[PyKDE] ANN: PyKDE-3.2.4

[Jim Bublitz]

The next PyKDE release is *almost* ready. I'm doing a last compile
overnight and will ship it off to Phil sometime tomorrow or Friday.
Given the difference in time zones and other unforeseeable stuff, I
expect it will be available sometime this weekend or shortly after.
I've asked Phil to post to the list when the download is available.
The release will be PyKDE-3.2.4. (no '2' and no 'beta')

While there aren't any major changes for KDE versions < 3.0.0, I'd
still recommend upgrading for the changes/enhancements to sip since
sip 3.0. This version requires at least sip/PyQt 3.2 and has been
most thoroughly tested against 3.2.4pre1, with the final 3.2.4
expected shortly.

This version supports KDE 2.1.1 through KDE 3.0.0. Support for KDE
3.0beta2 has been dropped. The two other major changes in this
release are in the build process and the docs.

There is now only a single tarball (about 750K) that builds for any
supported Qt/KDE/Python combination. The file size has been reduced
from 3.5MB+ because you no longer get the C++ files in the tarball.
The tail end of ./configure will run the 'build' script which will
use sip to build the C++ files (and edit the Makefiles) for the
versions of Qt/KDE/PyQt that configure detects on your system. From
the users standpoint, the entire process is just the familiar
'./configure;make;make install'. The build process does not require
you to have automake/autoconf, and in fact you'd have some trouble
getting those to work with the new build system. I've been running
this system for several weeks (I do a lot of compiles on three
different systems) and it's run very smoothly for me. I expect some
problems so PLEASE post here with any problems you encounter (or
fixes you work out) and I'll try to get you running as quickly as
possible. One of the other advantages (hopefully) of the new system
is that small patches should be easy. Please read the README file
for more info and complete install instructions. There are also new
'--with' switches for configure that will hopefully solve most
problems.

The docs are pre-built and reside in the 'doc' directory in html
and sgml. There is now a table of contents and the html file names
are somewhat meaningful. There is only one set of docs for all
versions. I've gone over the docs fairly carefully, but it
requires reviewing a few hundred files. Please report any
bugs/errors/omissions in the docs, however small. The Makefiles
still include targets like 'install-doc', but it's unlikely that
they'll do anything useful.

This is pretty much the final form I expect PyKDE to have - I'm
sure bug fixes will be required and the Makefiles still need some
cleanup, but I'm not planning any new features or modules. The next
release (other than fixes) will occur either when sip changes
significantly or a major KDE release happens. I expect to maintain
PyKDE (for all supported KDE versions) for the forseeable future.
I'm always open to suggestions.


Jim