HOWTO: KConfigXT with PyKDE4

If you read around the KDE Techbase, or if you develop KDE applications, you may have heard about KDE’s KConfigXT. This is an extension of KDE’s KConfig, and can be used to generate nice configure dialogs with multiple pages with minimal effort, also taking care of saving and applying settings. In short, something really neat! But there are problems when using it with interpreted language bindings (such as PyKDE, which is the one I use):

KConfigXT requires an XML file and an INI-like file to be compiled by kconfig_compiler in order to produce C++ files
There is no such a tool (at least to my knowledge) that does the same job for bindings

So what to do? Either give up on the niceness of KConfigXT, or work around the issue. I chose the latter.

October 2, 2009

danbooru2Nepomuk - a Nepomuk tagger for Danbooru images

If you dabble with [anime]({{ site.url }}/category/Anime) and related things like I do, you may have heard about imageboards. A known variant, which powers sites such as moe.imouto (some links may be NSFW) or Konachan, is Danbooru, a Ruby on Rails application. One of the characteristics of this software is that images stored there can be tagged to be identified as precisely as possible: common tags are for example the magazine where the image was taken from, the characters depicted, and so on.

September 20, 2009

Introducing KDialogue

In line with the project’s committment to openness, the KDE developers and contributors are not a secretive bunch. In fact, the “People Behind KDE” initiative has provided the community with interviews of quite a number of the developers. And by reading those interviews, haven’t you ever felt the need of asking a specific question, outside from those prepared by the interviewer? For example, more details about what the specific developer is doing, or what his/her plans are for the next version of KDE.

September 15, 2009

Interesting plasmoid: Drop2Tag

While browsing around kde-look.org, I’ve stumbled upon a nice little Plasma scripted widget, and I’m publishing this to have it get more exposure. A good part of the KDE community knows at least little about Nepomuk, and its ability to attach semantic tags to your files - basically words that describe the file, be it an image, a text document, or anything you’d like. For example, you could tag all the photos from your vacation with the name of the place you’ve been.

September 6, 2009

KDE Brainstorm Monthly (?) Digest - issue 3

Hello people! Yes, it’s been a while but I haven’t forgotten about it… with the Brainstorm’s new look and most technical issues resolved, I’m able to make Brainstorm Digests more often (hopefully!) Issue 3 - Special summary issue Since we have skipped a few months, what I’d like to present today (aside the usual data about the past month), is a general overview of the state of Brainstorm since the start of the initiative a while ago.

August 7, 2009

Holidays

Like every year, it’s finally time for me to go away and enjoy some hard-earned holidays. I’ll be spending next week traveling around France, then going to the sea. As such, my online presence will be reduced to the minimum: reports from the trip and some photos when I’m in France. See you on August 30th!

August 4, 2009

KDE 4.3 released - thanks to all developers!

As you all know, KDE 4.3.0 has been releeased today! Now it’s the time to tell the developers “thanks” for their hard work. Join us in the KDE Community Forums and spread the word!

August 3, 2009

Scripting languages and KDE

Up to now, the main language in which KDE applications are developed is C++. This is a perfectly valid choice: however, at least for users that don’t have a computing background (I include myself in the list: I do science) C++ can be a rather steep requirement (although Hans, fellow staff member at the KDE Community forums, is doing a nice job in explaining his learning experience). Scripted language bindings (that have a lower barrier of entry) for KDE exist: on top of my memory I can list Python, Ruby, and C# (and I’ve probably missed a few).

August 2, 2009

KDE Community Forums present the new KDE Brainstorm

The KDE Brainstorm, where users can post and vote for feature requests for KDE, is the most visited area of the KDE Community Forums. In an effort to improve the experience of both users and developers, the KDE Community Forums staff is proud to present a brand new version of the KDE Brainstorm. ![kb_overview_small.png]({{ site.url }}/images/2009/08/kb_overview_small2.png) The new interface resembles the IdeaTorrent sites, but it is still powered by the forum software (phpBB), a clear example of the flexibility of the platform.

July 19, 2009

Camogli and Portofino

Yesterday I’ve been in Camogli and Portofino, two small towns in the eastern part of Liguria. The weather was nice and warm, and I took the opportunity of taking a few photos: [singlepic id=328 w=320 h=240 float=] [singlepic id=331 w=320 h=240 float=] Those are samples, the rest are available [in the gallery.]({{ site.url }}/nggallery/page-494/album-1/gallery-9)