On 20-Nov-02 John Bell wrote: I can't answer all of your questions, as I'm not much of a RAD or GUI-designer user myself. I haven't checked KDevelop's support for Python lately, but there wasn't much last time I looked. I don't have the link handy for the most recent 'eric' screenshots, but it's an integrated editor/debugger/class browser and more and should be released in the near future (there's an existing version that's pretty nice, but the new version will blow you away). It's part of the PyQt distribution at the moment and Python/PyQt based. google on Detlev Offenbach and eric. > (3) I don't want to start a war here, but is PyKDE as > mature/complete as PyQt? How do they compare > generally?
I maintain PyKDE and don't offend easily, so make any nasty comments you like :) PyKDE covers (what I think are) all of the major KDE libs - the extra widgets of course, but also things like KHTML, KParts, etc. The code is stable and actively maintained (some may question that, but I swear it is). It's biggest drawback is that it isn't sufficiently tested IMHO, but there are very few bug reports and patches/workarounds are usually quick (workarounds anyway). PyQt and PyKDE use exactly the same technology to do bindings (Phil Thompson's sip) and there isn't a lot of difference in how the bindings are generated. I've used PyKDE on a couple large (unfinished) projects, and can't recall anything that didn't work as advertised. Memory consumption is high - PyQt alone is probably best for lightweight stuff. Both projects maintain backward compatibility - you can still use PyQt as far back as Qt1.42, and I'm still using KDE2.1.1 on some machines, 3.0.3 on others - all the same set of files, but you compile for specific versions. Both are also usable back to Python 1.5.2. You probably don't want to run ancient versions of any of those, but I like the fact that we won't obsolete your code every few months, and Phil's design makes it easy to maintain multiple versions in a single package. sip, by it's nature, can't retain backward compatibility as easily, but all that means is you have to recompile occasionally if you need to stay current - your Python code/Qt/KDE versions won't break. The next PyKDE release will follow KDE3.1 by a few weeks (if they don't release too soon). The current version is up to KDE3.0.4 (3.0.5 will also be out shortly). I'm in the process of re-doing the entire PyKDE code generation process. It's going very nicely if a little slower than I'd like. If it works well enough, there may also be a tool to let you create your own Python bindings pretty quickly and easily. There's very little that can be covered in Python for PyKDE that isn't. The biggest deficiency I see is that while you can import KParts, you can't create them easily in Python. There are ways around that, but they're further down the list than some other stuff I'm working on for PyKDE. > (5) On another topic, can I display a large image > (larger than the screen or widget size) in a widget > with scroll bars, or am I constrained to resizing the > image to fit or losing content due to clipping? I haven't done it, but don't know why you couldn't. > (6) Regarding the online book on PyQt development, is > it available in an easily dowloadable form somewhere? > I'd like to print it out and read it at leisure rather > than staring at the screen all day! Boudewijn will be along shortly :) You can buy a copy from the publisher - don't know about the d/l and print. > Thanks in advance for your indulgence! Once I'm > through reading the remaining 3000 or so pages my > questions should get a bit more specific and up to > date. Be sure to get the Qt and KDE class reference docs - our docs only cover the differences/exceptions, not the details. The Qt/KDE docs are C++ oriented, but shouldn't be hard to follow. Also, if you compile PyQt or PyKDE, be sure to use the -c command line switch to build.py (assuming you have something more than 128MB of RAM) - cuts the compile time by about 80%. I'm hoping to do a lot of improvements in release turnaround time, docs, and testing over the next few months. We'll see how far I get before the weather turns nice again :) Welcome Jim _______________________________________________ PyKDE mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://mats.gmd.de/mailman/listinfo/pykde
