Fwd: Running KDE apps on Apple OS X

[MK-MacPorts at techno.ms]

From: mk-lists at email.de
Subject: Re: Running KDE apps on Apple OS X
Date: 11 Mar 2014 23:05:09 GMT+1
To: KDE-devel Mailing-List <kde-devel at kde.org>
Cc: KMyMoney KDE Development List <kmymoney-devel at kde.org>, Developer-MacPorts Mailing-List <macports-dev at lists.macosforge.org>

Hi Ian,

thanks for your initiative!!!

I am not a software engineer - but just a Linux/MacOSX hobby-coder - and since 4 years I am trying to keep KMyMoney (KMM) alive on MacOSX via MacPorts during my spare time [0]. That’s how the two of us initially got to know each other! :-)


————— INSET ————— 
Well, here I simple MUST mention that I always had A LOT OF GREAT SUPPORT from the KMM developers whenever I ran into trouble getting KMM to build on MacPorts. For the last four years I was running MacOSX 10.6.x and since a quarter of a year I am using MacOSX 10.9.x - successfully building KMM 4.6.x and almost always at master’s HEAD! :-)

When I started using MacOSX four years ago there was KMM 1.0.3 available (still using KDE3) since someone else had created a functional port for it on MacPorts. :)
That and the KMM devs helped me a lot setting up a new port for KMM 4.5 in Nov 2010! :-D
After a while I switched over to keep my finances under control only by KMM 4.x!
————— INSET ————— 


Well, but just you, mention there are again and again little problems with the underlying KDE framework.
Luckily there were and up to now are very active MacPorts maintainers who tried/try to keep kdelibs3 and kdelibs4 afloat on MacOSX via the MacPorts port system. Thank god!!!
To my horror I’ve seen already two maintainers give up on kdelibs4 in the past four years, which is a shame and very sad.
I - personally - would find it very sad if KMM would disappear because of KDE dropping support for MacOSX!!!


So, I hope that this initiative might be a spark which motivates more people to get involved here.


I have - just like you, Ian - tried TO FIND help here on KDE-DEVEL (as well as on KDE-MAC) all these years and I was grateful for every hint I got - given the low number of MacOSX users to be found in there.

Whenever I find a bug in KMM or KDE I DO TRY TO PIN IT DOWN as much as possible and address it to the relevant bug reporters on https://bugs.kde.org (e.g. open [2,3]) or https://bugreports.qt-project.org (e.g. open [4,5]).

A most annoying bug is related to meinproc4 [6] (as you, Ian, already mentioned) which is bugging me on MacPorts with KMM and other KDE-apps since years. But unfortunately it shows a very indeterministic behaviour and I couldn’t come forward there. Only in Dec 2013 / Jan 2014 there was finally movement, but I haven’t yet followed that up…
I could grab my own nose and try to investigate what had been changed there to find out whether other apps would build without this annoyance from now on, like e.g. KMM! :-/      ——>>> Would be a good thing to start with, I guess. 8-)

————— NOTE ————— 
I am deliberately listing all those references to show that there are people trying their best, and I am not the only one on MacPorts, Homebrew, Fink, etc. That shall be enough in response to what has been uttered in this list’s thread “What to test for 4.13" and I don’t want to put more oil into the fire but rather like to calm the waves and come to a constructive level. I - for my part - will always try to contribute as best as I can and as I have done in the past to KDE, KMM and also wxWidgets as another example [7].
————— NOTE ————— 


On 11 Mar 2014, at 04:15 , Ian Wadham <iandw.au at gmail.com> wrote:
> I need some ongoing help, advice and mentoring from time to
> time as I investigate why some KDE apps run OK on Apple
> OS X and others do not.  The problem is simply stated.
So would I.


> Most KDE apps build and run well in Apple OS X.  The difficult
> ones are the more complex ones --- and the ones that are in
> demand from Apple users --- such as Digikam, Kdenlive,
> KDevelop and Amarok.
I have recently only tested kdenlive myself - and it works!!! :-) 


> The case of kbuildsysoca4 is a good example.
Yes, indeed, luckily the kdelibs4 port since then installs a user launch agent which takes care of running kbuildsyscoca4 periodically to avoid most of the trouble.


> But I need help, guidance and mentoring as I dive into
> KDE internals.  Any offers will be gratefully accepted.
Dito.


For completeness I want to add, that I try with scrooge to maintain also another alternative financial KDE-application on MacPorts [8].


Best regards to all devs on this list,
Marko



———

 References

 [0] http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=kmymoney
 [1] Thread "[Kmymoney2-developer] SUCCESS: v4.5 runs on Mac OS X” @ 2 Nov 2010
 [2] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=279194
 [3] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=316404
 [4] https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-19873
 [5] https://bugreports.qt-project.org/browse/QTBUG-32943
 [6] https://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=261509
 [7] http://trac.wxwidgets.org/ticket/15345
 [8] http://www.macports.org/ports.php?by=name&substr=skrooge