Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

zester · 2011-08-22 21:17:08

The Introduction

The Quantum Project's aim is to create a complete uniformed Hybrid C++/JavaScript? Hardware, Software & Operating System Development Framework, a modular all in one solution to building "System, Desktop, Web, Multimedia, and Game Applications. Doing all of this and still keeping 4 key concepts in mind, "Design, Style, Construct, Deploy" and 5 rules of engagement.

Easy To Use
Documentation
Support
Features
and KISS "Keep It Simple Sam!"

Basically I have grown tired of the direction that KDE and Qt is heading. So I decided to make a personal fork.

This is a screenshot of kde without plasma, I coded up a light weight desktop. Notice how the desktop is showing
the root dir. Thats because I was experimenting with having the desktop function like a file manager.

Full Size

Here you can see the memory usage. 136.3 MB if I am not mistaken that less memory than what xfce4 even uses.

Full Size

Applications that need to be written

Desktop
Desktop Panel
QtWebkit based Web Browser Going to use Chromium instead
Media Player
Qt Package Manager front end for libalpm
...

Eventually I want to remove plasma from the KDE src packages completely, and just use QML but not like KDE did. Note: A QML desktop "Wallpaper, Icons, .." is
actually really easy to code. But you take a huge performance hit, hence why kde-plasma is so slow and memory hungry.

Using a QListView "IconView" mode, and painting the wallpaper to the background gives the best performance, This is how its done in KDE3 and how the above
example is done.

If you wanted to have animated icons with 2d physic effects, Then you would want to use QGraphicsView, you could then ether use the raster or the opengl
rendering engine and use QDeclarativeView in the QGraphicsView or QGraphicsScene viewport. That would give you a desktop with animated wallpaper, icons,
2d physic effects and shaders.

I want to also move the KDE api's to Qt this will require changing the naming of the namespace and classes possible some functions. Ill then have to go threw the
KDE source packages and and change the namespace/class/function names accordingly. Once again this isn't particularly hard to do but will take some time being
there is sooo much code to go threw and Ill have to make sure I am not breaking anything.

There are also a handful of library's I want to write Qt wrappers for.

Ill update this post with more information soon.

Last edited by zester (2011-08-23 05:45:27)

Jodell · 2011-08-23 00:45:53

Interesting project. My gripe with KDE4 was Kwin. Its horribly slow for me.

zester · 2011-08-23 00:59:04

Jodell wrote:

Interesting project. My gripe with KDE4 was Kwin. Its horribly slow for me.

I agree, initially I had the same problem but once I went threw and turned off all the flashy effects,
kwin started performing nicely. The other issue with kwin that I noticed were all the librarys it was
linking to about 90% of then are used just for those flash effects and are causing slow startups.

Eventually I will go threw kwin's code base and strip that out or make it optional features at compile
time. Even if you could optionally compile in some of the different unnecessary features that will speed
up loading and increase kwin's over all performance.

Last edited by zester (2011-08-23 00:59:50)

ngoonee · 2011-08-23 07:29:57

Moving this to Community Contributions, fits better there.

diegoxter · 2011-08-29 18:03:53

Forks, forks everywhere!
Why dont you help on razor-qt instead?
Latest DE forks are on their way to their own death, reason? They dont get new features, just get their code updated, maybe new names and thats it...
Razor-qt[1] is a new (like Help Wanted new) light qt-based desktop environment... I'm not saying *troll accent* 'Ur doing bad, start helpin' on thiz project' */troll accent* , just think about, do we need YET another fork? Do we want another trinity fraud?
If your project has good bases, and you have good ideas for it, i really want to tell you: Good luck!
If you just expect for it to be as good as kde just because it's a fork and you have good intentions for it, you need to hear it: Don't do it.

Hope the best for you anyway!

[1]https://github.com/Razor-qt/razor-qt

jiyuu · 2011-08-29 18:39:25

diegoxter wrote:

Razor-qt[1] is a new (like Help Wanted new) light qt-based desktop environment... [...] , just think about, do we need YET another fork?

