KDE instructions

[Ian Wadham]

On 03/03/2013, at 4:28 PM, Lawrence Velázquez wrote:
> On Mar 3, 2013, at 12:05 AM, Ian Wadham <iandw.au at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> This page is an excellent start, Nicolas!
>> 
>> I have one or two points to add to it.  Where do I find the wiki source?  Can
>> I edit it?  Probably not.  I do not have edit access to anything in MacPorts.
>> 
>> So how would you like me to proceed?
> 
> Anyone with a Trac account can edit the wiki; just click the "Edit this page" button at the bottom-left of any page.

I have just finished some fairly extensive edits of https://trac.macports.org/wiki/KDE
Reviews and comments are welcome.

I am a newbie at Wiki editing, so please excuse any errors of style.

Several questions arose during this work.  Some I will put on a separate thread
or a ticket.  I'd like to deal with the following quickly and "inline" if possible:

1. Do we need the kde-i18n- ports?

    AFAIK kde-l10n- (localization) modules provide language translations for KDE
    and i18n (internationalization) issues are all handled upstream, starting at the
    developer's desk.

2. Do we need the KDE 3 ports?

    KDE 3 is now obsolete and no longer supported by KDE.  MacPorts says that
    KDE 3 and KDE 4 ports "conflict".  I think that means you cannot install a mix
    of KDE 3 and KDE 4 ports.  On Linux you still(?) can.  They are kept separate
    by using different working directories, library names, etc.  Some KDE 3 apps
    never got ported to KDE4/Qt4 and people come looking for them sometimes.
    The usual reply on KDE lists is, "How about helping by porting it to KDE 4?".

3. Does MacPorts delete KDE users' data files when it uninstalls/re-installs?

    I suspect it does.  See the section in the Wiki on "Installation location".  In
    ~/Library/Preferences/KDE, we have share/apps, share/config and share/kde4.

    share/config has one file per app, called <appname>rc.  This appears on Mac
    in the <AppName>Preferences… menu item.  It is right and proper to preserve
    this across installations.

    share/apps has one directory per app, called <appname>.  KDE applications
    use this to store data the user has created when using the app.  It should be
    preserved across installations.  For example, if you are using kdegames4's
    Palapeli jigsaw-puzzle app, that directory contains puzzles you have created
    from your own pictures, plus the current state of all puzzles you are currently
    solving.  You do not want "mum" to come and tidy them up … :-)

4. Many KDE apps come with user manuals: should MacPorts install them by default?

    If no, I will add a recommendation to the Wiki to use the +docs variant.  If yes,
    is there perhaps some more efficient way for Macports to provide them?

    I am unclear on what variants do exactly (ie. local vs. global).  If I ask for +docs,
    do I get it on all the dependencies?

    Also, with +docs I seem to get all the dependencies needed to generate every
    possible format of the application's API doco from Doxygen (not required by the
    average user).  KDE user manuals are in XML and follow the Docbook convention
    and there is a KDE utility to convert them to HTML during build and installation.

All the best, Ian W.