Wednesday 29th June 2005
Lasso Me
Every so often, there’s something about KDE that really impresses me. This time it’s text selection in KPDF. I’ve just tried to copy some code from a pdf into kdevelop, so I had to activate the selection tool. Surprisingly, it’s a rectangular selection tool - you select the area you want, and then choose whether you want the text, or an image of the selected area copied to the clipboard. Ingeniously, I wanted to copy the code without the line numbers - not a problem.
It’s the little things like this that really impress me about linux and KDE in general. A couple of months ago I upgrade my linux box for the first time in three years, and the more I use it, the more impressed I get. “KIOSlaves” are fantastic too, and are one of these really simple and obvious things that come in really useful. I can’t find a simple explanation of them though, so maybe I’ll need to write a “KIOSlaves in fifty words” entry at some point.
Unfortunately Gnome ownz you.
Comment by Sam — 29/6/2005 @ 10:31 pm
Umm, no it doesn’t. The only time I come across Gnome is in Firefox when I’m trying to save downloads - and it really, really sucks. Oh my God, does it suck.
To be honest, it doesn’t suck that much, but KDE is waaay better. See, positive argument style.
Comment by Andy — 30/6/2005 @ 9:38 am
You know, I’ve tried writing a kioslaves in 50 words thing about 500 times. The best I can do is “They’re thingies, that make KDE not care about networks”. Which is like, way under 50, but lacking, somehow.
Ok, how about: “kioslaves implement pseudo protocols that allow KDE applications to access resources transparently whether they are local or remote” Hmm, better, but try explaining to someone who has never used a computer what a protocol is.
If you ever figure out just how to word it, would you like to join the KDE documentation team?
Comment by Lauri Watts — 5/7/2005 @ 8:03 am
Hmm. Your comment spam filtering bites (the confirmation page is blank, and does not display any ‘email confirmation link’ either.
Comment by Lauri Watts — 5/7/2005 @ 8:06 am
Hi Lauri,
Sorry about that. I know it’s fairly rubbish, but I got really badly hammered by spam comments last autumn, and had to go kind of nuclear, with more than one filtering plugin running. My Wordpress install is long overdue an upgrade as well, so it’s all a bit flakey.
Comment by Andy — 5/7/2005 @ 9:46 am
In reply to your original post, I’ll give it a go sometime. I don’t think I’ve managed to explain it to anyone who isn’t already a computer geek though - but for something that actually simplifies the system so much, you would have thought that it was simple to explain!
Comment by Andy — 5/7/2005 @ 9:49 am
“IO in KDE is handled by a separate KIO process. This process implements an agent system where the KIO process (the trader) will negotiate with all available agents to find one who can handle a particular mimetype. These agents are called KIOSlaves.
To implement a new protocol in KDE, you simply have to provide a suitable KIOSlave to handle that protocol and drop it into the system”
That’s actually a 67 word “basic” explanation, but my degree had “Intelligent and Interactive Systems” modules so I already know the trader/broker/agent story.
A better explanation would be “KDE handles network operations via a separate module called KIO. This module talks to various plugins called KIOSlaves who each know about one or more different communication methods (ftp,ssh,webdav etc.). When the KIO process gets asked for a communication method, it asks all available KIOSlaves if they can speak that particular language. To enable a new network communication method, all you need to do is write a self-contained KIOSlave for that method and drop it in.”
See, I may still like Gnome more, but I am helpful ;o)
Comment by Sam — 6/7/2005 @ 6:12 pm
Riiiiiiiiiiiiiight.
Geek. I’m sure all the developers know how it works - I think we’re talking 50 words for the “savvy enough to have heard about linux but wouldn’t know what IO was if it slapped them across the face” crowd. So more like “KIOslaves are clever dohickeys that mean you don’t need special programs to transfer files from an ftp server or across SSH before you use the file - every KDE program can open any file wherever it currently is, without any fuss” or similar.
Comment by Andy — 7/7/2005 @ 7:15 pm
Or maybe I should say, I want to write 50 words on what they let you do, rather than what they are. Because software is supposed to be a tool that lets you do stuff, not an end in itself!
Comment by Andy — 7/7/2005 @ 7:36 pm
Bah.
I try and be helpful and what do I get.
Next time I’ll just use The Force to make you use Gnome ;o)
Comment by Sam — 7/7/2005 @ 10:29 pm