KDE3 Architecture

This page contains information relevant to KDE 3.x or older versions.

This page contains archived content from various sources pertaining to KDE 3.x (maybe outdated and/or partly useful) which should probably be updated. Please regard information in this page with extra caution.

Note: All of the architecture documentation comes from the KDE wiki (http://techbase.kde.org/Development/Architecture/KDE3). Its license there was Creative Commons License SA 3.0 or GNU Free Documentation License 1.2.

Development Framework

1. Library Structure
2. Accessing System Resources
   1. Standard Resources
   2. Icon Loading
   3. System Configuration Cache (KSycoca)
3. Graphics
   1. Low-level graphics with QPainter
   2. Structured graphics with QCanvas
   3. 3D graphics with OpenGL
4. User Interface
   1. Action Pattern
   2. Defining menus and toolbars in XML
   3. Providing online help
5. Complex Widgets
   1. HTML renderer with JavaScript
   2. File dialog
   3. Displaying large amounts of data - Using QListView, QListBox and QIconView
6. Components and Services
   1. KDE Services
   2. MIME Types
   3. Network Transparency
7. Inter Client Communication
   1. Desktop Communication Protocol (DCOP)
8. Starting Other Programs
9. il8n and l10n

Desktop Framework

1. Panel Applets
2. Control Center Modules

Multimedia Framework

1. aRts - the current state
2. Imaging and Animation

Component Architecture

1. KParts
2. Docking Into the Panel's System Tray
3. Java Integration

KOffice Architecture

1. Document and View Introduction
2. File Format Filters

Protocols

1. Window Management
2. Session Management
3. System Tray Docking
4. Drag-and-Drop
5. Printing

Development Tools

1. Interface Documentation Tool (Doxygen)
2. Integrated Development Environment (KDevelop)
3. Graphical Debugger (kdbg)
4. VCS Frontend (Subversion)
5. Advanced Developer Text Editor (Kate)
6. Icon Editor (KIconEdit)
7. Hex Editor

Development HOWTOs

1. Binary Compatibility Issues With C++