KDE 2.0 Development

The result of more than two years of collaboration by hundreds of developers around the world, KDE 2.0 brings a modern, user-friendly desktop to Linux and other flavors of UNIX. Inside you'll quickly learn to create KDE-compliantapplications using all of the latest KDE 2.0 technology, such as KParts, DCOP, and multimedia, in chapters contributed by the ultimate authorities — developers of the technology! You'll also learn tricks for programming an efficient GUI, details of the Qt widget set, how to easily add complex functions like HTML 4.0 rendering and spell checking to your application, and much more. Whether you are migrating from KDE 1.x to KDE 2.0 or are new to KDE programming, KDE 2.0 Development will teach you everything you need to know to create powerful, easy-to-use desktop applications.

• Introduction

1. Fundamentals of KDE Application Programming
   
1. The K Desktop Environment Background
1. Motivation for a Free Desktop
2. Why Develop with KDE?
3. KDE Organization and Resources
4. System Requirements
5. Obtaining and Installing KDE
6. Licenses and Legalities
7. Let's Code, Already!
2. A Simple KDE Application
1. The Linux/UNIX Programmer's Desktop
2. Compiling a KDE Program
3. KDE Application Structure
4. GUI Elements
5. Programming Conventions
6. Summary
7. Exercises
3. The Qt Toolkit
1. What It Is For (Look and Feel)
2. Inside the Qt Toolkit
3. Signals and Slots
4. Meta Object Compiler (moc)
5. The Utility Classes
6. Special Features (ImageIO, OpenGL, Mesa)
7. Summary
8. Exercises
4. Creating Custom KDE Widgets
1. Widget Basics
2. Painting Widgets
3. Using Child Widgets
4. Handling User Input
5. Summary
6. Exercises
5. KDE User Interface Compliance
1. The KDE Document-Centric Interface
2. Helping the User Use Your Application
3. Standard Dialog Boxes
4. Summary
5. Exercises
6. KDE Style Reference
1. Accessing the Standard Actions
2. Session Management
3. The Standard KDE Icons
4. Internationalization
5. Playing Sounds
6. User Notifications
7. Executing Other Programs
8. Network Transparency
9. User Friendliness
10. Summary
11. Exercises
2. Advanced KDE Widgets and UI Design Techniques
7. Further KDE Compliance
1. Drag and Drop
2. Application Configuration Information
3. Session Management
4. Application Resources
5. Network Transparency
6. Summary
7. Exercises
8. Using Dialog Boxes
1. Getting Started with the Dialog Widgets
2. Dialog Layout the Simple Way
3. Dialog Modality — Modal or Modeless Dialogs
4. KDE User-Interface Library (kdeui)
5. Dialog Style and KDialogBase
6. A Larger Example: The Option Dialog in KEdit
7. User Interface Design Rules for Dialogs
8. Summary
9. Exercises
9. Constructing A Responsive User Interface
1. The Importance of Responsiveness
2. Speeding Up Window Updates
3. Performing Long Jobs
4. Summary
5. Exercises
10. Complex-Function KDE Widgets
1. Rendering HTML Files
2. Manipulating Images
3. Checking Spelling
4. Accessing the Address Book
5. Summary
6. Exercises
11. Alternative Application Types
1. Dialog-Based Applications
2. Single-Instance Applications
3. Panel Applets
4. Summary
5. Exercises
3. Application Interaction and Integration
12. Creating and Using Components (KParts)
1. The Difference Between Components and Widgets
2. The KDE Component Framework
3. Describing User Interface in XML
4. Read-Only and Read/Write Parts
5. Creating a Part
6. Making a Part Available Using Shared Libraries
7. Creating a KParts Application
8. Embedding More Than One Part in the Same Window
9. Creating a KParts Plug-in
10. Summary
13. DCOP — Desktop Communication Protocol
1. Motivation
2. History
3. Underlying Technologies
4. Architecture
5. Description of DCOP's Programming Interface
6. Developer Concerns and Tools in DCOP
7. DCOP Use in KDE 2.0 — A Few Examples
8. Summary
14. Multimedia
1. Introducing aRts/MCOP
2. A First Glance at Writing Modules
3. MCOP
4. Standard Interfaces
5. Implementing a StereoEffect
6. KDE Multimedia Besides MCOP
7. The Future of MCOP
8. Summary
9. Exercises
4. Developer Tools and Support
15. Creating Documentation
1. Documenting Source Code
2. Documenting Applications
3. Summary
16. Packaging and Distributing Code
1. The Structure of a Package
2. Administrative Files
3. Distributing Your Application
4. Summary
17. Managing Source Code with CVS
1. What Is CVS?
2. CVS Organization
3. Accessing Source Code in CVS
4. Installing and Using CVSup
5. Installing and Using cvs
6. Summary
18. The KDevelop IDE: The Integrated Development Environment for KDE
1. General Issues
2. Creating KDE 2.0 Applications
3. Getting Started with the KDE 2.0 API
4. The Classbrowser and Your Project
5. The File Viewers — The Windows to Your Project Files
6. The KDevelop Debugger
7. KDevelop 2.0 — A Preview
8. Summary
19. Licensing Issues
1. What Are the "Issues?"
2. License Usage by KDE
3. The License Usage by Qt
4. The KDE/Qt License History
5. Summary
5. Appendixes
1. KDE-Related Licenses
1. GNU Library General Public License (LGPL)
2. GNU General Public License
2. KDE Class Reference
3. Answers
1. Chapter 1
2. Chapter 2
3. Chapter 3
4. Chapter 4
5. Chapter 5
6. Chapter 6
7. Chapter 7
8. Chapter 8
9. Chapter 9
10. Chapter 10
11. Chapter 11
12. Chapter 12
13. Chapter 13
14. Chapter 14

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