Re: Food for thought: Why (and how) should KDE and Gnome unite?

[Kevin Forge <forgeltd usa net>]

Gleef wrote:
> 
> As for other "settings", one thing the GNOME Foot does (and I assume the
> big K does also) is access the configuration of the panel.  Since the
> GNOME and KDE panels operate very differently, something like that
> couldn't and shouldn't be the same.

All that is needed is for Gnome apps to be listed on the K menu
automatically.
 
> Alternately, a Baboon-KOM bridge could be developed so that KOM
> applications can use Baboon objects and vice versa.  I don't know how
> feasible such a bridge would be, but it sounds like the sort of thing
> someone will try regardless, and we should embrace it if it works :-).

Corba is among other things a communication protocol. ( If I remember 
correctly ).  Proper Corba apps should be friends.
 
> How?  An "application-independent string repository" would have no idea of
> the context in which the string is being used, and so risks giving bad
> translations often.  Gettext uses an application-specific string
> repository, so that all translations are in context, and hopefully more
> likely to be correct.

Nope.  What's needed is that when I click the option to switch primary
language to french on the KDE control center, the Gnome apps are 
also translated.
 
> Currently GNOME doesn't have a real keybinding standard.  We want one that
> is cusomizable, for example, lets say the default cut/copy/paste bindings
> for the American QWERTY keyboard are the ones from windows (C-X, C-C &
> C-V).  For the Dvorak keyboard it might make more sense to have them C-Q,
> C-J & C-K.  On a Greek keyboard it might be C-Chi, C-Psi, C-Omega.

My advise.  Just put a link to the KDE page for Key binding standards.
KDE unashamedly set out to copy the MS Windows key bindings as much as 
possible.  However that's just the default.  If you want to use C-Z 
for copy just click the option or edit the text file.
 
> In the Linux world, the desktop environment is not something that
> needs a standard.  For 80% of new Linux users, they will probably use
> the desktop environment shipped with their distribution.  RedHat and
> Debian have committed to shipping GNOME.  SuSE and Mandrake have
> committed to shipping KDE.  XiG has committed to shipping CDE.
> Caldera will probably ship whatever seems best at the time.  Think of
> it as another way distributions can get product differentiation, and
> you'll see that there is likely to be a choice for a long long time.

Actually once the QPL is sorted out and in force they will all ship
both KDE and Gnome.  Except Caldera which flatly refuses to send
BETA software to it's clients.
 
> Both Miguel de Icaza (our fearless leader), and Federico Mena Quintero
> (graphics engine coder extraordinare and a core GNOME programmer) are
> not only from Mexico, but they both went to UNAM.

<joke>
So Gnome is a North American thing ?  KDE has ( I think ) 6 to 9 people
in it's "core teem".  1 is from Argentina and one from Namibia.  There
are also a bunch of europeans and a couple Americans.  Sounds 
international to me. 
</Joke>

> > > is "better", an apple or an orange?
> > Is there any developer who actually programmed in both?
> 
> I would think it would get very messy programming in either, but the
> orange would be stickier.

Preston Brown.  Currently at RedHat Programs for both Gnome and KDE ( He
is in the KDE Core and on the RedLabs resident Gnome staff ).