KDE Developers' Centre

The K Desktop Environment

Table of Contents

• The Purpose of these Pages
• Tips for KDE programmers
  1. Loading and saving configuration settings
  2. Docking widgets onto the panel
  3. Prefer to create widgets on the heap
  4. Internationalizing your Application
  5. From Qt to KDE: it's easy!
  6. Displaying help with KDEHelp
  7. Multiple windows
  8. Dealing with network resources
• Programming guidelines
  1. Document your classes easily: use KDOC
  2. Class source documentation formatting rules
  3. User lower case filenames
  4. The class naming convention
  5. Don't hardcode paths
  6. Remember our commitment to network transparency
• Practical C++ Programming Tips
  1. Use the assert() macro liberally
  2. Use const wherever you can
  3. Do you really need dynamic_cast?
  4. Methods overriding virtuals should be declared virtual
  5. Incomplete declarations: faster builds, fewer dependencies
  6. Compile with warnings enabled
  7. Don't reduce the visibility of overridden members
  8. Rid yourself of those "unused parameter" warnings
• Portability Tips
  1. Use config.h
  2. Avoid NULL
  3. On the scope of temporaries
  4. Don't initialize const in definitions
  5. Don't use arrays with runtime sizing
  6. Remove default args from method implementation
  7. Don't use gethostname() or getdomainname()
  8. Using ksize_t and socket.h
  9. No semicolon after Q_OBJECT
  10. Be careful while passing temporaries
• Contributed Qt Widget Dictionary
• KDE API Reference
• Development tools
• KDE links
• Download these pages

The Purpose of these Pages

These pages are a collection of KDE developer resources and tips that I have gathered or created as I have progressed through the satisfying adventure that is KDE programming. It is by no means intended to be a comprehensive site and hence you will find few "links to resources". Instead, this is meant to be a site where you can "find the beef" instead of being redirected eleswhere.

I have broken my own rule only in a few places where clarification for commonly used tools or information is required.

I humbly request any additional information or feedback you may have, since this site is designed as a public service. If they're not serving the public, it is important for me to know. :-)

For a comprehensive library for KDE developers, please see the KDE Developer Library.

KDE API Reference

• Core library (kdecore).
• User Interface Library (kdeui).
• I/O and Network Library (kio).
• Fast IPC Library (dcop).
• Javascript Interpreter.
• Formula Renderer Library (kformula).
• Audio Support (mediatool).
• Embedding System Library (kparts).
• Enhanced File Dialog (kfile).
• HTML Widget (khtml).
• Image IO Library(kimgio).
• Address Book API (kab).
• Spell Checker (kspell).
• Qt Library reference at Troll Tech. (Norway) and Melbourne, Australia.
• Linux Software Map (LSM) Entry Template

Useful development tools

• Use Qt Architect to design and edit Qt dialogs. This package used to be known as Dialog Editor or dlgedit.

• KDOC is the class documentation software used by the KDE team. Use it to generate HTML and TeX documentation direct from source.

• GNU Autoconf is the recommended package for ensuring application portability between different versions of UNIX. GNU Automake is used to simplify creation of Makefiles.
  Most developers, however, will use kexample (from the kdesdk package) as a template so there is not too much to learn.

• PerlQt, an elegant and complete perl interface to Qt.

KDE-related Links

• The KDE Developer Library.

• The KDE home page.

• KDE primary FTP site.

Download Documentation

• Download Developers' Centre as a tarred-gzipped file. (39 k)

• Download KDE library documentation in HTML format, as a tarred-gzipped file. (1615 k)