\NewEntry 0 GUI \NewEntry 1 Widgets

Widgets available in Kommander

KJanusWidget
Switch from using Qt widget to their KDE equivalents? - mostly done
Menu
KHistoryCombo

\NewEntry 1 Editor

Layout of Edit Kommander Text dialog

Old ideas:

better layout
replace list of widgets with tree of widgets
replace widget class with widget pixmap in combos
redesign layout
cleanup Connections, not it is unusable, may be obsolete
find in scripts
list of non-empty scripts for current dialog
allow using custom Kommander dialog to generate code
add DCOP per widget display
DCOP editor (similar to Tag editor in Quanta)

\NewEntry 1 Usability \Link knowit://Source code

Various GUI-related features (outdated, KDE3 version will not be changed)

clean up popup menus, remove disabled items
use KDE dialogs, not Qt ones if possible
some widget information on mouseover
review of event model
add more layout-handling commands (center selected widgets horizontally/vertically, fit to window width/height)
handle middle click
carefully check defaults, choose most useful ones
add wizards? (replace current New dialogs with Kommander-based ones?)
better undo
add WhatsThis for most items
detect function name/widget name clash
improve order of widget icons
switch to KMDI (arghhhh!)

\NewEntry 1 Run/debug

Running/testing inside Editor

allow debugging

\NewEntry 1 DCOP browser

DCOP browser (preliminary ideas)

DCOP browser for both local and external DCOP calls
easy-to-use application DCOP browser
use XML describing given application DCOP's
two flags for a call: hiden and important
three mode: important (only important calls), default (all except hidden), advanced (all calls)
use some pattern matching to allow marking whole subtrees or function sets
add purpose (for example all editor-related functions, all file-management-related functions)
merge trees for given window (f. e. Editor#2, File#2, Structure#2 etc.)
standalone application mode

\NewEntry 1 Other

Other GUI-related issues

cleanup Q_SLOTS/Q_SIGNALS/connections interface
find out why Q_SLOTS are shown only for current tab

KDE4 ideas:

create a KDevelop plugin for the editor
use KFormDesigner or the new Qt Designer

\NewEntry 0 Bugs

Various bugs to be fixed

Charset is sometimes incorrectly converted from/to local charset
SubDialog crashes now
Labels do not show up unless you edit their text
toolbox editing is ugly after group layout is applied. Goes back to normal if the dialog is reloaded.

\NewEntry 0 Help \NewEntry 1 Documentation

Kommander tutorials, documentation etc.

Update new parser docs
Update docs, at least on website ?

\NewEntry 1 Examples

Examples to be used with tutorial

add a way to comment *.kmdr file
create examples for tutorial
clean up examples: reomve obsolete or unclear ones, add some more instructive ones

\NewEntry 1 Scripts

Kommander scripts that can be useful

improve script for Quick Start (Quanta): handle indentation with, quotation character and tag case
create script for Quick List (Quanta)
create scripts for common command-line programs to demonstrate power of Kommander (it would be nice if those could be documented somehow)
create scripts for HTML templates

\NewEntry 0 Language \NewEntry 1 Syntax

Syntax-related problems

better handling of lists
better handling of other structures (trees, arrays etc.)
add some way to define and use macros/aliases

\NewEntry 1 New functions

New functions that could be useful

capitalize, substring string handling functions?
@if (a, b, c)? - or is BASH enough?
This will be solved by new parser.
add @include and @includelocal commands - to include external script or local (project script); that should make code more readable
add @call to call local script (no need for external @call, as it is equivalent to @exec
Naming: use @execlocal for consistency?
add @requireVersion(command, version) that would detect version of program (presumably script language, like perl), compare it to given minimum and fail if it is not matched
add function for string conversion (@String.cvs2tab, @Stringcvs2eol ...)
add @ldcop for calling local DCOP functions

\NewEntry 1 Script languages

Using script languages other than Bash

detect incorrect path at shebang, allow user to choose correct one and remeber that pair

If we keep the old parser.

Make it possible to use any language with Kommander. The idea is to replace Kommander specials with language specific code in a way that it will not break conditions and loops, like now. example:
#!/bin/bash
array="1 2 3 4 5"
for i in $array do
@Label.setText($i)
done

This does not work now. The idea is to replace @Widget.method() with a language specific DCOP call.
If the language has DCOP bindings, use those bindings to execute the dcop call. If not, use the command line
DCOP application. This is slower, but always works. In the above case, Kommander would replace
@Label.setText($i)
with
dcop kmdr-executor-PID KommanderIf setText Label $i

Kommander will have description files for each supported language about how to execute DCOP calls.
If the language has DCOP bindings, this description tells the syntax of the bindings. If it doesn't have, the description gives a way how to execute external applications. This should always exists, as all languages can execute external applications.

In KDE4, of course use DBUS instead of DCOP.

\NewEntry 1 Aliases

Aliases - easier access to Kommander features

add @String.<function>(<args>) as alias to string-handling function
add @<widgetName>.<function>(<args>) as alias to dcop @dcopid KommanderIf <widgetName> <args>
add aliases to various widgets properties, f. e. text, selectedText, state, items etc.; syntax: @<widgetName>.<attribute>

\NewEntry 1 Signals

New Q_SIGNALS for existing widgets

add Q_SIGNALS for D&D
Requires dragContent and dragType, perhaps dragSource to be set.

