KDE users program KDE to create a personalized desktop environment. KDE 2.0 Development will cover 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, KDevelop- The Integrated Development Environment, for KDE.
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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.
About the Author
David Sweet created and maintains kspell, the KDE spellchecker, and maintains kghostview, the KDE postscript viewer. He also created the KDE Developer's mini-HOWTO, and the Chaos Classes, a set of C++ classes. David is published in Linux Journal, and is currently developing a KDE plotting widget, kplotw, and the application that utilizes it, kplot.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
By m
Format:Paperback
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.
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.
Format:Paperback
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.
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
This book gives a nice tour of KDE 2 development. Even if you have programmed for KDE 1.x, you may be suprised to find how powerfull and extensive the new framework is.
If you have programmed for other GUI frameworks, like for example MFC, you will be likely be pleased with how easy and elegant KDE/QT programming is. The book contains some basics about QT programming, but readers new to QT will probably have to spend some time with the QT online reference and examples (which are free and very good).
My one complaint about the book is the lack of attention to detail in the source code examples. Some chapters present code as complete, compilable examples, but others seem to just show snippets. Also, in some chapters the headers and source are shown in two files, while in others they are shown as a single file. Furthermore, the naming convention for classes and so forth differs from chapter to chapter. This type of thing is surely the result of multiple authors contributing independent chapters, but it should have been cleaned up in the editing process.
One nice thing about the book is that is uses a lot of real examples from the KDE source tree to illustrate its points. I recommend also delving into the KDE source itself, especially to fill gaps in the examples that are not presented as complete compilable code.
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