The KDE project has just released KDE 3.2 Alpha 2. Among other KDE new releases, you will find KOffice 1.3 beta4 and KDevelop 3.0 Alpha 7.
KDE 3.2 Alpha 2, KDevelop 3.0-a7, KOffice 1.3-b4 Released
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Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
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I’m running CVS right now, and I just have to report on one of the improvements in this alpha:
The window manager rewrite appears to have made a big difference. There is pretty much zero rubber banding, even in Konqueror rendering a large /. comments page. KDE has officially passed WinXP (with Luna) in this department.
PS> This only works with my laptop button-pointer, for some reason. Performance isn’t nearly as good with my USB mouse. Probably a synchronization problem somewhere.
cant get enough of it
And I just started emerging alpha 1 too (yes really, no joke). Guess it’s time for another emerge -U world.
Hey,
has anybody got code completion to work in kdevelop cvs?
Also, kdevelop cvs rocks. It’s the most amazing thing I even tried on linux. It’s highly recommended.
Are you sure that the improvements in speed and redraws when dragging/resizing etc. windows isn’t jsut due to your updated kernel? 2.6 includes a lot fo intereractivity improvements. please try it on 2.4 and than tell us.
Well, I was using the first alpha in kernel 2.6 also. So its probably not the kernel.
>> has anybody got code completion to work in kdevelop cvs?
Yep, but only for local classes and stuff :/
(but if it works, it works really well)
I believe you should build a database first, but I haven’t found my way through the cryptic/non-descriptive config dialogs yet, so I can’t tell how to do that..
(you could also just use the r++ cli tool afaik)
I’m running it from CVS and it simply rocks. Konqueror context menu are a lot better and Kontact is an absolute killer!
Kudos to the KDE team!
I’m underwhelmed.
The kwin rewrite is horrible so far because it kills several features. I had to hand-edit my gkrellm conffile because the WM hint it uses made it crash on startup. Gaim ‘raise window on events’ doesn’t work at all. Of course, old window decorations don’t work.
There are no included splash screens other than the developer photo, which is cool but not something I’d like to permanently use (the 3.1 splash was great).
A few minor icon changes. Apps crash constantly for me. A minor, but noticeable speed improvement.
….well, what do you expect from an alpha. *sigh* guess I’m gonna switch back to 3.1.4.
>> here are no included splash screens other than the developer photo, which is cool but not something I’d like to permanently use (the 3.1 splash was great).
Does someone else think they should use a fullscreen splash screen instead of this weird dialog thingy on a grey background?
It just doesn’t seem to fit and doesn’t give this integrated desktop feeling when booting.. (it’s a complete desktop env that’s starting, not just a single app)
-2 points for both KDE and GNOME…
If you trie dboth on 2.6 and it’s faster than in 3.1, it must be kwin 3
Grreg, if what your saying is true in Alpha 2, I’m sure te developers are aware and working to remedy these problems.
If there’s ONE Linux app that I want on Mac OS X, it’s KDevelop.
>>has anybody got code completion to work in kdevelop cvs?
well probaly wasn’t in alph1 in alph 2 u can do it with gui
project–>project options–>c++ specific in tab code compeletion choose add persistant class storeor in console avilable in older version u can do r++ sata-base-name -r -a /pathtoincludefiles
>>well probaly wasn’t in alph1 in alph 2 u can do it with gui
suppose to be alpha 6 and alpha 7 mixed it up with kde release.
You should really report such bugs in the window manager rewrite to http://bugs.kde.org.
> There are no included splash screens other than the developer photo, which is cool but not something I’d like to permanently use (the 3.1 splash was great).
You can be sure that the release will have another splash. For now let have the developers some fame who spent time and money to attend the KDE developer conference.
> Does someone else think they should use a fullscreen splash screen instead of this weird dialog thingy on a grey background?
You can change the splash screen to “Redmond” style which is a fullscreen splash in the control center in KDE 3.2.
>> If there’s ONE Linux app that I want on Mac OS X, it’s KDevelop.
Try XCode from Panther…..
It IS on OS X.
Download Fink and Apple X11.
Open a console, type “fink install kdevelop”
Open X11, add usr/bin/kdevelop to the menu.
Use KDevelop. Be happy.
>> You can change the splash screen to “Redmond” style which is a fullscreen splash in the control center in KDE 3.2.
Neh, I’d rather see an original (KDE) splash screen instead of that XP clone which doesn’t even emulate things correctly.
The screen shots hosted by KDELook of KDE 3.2 look very impressive. Does anyone know if this style comes with KDE 3.2 at all? If not, may I please have the name of this style? I know it is some sort of Aqua/Liquid variation but there are many out Aqua styles out there and this one by far looks one of the best ones I’ve seen. What is the name of the style? I would have posted this post on their site but I don’t have an account and I can’t be bothered registering.
KDE 3.2 screen shots
http://www.kdelook.org/content/preview.php?file=7919-1.png
http://www.kdelook.org/content/preview.php?file=7919-2.png
http://www.kdelook.org/content/preview.php?file=7919-3.png
and the section is
http://www.kdelook.org/content/show.php?content=7919
Alex – the first two look like Mosfet’s Liquid theme, which is probably the best OS X lookalike. The bottom one is Plastik I think, which is also excellent. I use that now on KDE 3.1; very clean, stylish and usable.
Anyway, can’t wait for 3.2, I don’t think I’ll risk the alphas yet. Maybe the betas 😉
Thanks for your reply Alastair. Greatly appreciated. The first two do look like Mosfet’s but something is different. I think it’s the menubar on top
and the colors of course and looks like the toolbars are not bubbly. I searched KDELook’s site and I found some mockup’s of Mosfet’s own style. I’ll install it and see how I go 
The last also looks pretty cool 
There is also an OSX dock bar available for KDE. I just found out before. Here is a screen shot:
http://www.kdelook.org/content/preview.php?file=8030-1.png
and its section:
http://www.kdelook.org/content/show.php?content=8030
The first two are definitely Liquid. Read the accompanying text there and you’ll see that KDE 3.2 has the ability to dock the menu bar into any panel. It looks like he’s got his system tray in the top right.
There’s also an option in the Liquid control panel to turn of toolbar button squares I believe.
Tried compiling using mosfet-liquid0.9.6-pre4.tar.gz but it fails complaining that:
#error The KWin decorations API provided by this header file is obsolete.
#error All code using it will have to be ported to the new KDecoration API.
Any ideas?
Only adaptation to the new API will help. Or skip the window decoration and use just the style.
All kwin styles will need to be updated to the new KWin style API. Hopefully, much of this will happen by the time 3.2 is out. For now, do the following:
run ./configure, and let it configure
Look at the directory and see if you can find the directory for the kwin style. Say its called kwin_style
Open up Makefile, and search for kwin_style. There should only be one or two hits. Look for the hit on the same line as something that says SUBDIRS. Now, just remove kwin_style from that list.
Run make && make install.
Thanks Rayiner, I did just that and it worked. Of course there’s no Liquid Window decoration. Also, none of the “aqua” win decorations out there compile with KDE 3.2a2 either! Oh well…