\NewEntry 1 Parser

Features of new parser

add syntax checking
add debugger
add step-by-step running
add code-completion
add syntax hints
share code betwen the two parsers (new methods are needed to be added only once)

\NewEntry 0 1.3 release prep 2008 \NewEntry 1 To Do

Kommander Release Do list

Add missing functions in FB
KPart create to go with KPart load
executor version required field/command - enable someone sharing dialogs to have an executing window check if the executor is capable of fully supporting it - Not the self checking Michal suggested, but better than nothing by far
ability to identify calling table widget from signal in a script slot - ideally by row and column in table grid

\NewEntry 1 Eric's To Do

Look into project tools, currently ready for 0.7 update

\NewEntry 1 Supplemental

We need to look at how to emulate KStfuff using HTTP and a Kommander dialog... will require KStuff back end and some PHP scripts
Samples go into the install for use
Web site needs docs and tutorials updated

\NewEntry 1 investigate

Things to look into

Qt database connection?
Code completion? If easy to do, otherwise we recommend users try the Kate completion plugin
D&D of text/selection data
simple DCOP functions in editor to enable Kommander based tools to call the editor and open a dialog to edit - otherwise any interfaces can at least make use of D&D from file manager (KPart) views
Additional XML fields in dialog for author name, version of Kommander required, etc... - not required as KAbout would be better

\NewEntry 1 Bugs to squish

Version 1.3 FIXME list

link handling in TextBrowser opens file manager in execute directory even if calling another Kommander dialog. First it opens the file, then konqeror.

\NewEntry 1 Done

New widgets include the DatePicker, Popup Menu and Toolbox. New functions inlcude widget creation, hooking and unhooking Q_SIGNALS and Q_SLOTS and full slot access as well as passing and returning parameters in scripts. WooHoo! Take that do list!

fixed dcop functions
added indexed array functions
made color slot work in TextEdit
Enhnaced function browser for easier widget creation
quote handling in function browser - made user selectable

See changlog for more complete list

\NewEntry 1 Won't Do

The Kommander editor is effectively dead for KDE3. Porting is senseless as it is an old Qt Designer hack. Since Designer for Qt 4x is actually designed this time to be easy to extend and modify the first generation of the editor will be scrapped.

Other parts of Kommander like the parser should be much more portable.

- creating table widgets means if you need to know the calling widget you need create scripts on the fly for this.

\CurrentEntry 0 KDE4 prep \NewEntry 0 Executor

Executing Kommander scripts

detect and handle missing plugin widgets
cache @pid, @dcopid, @parentPid, perhaps calculate and cache @parentdcopid
handle multiple dialogs: they could be packaged in single *.tgz file, unpacked and executed internally

\NewEntry 0 Refactoring, other ideas

Kommander source code

move all widgets into a library (mostly done)
widgets should contain the code how they are displayed in the editor
widgets should contain the functions they support. Share only very common functions, like show, execute, etc, otherwise soon it becomes confusing if insertItem expect and int, a string, or and int and a string.
widgets and plugin should query the plugin manager for available method IDs (and register how many they need) OR on registering do not pass the ID, but get back. This makes sure you don't have plugins/widgets using the same function IDs.
check if we can live without making specials.h public
the icons used in the editor should be returned by the widgets itself (partly done)
check if it is enough to have a public KommanderWidget instead of making KWidgetPlugin as well public
get back a version number from plugins and from Kommander. This way both the plugins and the executor can decide if they are compatible or not.

\NewEntry 0 Last changes

Last changes in TODO file

remove done items

2004-05-28, 17:35

GUI/Widgets: Tree, History Combo, Picture Viewer, Table
GUI/Other added
Executor: handle multiple dialogs package
Language/New functions: string conversion
Language/Signals added

2004-05-14, 12:44

Bugs: added
Language/New functions, Executor: added i18n

2004-05-08, 23:00

Widgets: Menu and popup menu
added Language:Aliases
Syntax: remove @dcop, moved aliases to new note, macros
Editor: Connections
New functions: @requireVersion
Executor: detect loop, handle startup parameters, cache

\NewEntry 0 Done

ChangeLog of Kommander

See ChangeLog file for details and dates

added @parentPid evaluated to parent process pid
added @pid evaluated to current process pid
added @dcopid evaluated to current process DCOP id
significantly improved Kommander Text editor usability
added initialization and destroy scripts for main dialog
global variables added (setGlobal and global DCOP calls)
added support for shebang (#!/bin/sh) for both ExecButton script and @execBegin scripts
added command-line parameters (kmdr-executor dialog.kmdr VAR=VALUE ARG1 ARG2...)
dialog setting are now stored with full path
completely rebuilt @dcop() parser: check number of arguments, handle various types etc.
support for @execBegin(<program-name>)
avoid infinite loop when trying to run @<widget> inside <widget>:<state>
handle other values for DCOP (not only string and int)
add option to pass shebang as argument of @execBegin, f. e. @execBegin(/usr/bin/perl)
add Run command to editor
added global and setGlobal specials
added warnings for missing specials

\NewEntry 0 About this file

This file should document both what should be done in Kommander and what was done.

All entries marked with a date without an author were made by Michal Rudolf

When adding something important, please enter it in ChangeLog or Done and mark it with current date (in yyyy-MM-dd, hh:mm format) and your name.