ‘Get new themes’ button.
Konqueror
Konqueror has been the subject of much speculation lately since Apple have opened their WebKit CVS, and there are talks that they may send a developer to aKademy in Malaga this year.
Google Maps:
Konqueror in SVN trunk is now able to load Google maps. While some small glitches still remain, this is a very exciting breakthrough for google maps lovers who aren’t so fond of the big and bloaty gecko. (Click for larger image)
It’s been an exciting time for KDE development since the 3.4 release. With 3.5 on the horizon and KDE4 work starting, KDE fans have a lot to look forward to.