It's pretty funny when it seems that razor-qt starts its life as a fork of the antico wm.

diegoxter · 2011-08-29 19:06:07

jiyuu wrote:

It's pretty funny when it seems that razor-qt starts its life as a fork of the antico wm.

Antico died a long time ago... Is KDE dead ? ;D

zester · 2011-08-30 02:18:33

I am open to whatever I just want a light weight qt based desktop. This is the first I have heard of Razor-qt, ill check it out.

zester · 2011-08-30 02:43:33

Ok so I took a look it doesn't have it's own window manager.

Thats a problem because all those applications it has I already wrote the only thing I
need is a qt based window manager.

Not to mention razor uses.
Cmake and GPL3/LGPL3

I use Qmake and the BSD license.

Japanlinux · 2011-08-30 02:47:30

Zester: whatever you choose, I'll be following your work. I too would like a lightweight qt manager. KDE is very nice, but my computer can't take the weight of it all. And since there isn't any other qt-based system, It really limits things... Also, it should be mentioned that Razor-qt is NOT a windowmanager. The devs suggest you use openbox to manage the windows (though any wm will work).

jiyuu · 2011-08-30 09:41:02

diegoxter wrote:

Antico died a long time ago... Is KDE dead ? ;D

It's not dead, sure, but it begins to behave like a zombie on my humble laptop

Mad Fish · 2011-08-30 09:49:34

For lightweight Qt panel, check out my qtpanel.

flamelab · 2011-08-30 10:26:09

jiyuu wrote:

diegoxter wrote:
Antico died a long time ago... Is KDE dead ? ;D
It's not dead, sure, but it begins to behave like a zombie on my humble laptop

They are using a few people on 4.x right now, since they are already working on the 5.x base.

zester · 2011-08-30 16:30:27

Mad Fish your panel is very cool and I can read and understand your code
I will pull your panel into my github repo, start working on that, there also appears to be
some code in there that I can use for my desktop.

I pulled Wittfella qtFM also I fixed a couple of bugs and am cleaning up the ui, and changed
the default list or treeview forget what the default view was. To the iconview.

If any one is interested there is a Qt Terminal Widget here
http://gitorious.org/qtermwidget

I need to work on .desktop file support and a right click menu for the desktop and icons
but here is a preview of Mad Fish, Wittfella and My work.

Larger View

I am also working on an all Qt gwenview clone

I added Magick++ in for the swirl and wave effects that can be applyed to images.

Should probably close this topic and start another titled QDM (Qt Desktop Manager)

Last edited by zester (2011-08-30 17:01:45)

ctarwater · 2011-08-30 17:00:34

I've been slowly moving to a primarily QT based desktop for a bit now (QTFM and QT Panel are great) but KDE is way too heavy for my openbox-like preferences . This project is wonderful and the work you've done looks great!

zester · 2011-08-30 18:43:15

Ok I found a decent Qt Based Window Manager.

http://code.google.com/p/eggwm/
http://code.google.com/p/eggwm/wiki/Main?tm=6

Appears to be mostly ICCCM and EWMH compliant.

Here is what everything looks like together.

Larger View

Japanlinux · 2011-08-30 20:48:36

hmm. I'm not used to the strange min/max close setup on that. Are there other themes for that window manager, or would one have to get used to that setup?

zester · 2011-08-30 21:39:25

Japanlinux wrote:

hmm. I'm not used to the strange min/max close setup on that. Are there other themes for that window manager, or would one have to get used to that setup?

I am working on the button layout now. But you can style it with css.
I made some changes to qtpanel also it can now load an external stylesheet for themes.

Larger View

Japanlinux · 2011-08-30 22:02:53

I'm glad you've taken a liking to qtpanel. I've watching that and waiting for it to become more mature. Is there anyway to make the task manager display icons rather than text for each open window?

zester · 2011-08-30 22:18:00

Japanlinux wrote:

I'm glad you've taken a liking to qtpanel. I've watching that and waiting for it to become more mature. Is there anyway to make the task manager display icons rather than text for each open window?

