path: root/quanta/README

Quanta Plus - a WEB Development tool for the Trinity Desktop Environment.
Version: 3.5 line
Last updated: 2006-03-16

Table of contents
-----------------

    1. Introduction
    2. Requirements
    3. Release notes
    4. Getting Quanta Plus
    5. Installation
       5.1 Installing two versions in parallel
       5.2 Common installation and compilation problems
    6. Common runtime problems
    7. Reporting bugs
    8. Developer info
    9. Contactins us, mailing lists


1. Introduction:
----------------
 It is more than a HTML editor, altough currently the majority of the users
are using Quanta+ to create web pages (HTML and PHP). Quanta+ supports a
lot of markup and script languages, and the number of supported languages
can be easily extended, even by the user.

 Our objective is to product a complete web development environment!
We are well on our way to those objectives, supporting basic HTML that now
assists you to write compliant mark up, as well as XML support. Our newest
features allow for the DTD to be read in on the fly and for visual page layout.

 Look for active development with a focus on supporting professional level
development. This means full HTML/XML support including cascading style
sheets and lots of time saving features.
 Also improved support is planned for Perl, Javascript and PHP.

2. Requirements
---------------
 Quanta Plus 3.5 was developed for KDE 3.5. We do our best to support running it
on KDE 3.4.x, but you should understand that as it is part of KDE 3.5, it's best
working under this version. Under KDE 3.4.x some of the new features are not
available or they may not work as expected.
  Check out the KDE webpage (http://www.kde.org) for the requirements
running and compiling KDE 3.5 software. Generally for KDE 3.5.x you will
need at least QT 3.3.2 or above. Quanta also has some other runtime and
compile time (optional) dependencies as described in the toplevel PACKAGING file.
 Don't forget that for compilation you need an environment set up for
developing. This means that aside from the compiler (usually GCC) and the
make tools (autoconf, automake, gmake/make and so) you need some additional
libraries and the _header_ files for those libraries. The headers are
usually located in the so called "-devel" or "-dev" packages in RPM based
distros, but this depends on the distribution you use. Some distributions
put the .la files for libraries to the devel packages, resulting in a linker
error at the end of the make process if you don't have the devel package installed.
 For some more information about what do you need and how to compile KDE
(and TDE applications) read the documents from the following site:
 http://developer.kde.org/build/index.html

3. Release notes
----------------
  No known issues at this time.

4. Getting Quanta Plus
----------------------
 Starting from version 3.1, you can download Quanta Plus from the same
place as the rest of KDE. Start to browse at http://www.kde.org.
 The homepage of Quanta Plus is located at http://quanta.kdewebdev.org,
and here you can find the latest news regarding the development,
announcements, merchandise and you can make some donation to support
Quanta.
 An alternative way to use the latest and greatest version is to get it
from the Subversion repository. More info about getting the sources from 
KDE SVN can be found at: http://developer.kde.org/source/. The module name 
for Quanta is "tdewebdev".

5. Installation
---------------
 In order to install Quanta Plus on your computer do the following:

./configure
make
make install (as root)

Should you have trouble during ./configure or the make process, try the
following:
 - export TDEDIRS=<path to kde installation>:$TDEDIRS
 - export QTDIR=<path to qt3>
 - run  "make -f Makefile.cvs"
 - run "./configure"

 The recommended place where to install Quanta is your $TDEDIR. To find out, use
"tde-config --prefix" or simply configure Quanta with:

./configure --prefix `tde-config --prefix`

 If you use Quanta+ from SVN, or your ./configure script is missing, run
"make -f Makefile.cvs" and you will get it.

 For more information regarding the configuration and make process read the
instructions from the INSTALL file, and run the ./configure --help command.

5.1. Installing two versions in parallel
----------------------------------------
 If you wish to install Quanta BE and still keep your stable Quanta, you don't have
to do anything special, just follow the above instructions. The Quanta BE executable
name is quanta_be and all the resource directories and files are under a different
name than for the stable Quanta.
 If you wish to install two stable versions in parallel, you have to install them using
different prefixes (see above). Before running the one installed outside of the
KDE tree, you should do:
export TDEDIRS=$prefix-of-second-instace:$TDEDIRS
export PATH=$prefix-of-second-instace/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$prefix-of-second-instace/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export TDEHOME=home-for-second-version
and run "quanta".

