which is why we didn't stop at 4.0 or 4.1. 4.2 brings ark back to usefulness, SSL cert config is there, etc.. i'm pretty sure i've even told you this previously on a different web board. *raises eyebrows* so let's not beat dead horses. =)

of course, we're not stopping with 4.2 either. stopping isn't in our plan at all, in fact. just better and better releases ...

your entire post is moot, as there are high quality Python, Ruby and Java bindings for Qt and KDE. in-application scripting with JavaScript is also fairly common now as well, though that's a bit of a different topic. bindings for Perl and other languages also exist, but the Ruby and Python bindings are the ones i recommend to people doing application development.

heck, KDE even ships an app written in python (the printer manager) these days.

so whether or not C++ is a good language, not a good language, easier or harder to bind compared to C or not is neither here nor there. bindings exist for "better" (according to your metrics) languages and work damn well. use them, be happy and step off the rather irrelevant soapbox.

"the noteworthy long start up times of Qt apps compared to say Gtk"

take today's Qt (e.g. 4.4 or the upcoming 4.5) built with a modern c++ toolchain (e.g. something from the last year or two) and compare it with Gtk (or any other toolkit). you'll find that start up times are really not an issue anymore. if the app is starting slowly, it's not because of Qt.

"Many don't like the need for obtuse tools like SIP"

SIP is used to do bindings. unless you are making bindings, you never see or use SIP. if writing in C++, that statement about SIP becomes even more absurd.

perhaps you were thinking of moc, which adds introspection and signal/slot glue to C++ classes. that, also, is never seen. the build system handles it transparently for you.

class MyObject : public QObject
{
        Q_OBJECT ....
};

is all you do.

That is factually incorrect: KDE applications can be (and are) released under a number of Free software licenses, including the BSD license, LGPL, GPL, MIT, X11, etc... you can see the licensing policy here: http://techbase.kde.org/Policies/Licensing_Policy ... you can also purchase a license from Qt Software and build proprietary applications. Qt itself has quite a permissive set of license exceptions as well: http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/license-gpl-exceptions.html

So what really changes here is people not being required to purchase a license to do proprietary development and the people in the FOSS world who felt that was such a problem that they wouldn't touch Qt can now rest easy and use it.

"Oh, and before some idiot comes in with "hurf durf we don't want your PROPRIETAAAAAAAARY code!!!111""

the worst thing that can happen when you pre-emptively call other people idiots is showing that you're not so much better yourself in the process.

as you can see here:

http://doc.trolltech.com/4.4/license-gpl-exceptions.html

all the licenses you list are just fine, and then some. enjoy.

"KDE has no working version."

3.5 is still out there and used by millions.

"How do I make the panel thinner vertically?"

in 4.1 is was rather "hidden": there's a little strip at the top of the panel controller (right click on the panel -> Panel Settings, or click the toolbox button on the far right of the panel) that you can click and drag on. in 4.2 there's a nice obvious button that says "Height" (or "Width" if it's a vertical panel)

" How do I adjust its translucency"

select a Plasma theme that provides a translucent panel, which the default theme does. it requires compositing (aka "desktop effects") to be working, however.

the fake translucency in kicker was an insane hack (trust me, i did the bulk of the coding to get it to work ;) and it of course wasn't perfect: it only showed your wallpaper, not windows and heaven forbid if the wallpaper was animated or anything like that.

"-- how do I give it a completely transparent background, but solid foreground?:"

use a completely transparent SVG. =) in 4.2 there is a control panel in system settings (in the Advanced area) that lets you mix and match individual SVGs should you wish to.

"Yet the KDE4 version of AmaroK doesn't yet support encoding scripts in any way, so my choice is mp3s, or no encoding at all. WTF?"

yes, there are some features missing in the first "dot-oh" release of Amarok2. there's an Amarok release coming in January that covers a lot of these (rather amazing how fast that goes, really), though i don't know if this is one of them. i do hope you've filed a feature request on bugs.kde.org.

oh, and if you're tempted to say "they should have just held 2.0 until January, then", don't bother: making releases from the code repository is an absolutely requirement to keep open source projects moving, and one of the downsides of that is that often a first release of a new series isn't what a consumer-grade user is going to what to cut their teeth on. that's why there is another step in row, e.g. distributions. not that they seem to always be doing their users the best favours lately in that regard. *shrug*

"I needed to import a CA public key for use in all my KDE apps"

Konqueror -> Settings -> Configure Konqueror -> Crypto -> SSL Signers -> Import.

"That is an embarrassing oversight,"

*cough*

"3.5 derived a lot of its power from a very solid, well refined OLE framework, and 4.1 has yet to even approach that"

the "OLE framework" in KDE is called KParts, and the infrastructure hasn't changed one bit between KDE3 and KDE4.

"ArK does not embed into Dolphin or Konqueror in 4.1"

it doesn't embed into Dolphin, no, because that's not Dolphin's design goal. i don't have 4.1 nearby to test this on, but in 4.2 you can navigate directly into tarballs seamlessly in Konqueror.

"you cannot open most files without extracting"

currently Ark relies on KParts for previewing files without extracting. an "open with" that would extract to a temporary location and launch the app would be nice, though.

"some application shortcuts are broken if you run the application with KDE as the WM,"

which shortcuts would those be? actually, better yet, go to bugs.kde.org and report it there so it can be handled.

Of course they are using 3.5.

3.5 is the version recommended currently for production installations such as this, with 4.1 being ready for general deployment. Very large or more conservative installations will likely not move over until 4.2 (or even later) due to their usual uptake cycles for any new technology.

And perhaps when KDE4 is ready for production and you get over your bitterness, you can post a similarly frank "thank you" to the people in the project who made it possible.

I think you mean Mr Hu. They put their family names first in that part of the world.

Cos Zonk is a bigotted prick?

ladybee777@hotmail.com is a legit hotmail address with a messenger account.

ScummVM, a virtual machine that runs games developed for LucasArts' SCUMM engine, has been adding support lately for older games (Putt-Putt, Freddi Fish, etc.) released by Humongous Entertainment. (http://www.scummvm.org/demos.php has some examples). ScummVM is extremely portable and runs on everything from most unix systems to game consoles and palmtops.