Do you mean just icons? If thats what you mean then yes. You could do icons or text or both.
I am not sure what Mad Fish has decided on for configurations but i am looking into that also.

Each application has its little issues but for the most part as is right now it works/feels and looks pretty good!

qtpanel yah I like it Mad Fish did a really good job on it.
eggwm only has two small issues and both relate to window docking but besides that it works really well.
qtFM has a couple problems also but there no big deal. My biggest issue with qtFM is how it uses the docked windows
to hold the file manager controls and i think you have to right click and select run on a application to run it. But those are minor issue
that I can fix. Ohh and it ghost icons when you select and move them but the desktop I am working on does that also. I think thats a stylesheet
issue.

tomstockmail · 2011-08-30 23:57:45

.

Last edited by tomstockmail (2022-04-25 01:56:35)

zester · 2011-08-31 06:13:25

Japanlinux how is this ... Note it was easy to do its all in the config and theme files that ship with eggwm.
eggwm's code is crazy clean and well written.

Larger View

The config file looks like this...

[theme]

; Set to "true" if the window will display the icon in the title bar, otherwise set to "false".
show_icon=true

; Size of the window elements in pixels.
; Negative values are invalid.
titlebar_width=20
top_border_width=1
bottom_border_width=1
left_border_width=1
right_border_width=1
icon_size=12

; Position of the window buttons, the window icon and the window title.
; Options: [left/right/center]:[Index 1..n]
minimize_button_pos=right:1
maximize_button_pos=right:2
exit_button_pos=right:3
icon_pos=left:1
title_pos=center:2

; Vertical align of icons
; Options: [top/bottom/center]
minimize_button_aling=center
maximize_button_aling=center
exit_button_aling=center

Last edited by zester (2011-08-31 06:16:01)

ctarwater · 2011-08-31 06:18:35

Are you uploading these tweaked/customized versions of qtfm, eggwm, qt panel, etc, somewhere?

zester · 2011-08-31 06:34:20

ctarwater wrote:

Are you uploading these tweaked/customized versions of qtfm, eggwm, qt panel, etc, somewhere?

I have a github account that I am setting up but I will defiantly have all of this up soon for everyone to play with.
https://github.com/zester/Chipara
http://zester.github.com/Chipara/

Note I also have a forked version of Qt4.7 stable I am adding some stuff to it.
If your a Ogre3D or Horde3D user i have Qt widgets for both of those graphics engines that I coded
and I have one for irrlicht also but it doesn't work very well right now.

I also have a SFML/Horde3D/Bullet/.... engine I am working on and some cool 3d models.
http://developer.qt.nokia.com/forums/viewthread/6717/

I have a bunch of stuff.

Japanlinux · 2011-08-31 07:47:31

your new eggwm setup looks like a different wm I like it. Also, you're working at a fast pace. At this rate, my hope for a lighter qt desktop will come true~

Last edited by Japanlinux (2011-08-31 07:47:46)

Arch Linux

#1 2011-08-22 21:17:08

Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#2 2011-08-23 00:45:53

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#3 2011-08-23 00:59:04

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#4 2011-08-23 07:29:57

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#5 2011-08-29 18:03:53

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#6 2011-08-29 18:39:25

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#7 2011-08-29 19:06:07

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#8 2011-08-30 02:18:33

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#9 2011-08-30 02:43:33

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#10 2011-08-30 02:47:30

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#11 2011-08-30 09:41:02

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#12 2011-08-30 09:49:34

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#13 2011-08-30 10:26:09

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#14 2011-08-30 16:30:27

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#15 2011-08-30 17:00:34

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#16 2011-08-30 18:43:15

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#17 2011-08-30 20:48:36

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#18 2011-08-30 21:39:25

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#19 2011-08-30 22:02:53

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#20 2011-08-30 22:18:00

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#21 2011-08-30 23:57:45

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#22 2011-08-31 06:13:25

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

#23 2011-08-31 06:18:35

Re: Quantum Project (KDE4/Qt4 Fork)

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