Original author(s) Repository quickgit.kde.org | Developer(s) KDE | |
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Initial release 1 July 2014; 2 years ago (2014-07-01) Stable release 5.31.0 (February 11, 2017; 30 days ago (2017-02-11)) [±] Preview release 5.0 beta 3 (June 5, 2014; 2 years ago (2014-06-05)) [±] | ||
KDE Frameworks is a collection of libraries and software frameworks by KDE that serve as technological foundation for KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Applications distributed under the GNU Lesser General Public License (LGPL).
Contents
- Adoption
- Development
- API and ABI stability
- Supported operating systems
- Structure
- Components
- Software packages
- History
- Release history
- References
The included individual frameworks offer a wide variety of commonly needed functionality providing solutions including hardware integration, file format support, additional graphical control elements, plotting functions, spell checking and more. The frameworks are available for multiple operating systems.
KDE Frameworks represents an effort to rework KDE Platform 4 into a set of individual and independent, cross platform modules that will be readily available to all Qt-based applications. The transition from KDE Platform to KDE Frameworks began in August 2013, guided by top KDE technical contributors.
After the initial release of KDE Frameworks 5.0 and without the stress of a strict deadline, the developers are focusing on adding features to the components in KDE Frameworks 5, an example being better integration of Firefox into KDE.
It should be possible to install a KDE Frameworks 5 runtime alongside a KDE Platform 4 runtime so apps can use either one.
Adoption
The source code in KDE Frameworks has been around since KDElibs 1. Besides the KDE Software Compilation, there may be other adopters, such as e.g. the desktop environments LXQt, MoonLightDE or Hawaii or applications such as Amarok, Avogadro, Trojitá or Subsurface.
Version 3.0 of Krita, the raster graphics editor of the Calligra Suite, which was released on May 31, 2016, depends on KDE Frameworks 5 and Qt 5.2. The previous version, 2.8, depends on KDE Platform and Qt 4.
Development
Since the split of the KDE Software Compilation into KDE Frameworks 5, KDE Plasma 5 and KDE Applications, each sub-project can pick its own development pace. KDE Frameworks 5 will be released on a monthly base and use git.
API and ABI stability
Platform releases are major releases that begin a series (version number X.0). Only these major releases are allowed to break both binary and source code compatibility with the predecessor. On the other hand, releases in the minor series (X.1, X.2, ...) will guarantee source & binary portability (API & ABI). This means, for instance, that software that was developed for KDE 3.0 will work on all (future) KDE 3 releases; however, an application developed for KDE 2 is not guaranteed to be able to make use of the KDE 3 libraries. KDE major version numbers mainly follow the Qt release cycle, meaning that KDE SC 4 is based on Qt 4, while KDE 3 was based on Qt 3.
Supported operating systems
The repository of each framework should contain a file named metainfo.yaml. This files documents the maintainer of the framework, the type, the supported operating system and other information. KConfig's maintainer is mdawson, its tier is 1, its type is functional, the supported platforms are Linux, Windows, MacOSX and Android, it is not a portingAid nor is it deprecated.
Structure
The Frameworks have a clear dependency structure, divided into "categories" and "tiers". The "categories" refer to runtime dependencies:
The "Tiers" refer to compile-time dependencies on other Frameworks.
Components
The KDE Frameworks bundle consists of over 60 packages. These existed as a single large package, called kdelibs, in KDE SC 4. Kdelibs was split into several individual frameworks, some of which are no longer part of KDE but were integrated into Qt 5.2.
KDE Frameworks are grouped in four different tiers according to dependency on other libraries. Tier 1 frameworks only depend on Qt or other system libraries. Tier 2 frameworks can depend on tier 1 libraries, Qt and/or other system libraries and so forth.
Software packages
Linux distribution use some package management system to package the software they distribute. Debian for example distributes KGlobalAccel under the package name libkf5globalaccel, while Fedora distributes it under the name kf5-kglobalaccel.
History
The first release of KDE Frameworks was version 5, to account for the fact that the code base was that of KDE Platform version 4 (the only major version of KDE Platform). Thus KDE Frameworks version 5 signified that while a repacking had occurred, the entire code base had been carried over from its predecessor.
Major improvements aimed for in Frameworks 5 include increased modularization. In earlier KDE versions, the libraries were bundled as a single large package. In Frameworks, the libraries will be split into individual smaller packages. This will facilitate utilization of the libraries by other Qt-based software, since dependencies can be kept at a minimum.
While KDE 4 was based on version 4 of the widget toolkit Qt, Frameworks 5 will be based on version 5. Qt 5 enables a more widespread use of QML, a simpler JavaScript-based declarative programming language, for the design of user interfaces. The graphics rendering engine used by QML allows for more fluid user interfaces across different devices.
Release history
The 5.0 release was preceded by a technology preview, two alpha releases, and three beta releases.