KDE Developers Discuss Merging Libraries With Qt

[pingufunkybeat]

That's quite a good summary, thanks. I tend to agree with it for the most part.

[onety-three]

Which issues would those be?

The biggest would be that you need to basically give Nokia all rights to the code you want them to integrate into Qt. Apparently this involves signing an agreement of some sort, I'm not quite sure about the details there. Either way many of the original contributors aren't even around any more, so getting their approval for a relicensing is close to impossible.

Another problem is that only employees of Nokia have commit rights thus far and they're already overwhelmed with the amount of merge requests they're getting at the moment. Something would need to change drastically to allow proper development by KDE developers inside of Nokia's repository.

A more general problem would be that Qt and KDE release separately, so it could become problematic to decide which features that are in development can be used and which won't make it into a Qt release in time.

Last but not least, many of the customizations KDE does to various Qt classes wouldn't really be welcomed by Qt proper because they're too niche or whatever.

All said, I wouldn't expect a real merger of Qt and KDELibs. The discussion trends more to a multi-pronged approach where
- as much as possible is merged into Qt
- other stuff would go into KDE-maintained Qt modules
- the rest goes either into a minimal KDELibs or gets tossed out completely

I wouldn't bet on _anything_ happening, to be honest.

[deanjo]

Yes, I guess I put it in a wrong way. Of course one should plan before taking action, but waiting for too long can also be harmful in fast moving world. Truth is that I have no idea how long this kind of projects take but I doubt that neither planning nor coding take that long.

On big projects it does take a long time if it is to be done properly. 3rd party developers hate having radical changes pop up over night especially when 1/2 of the code is still "baking in the oven". A lot of development requires planning and communication with the other parties involved and effected by the proposed changes and this takes quite sometime when dealing with entities on which you rely on and vice versa. Technology may appear to the end user as quickly changing but almost every technology spends years in planning and preparation.

[V!NCENT]

Qt can also be sold for proprietary software. KDE has to hand over copyright to Nokia so then Nokia can give it back as GPL'd code.

[Teho]

Which issues would those be?

Well that's the thing, I don't really know but I have heard that there's some promblems somewhere regarding licensing, copyright, "merge control" or something like that. However I don't have the knowledge myself, so I take as "uncertain truth". If there really isn't anything that's truly splendid.

But how should I understand something like this: "Albert also does not agree with the Qt licensing requirements."?

[pingufunkybeat]

It would be nice but only after Qt's licencing issues etc. are fixed.

Which issues would those be?

[pingufunkybeat]

It is funny. When in another old thread i said that KDE is just a tech demo from Qt developers designed to showcase Qt's abilities, many people said that i do not know what i am talking about... That this is FUD. Well... explain this smart guys... For this discussion to even happen, it proves my point...

Sure, KDE is a community project. Sure, some people from all over the world contribute to it. But it's core team that drives it, is from Trolltech. Trolltech points, they follow. It is that simple.

You got called on your bullshit back then and you'll get called again.

Trolltech funds exactly ONE KDE developer. That's it.

[Teho]

It's not stupid at all to plan that far ahead. Most larger projects give similar time lines when a radical change is desired.

Yes, I guess I put it in a wrong way. Of course one should plan before taking action, but waiting for too long can also be harmful in fast moving world. Truth is that I have no idea how long this kind of projects take but I doubt that neither planning nor coding take that long.

[deanjo]

Tt also should be done in next couple of years, planning something which might happen in next five years sounds stupid in a world where technology developes as fast as it does - or at least I think so.

It's not stupid at all to plan that far ahead. Most larger projects give similar time lines when a radical change is desired. If they don't plan that far ahead you get a huge mess in development with some areas being relatively mature and stable while other areas are a complete mess.

[Teho]

It would be nice but only after Qt's licencing issues etc. are fixed. Qt has bright future in mobile world, but developement in desktop side is lacking (at least so have I heard). This would probably fix that and make it even more instresting and complete toolkit. In a long run this is probably the best for both sides.

However it really should happen in transission of KDE and Qt 5. Breaking backward compatibility twice in year or two doesn't sound good. Tt also should be done in next couple of years, planning something which might happen in next five years sounds stupid in a world where technology developes as fast as it does - or at least I think so.