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135 lines
6.6 KiB
135 lines
6.6 KiB
15 years ago
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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?>
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<chapter id="introduction">
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<chapterinfo>
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<authorgroup>
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<author>
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<firstname>Eric</firstname>
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<surname>Laffoon</surname>
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<affiliation>
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<address><email>sequitur@kde.org</email></address>
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</affiliation>
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</author>
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<!-- TRANS:ROLES_OF_TRANSLATORS -->
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</authorgroup>
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</chapterinfo>
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>
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&kommander; is a visual dialog building tool which can be used to create
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full mainwindow applications, provided the window is initially created in Qt Designer
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or from a template in &kommander;. The primary objective is to create as much
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functionality as possible with the absolute minimum use of scripting. This is
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provided by the following features:
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</para>
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<note><para>Please note this document includes legacy documentation for compatibility reasons. In a nutshell &kommander; offers extremely rapid development and extensive abilities and capabilities. Following is a new list, followed by the legacy content.</para></note>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Capable internal scripting</emphasis> - &kommander; now offers nested logic structures, simple arrays and useful functions </para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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<emphasis>Function Browsers</emphasis> - One never need know exact syntax for any function or command, just click the button and point and click your way to a functional program. Even the project lead finds it easier than typos much of the time.</para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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<emphasis>Extensive widgets</emphasis> - &kommander; now has a tree/detail widget, spreadsheet like table widget, font dialog, color dialog, about dialog, timer, tab widgets, toolbox, popup menus, date picker and a lot more. </para>
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</listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Plugins</emphasis> - &kommander; can run easy to create plugins. Plugins as of this writing are a database plugin offering a set of non visual tools, an HTTP plugin offering HTTPS and access to password protected areas and a KPart loader.
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>Scripting language support</emphasis> - The ability to run multiple scripting language in &kommander; scripts, inside your dialog
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem>
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<para><emphasis>KPart creation</emphasis> - the ability to make your own plugins... and stranger yet you can even make a &kommander; window load a dialog as a KPart and directly access it with &kommander; functions!
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>Look for documentation on tips and tricks like how to make &kommander; fake programming techniques like including a file, creating and using custom widgets, making collapsable panels in windows and other unexpected tricks. Below is our legacy list.</para>
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>Specials are prefaced with an <quote>@</quote> like @widgetText. The offer
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special features like the value of a widget, functions, aliases, global
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variables and such.</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>&DCOP; integration allows &kommander; dialogs to control and be
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controlled in interactions with other &kde; applications. It is a very powerful
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feature!</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>Signals and Slots is a little less intuitive to a new user. It is
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under review for how we process things in the first major release. These
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offer a limited event model for when a button is pushed or a widget is
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changed. Combined with <quote>Population Text</quote> it is rather powerful.</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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<para>
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The central key feature of &kommander; dialogs is that you can bind text
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(&kommander; Text) to a widget. So if you have @widget1 and @widget2 and
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they are line edits you can set &kommander; to show their contents by
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entering @widgetText in their &kommander; Text area. Then enter hello in
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@widget1 and world in @widget2. A button can have the string
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My first @widget1 @widget2 program in &kommander;
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If you run this dialog from a console it will output
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My first hello world program in &kommander;
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</para>
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<para>
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Hopefully you begin to see a small glimmering of the potential. &kommander;
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enables a much faster design model for simple applications because if allows
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you to stop thinking so much about language and revert to the more basic and
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natural conceptual model. In computers language is a means to define concepts
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and as such it is a layer between concept and implementation that can impede
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progress with minutia. &kommander; seeks to minimize that layer.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kommander; also seeks to build on standards. It is built on the &Qt; Designer
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framework and creates *.ui files which it renames to *.kmdr. It can easily
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import any &kde; widget and this can be done without having to rebuild
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&kommander;, by using plugins.
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</para>
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<para>
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&kommander;'s other significant factor is how it addresses the requirements of
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language. Computer languages can be wonderful things but they tend to have
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their own dogmas and zealots often seeking to provide an advance to &GUI;
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design in an integrated development environment. Ironically the acceptance
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of such &IDE;s is limited by the number of people willing to adopt a new new
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language to gain access to a desired feature. It is really not reasonable to
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expect people to need to change over to a dozen languages to access various
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feature sets. By being language neutral and allowing a &kommander; dialog to be
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extended by using any scripting language &kommander; positions itself in a
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unique position for wide spread adoption. Multiple script languages can be
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used in a single dialog and applications can be taken over by people using
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a different language than the original developer and gradually converting
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and extending it. New widgets and features can be instantly leveraged by all
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available languages.
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</para>
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<para>
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We hope that &kommander; begins to get the developer support and recognition
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required to achieve the potential it offers. Our end goal is to make &kommander;
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useful for novice users to extend and merge their applications. At the same
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time it should become a good prototyping tool. Also it opens the door to the
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promise of open source in a new way. We know that people can extend our GPL'd
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programs, but the fact remains very few have the skills. With &kommander; those
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numbers see a huge multiplier! Some applications may be most logical as a
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&kommander; application. We already use it in areas we want to allow
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extensibility in &quantaplus;.
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</para>
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<para>
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We hope you enjoy &kommander;. Please help us with bug reports and example
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dialogs, as well as any requests you may have. You can join our <ulink url="http://mail.kdewebdev.org/mailman/listinfo/kommander">user list</ulink>
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for help developing &kommander; applications.
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</para>
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<para>Best Regards from the &kommander; development team!</para>
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</chapter>
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