KDE 2.0 Development (Paperback)

~ David Sweet (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

KDE users program KDE to create a personalized desktop environment. KDE 2.0 Development covers programming the newest release of KDE. Topics include: KDE UI Compliance, KDE Style Reference, The Qt Toolkit, Responsive User Interface, Complex-Function KDE Widgets, Multimedia, DCOP, KParts, Creating Documentation, Packaging Code, CVS and CVSUP, and KDevelop: the Integrated Development Environment for KDE.

From the Back Cover

KDE users program KDE to create a personalized desktop environment. KDE 2.0 Development covers programming the newest release of KDE. Topics include: KDE UI Compliance, KDE Style Reference, The Qt Toolkit, Responsive User Interface, Complex-Function KDE Widgets, Multimedia, DCOP, KParts, Creating Documentation, Packaging Code, CVS and CVSUP, and KDevelop: the Integrated Development Environment for KDE.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 700 pages
• Publisher: Sams; 1 edition (October 9, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0672318911
• ISBN-13: 978-0672318917
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #2,145,623 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful but flawed, November 1, 2001

By	moonwatcher "moonwatcher" (UK) - See all my reviews

This book is very good for giving a good working overview of KDE to an experienced developer who understands C++ and GUI toolkits. It contains much useful information and I'm glad I bought it (though I think it's too pricey). But it's let down badly in the details.
Firstly, the book contains many errors. Some of the code listings are wrong (not misprints, the code itself is wrong) and the text that refers back to the code is inaccurate in too many places.
Secondly, the book is not particularly well written. Mr Sweet and his co-authors are undoubtedly very knowledgeable about KDE but could have done with the services of a good prose editor. Explanations are muddled and some points very obscure. The structure of the book is confusing; some points (such as network-transparent file access) are explained multpile times.
Thirdly, the book omits important details that developers would need to know (the authors frequently refer the reader to websites rather than include the information - not useful when reading on a train). For example, there's often little information on when one should delete objects; every C++ programmer knows that this can be a major source of bugs or memory leaks.
To summarise; a book containing much useful information but written by knowledgable amateurs and not well edited.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good book on getting started with KDE development, May 15, 2001

By	Douglas Welzel (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Assuming you have some programming experience, KDE 2.0 Development provides a good introduction to developing for KDE. The book starts off with an introduction to KDE and then moves into examples of QT programming (the toolkit KDE uses). From there it takes you into developing actual KDE applications. The example code and topics covered provide a tour of the KDE codebase and functionality available.

You will come away from this book understanding the general architecture of KDE, but there will still be long way to go before you really understand the internals of the system. The book is an overview at best. It isn't a reference and doesn't cover details of the KDE (or QT) libraries. After reading this you'll have enough information to start dabbling in KDE development but you'll probably find yourself sifting through lots of reference material.

The major downside to the book are all of the errors and inconsistencies in the code samples. Many of the examples contain syntax errors or don't work because the libraries have changed. This can make going through the examples frustrating, but on the upside, if you're willing to work through the problems you'll probably learn quite a bit.

It is clear that different authors worked on the book because language and code style different among chapters. I think this one could have used one more pass through editing.

I will give the book credit though, it makes a very good attempt at hitting a moving target. Since KDE is rapidly advancing it is hard to expect a book to get every fact correct and ensure that all of the code will compile. This book makes up for that through its online version at Andamooka. Here you will find fixes and discussion around each part of the book. I have been very impressed with the devotion of David Sweet. Whenever I have posted a question to Andamooka it is answered quickly and he is usually the first to respond. Having this resource greatly increases the value of the book.

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Updated Information, November 5, 2000

By	David Sweet (New York, NY USA) - See all my reviews

The information above is needs an update, so here goes:

_KDE_2.0_Development_ covers components/embedding (KParts), interprocess communication (DCOP), multimedia (aRts), the XML GUI system, KDevelop (KDE's free integrated development environment), free/commerical software licensing issues, as well as introductory KDE programing and more.

The contributing authors are a group of talented KDE developers writing, in many cases, about technology they designed and/or developed, and I'd like to credit them: Kurt Granroth, Cristian Tibirna, David Faure, Espen Sand, Stefan Westerfeld, Ralf Nolden, Daniel Marjama"ki, Charles Bar-Joseph. A forward by Matthias Ettrich (KDE project founder) is included.

This book is published under the Open Publication License and will be available for online perusal and annotation on November 8...

David Sweet (author, who shamelessly chose "5 Stars" from the listbox...)