An example would be:
./configure --prefix=/opt/new-quanta
make
make install
mkdir ~/.new-quanta
export TDEDIRS=/opt/new-quanta:$TDEDIRS
export PATH=/opt/new-quanta/bin:$PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/new-quanta/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export TDEHOME=~/.new-quanta
quanta

You can put the lines starting with the first "export" into a separate file,
call it "new-quanta", make it executable, put it in your PATH and when you
run "new-quanta" the version installed into /opt/new-quanta will be run.

NOTE: In case of BE releases, only the Quanta BE executable name is
different of the stable version, for the other applications when installing into
the same directory as the old versions are, the old versions will be upgraded.
To avoid this, use the way descibed above for the whole tdewebdev module.
NOTE2: There is no newer BE release than 3.3.0. Please don't use BE1 or BE2,
they are much older than 3.3.0.


5.2. Common installation and compilation problems
-------------------------------------------------
Possible problem sources can be:
  - old autoconf was used (2.52 or newer is required). Check with
    "autoconf --version".
  - old automake was used (1.5 or newer is required). Check with
    "automake --version".
  - wrong --prefix given to ./configure
  - "make install" process was forgotten or failed
  - you have an old quantarc file in $TDEHOME/share/config
  - you have old files in $TDEHOME/share/apps/quanta

In the latter two cases backup the old files, then remove them and try
to start Quanta again.

 For those having compilation errors like:

copytos.cpp:47: invalid use of undefined type `class KURLRequester'
copytos.h:17: forward declaration of `class KURLRequester'

(or the same error in other files for other K... classes), try the following:
  - check if there is a tdewidgets.so (and tdewidgets.la) in your
    $TDEDIR/lib/trinity/plugins/designer. If there isn't, you have a broken
    KDE (tdelibs) install.
  - check your $HOME/.qt/qtrc file. Add the above path as the first entry to
    the libraryPath (like:
    libraryPath=/opt/kde-cvs/lib/trinity/plugins/:/home/user/cvs/head/qt-copy/plugins).
    You can use the qtconfig tool to do this.
  - recompile the QT tools (uic, designer) if you have upgraded tdelibs
    (or QT).
  - check that your $TDEDIR and $QTDIR path is set correctly.
  - do an
       export kde_widgetdir="$TDEDIR/lib/trinity/plugins/designer"
    (or whatever command your shell uses for environment variable setting)
    before running make.
In most cases one of the above is the problem (and the solution).

6. Common runtime problems
--------------------------

  a) In case Quanta refuses to open a source file from it's treeviews, saying
that the file is a binary one, check in Control Center->File Associations that
the mimetype corresponding to this file extension is under the text node. There
were reports that Mandrake 9.0 puts the mimetype for php under the application
node, so users could not open PHP files from Quanta... This shouldn't be a problem
with Quanta 3.2 on KDE 3.1.1 or newer.
  b) If Quanta crashes on startup then rename your local quantarc file
(in $TDEHOME/share/config) and send this file to me, so I can find out why does
it crash. In case of any  crash, please send me a backtrace. One known cause of such
crash is if you use the same $TDEHOME for Quanta 3.2 and Quanta 3.3. Due to some
incompatible changes in the quantarc file regarding the user interface, Quanta 3.2
cannot interpret the settings correctly and will crash. See section 5.1 how to deal
with different $TDEHOME directories.
  c) If you removed the editor/treeviews from the main window and you cannot dock
them back anymore, do one of the following (in order of preference):
    - check the Settings->Configure Quanta->User Intreface->Reset window layout
      to the default on the next startup and restart Quanta
    - start Quanta with the --resetlayout command line switch (quanta ---resetlayout)
    - as a last resort, locate your local quantarc file, and remove the whole
      [dock_setting_default] group.

7. Reporting bugs
-----------------
 Good reports make my work easier. I usually cannot locate the problem and fix
it, if the report is bad or incomplete. Some rules:

    a) Report ALL your bugs and wishes on http://bugs.kde.org (or use
    Help->Report Bug). If it is not possible, than report in E-Mail to the
    amantia@kde.org address. As this is my private address, please use the
    KDE bug reporting system if you can.
    b) Specify the Quanta version in your report. "quanta --version" will tell
    it to you, or you can find it from Help->About Quanta. In case of
    compilation errors, look at the quanta.lsm file.
    c) Specify the KDE and QT version. "quanta --version" is your friend here.
    d) Specify the used package (if it is a pre-built binary package).
    e) Tell me the compiler version. (g++ --version)
    f) