[PyKDE] Kudos and Questions from a New Convert

[John Bell]

I'm just in the exciting phase of making the switch
from wxPython to PyQt/PyKDE.  Coming from a Linux
background I have long disregarded the Qt/KDE side of
the GUI world due to the old problems re Qt licensing.
 I recently discovered that this was no longer an
issue and further that Qt had DATA AWARE WIDGETS!!! 
What a boon!  Am I right in guessing that this was
introduced in the free version in Qt 3.x? I've got to
say that I really like Qt-Designer, the
signal()/slots() mechanism and the fact that I can
generate PyQt/PyKDE code from the .ui files. 

Having built a large suite of software for dealing
with the DBAPI<->Business Object<->Widget association
problem for wxPython, and being on the verge of a
major project to expand and refactor it, this was
quite a discovery.  I'm now almost certainly going to
walk away from my old code in favour of the very neat
Qt solution.  This feature seems to be little known
and IMHO should be sold for all it's worth on the
Python mailing lists.

Now, onto the questions!  I'm still trying to consume
and digest all the info on the Qt/KDE API's,
Qt-Designer and Kdevelop, PyQt and PyKDE ...  There's
a heck of a lot there and I'm only part way through,
so I hope I'll be indulged if I ask a few broad sweep
questions.

My concern is to choose the correct RAD development
platform.  As I see it the choices are Qt-Designer
with PyQt, Kdevelop with PyKDE, possible a combination
of the two or BlackAdder.  My Questions are:

(1) Is there any other PyQt/PyKDE RAD Technology out
there that I haven't discovered?

(2) I haven't really gotten into the Kdevelop side
yet.  Am I right in assuming that it's quite normal to
mix Kdevelop and Qt-Designer content (and thus
presumably PyQt and PyKDE content) in the same
application?  I came to this assumption whilst
fiddling around with Kdevelop.  I ask only because the
KDE API seems to have some nice widgets and features
not available in Qt.

(3) I don't want to start a war here, but is PyKDE as
mature/complete as PyQt?  How do they compare
generally?

(4) I'm concerned with whether I should look seriously
at BlackAdder.  I realise that it's inexpensive, but I
want to choose a development base fairly quickly.  My
main concerns in looking at the BlackAdder web page
are that it requires a step back in base technologies:
Python 2.0, Qt 2.x etc.  I guess that I'm most
concerned with the step back in Qt.  Presumably this
means losing the overall database handling framework
available in Qt 3.x for something that may be less
clean, as well as loss of the other extended
functionality that seems to previously have only been
available in commercial editions of Qt, and presumably
some general loss of functionality widget-wise.  Also
I'm guessing that I can say goodbye to the possibility
of using PyKDE extensions.  My other general concern
is that ODBC is a pretty slow data access technology. 
Is anybody able to comment on these concerns?  Do I
have a lot to gain from BlackAdder that isn't
available by just using Qt-Designer and processing the
.ui files?

(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?

(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!

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.

John

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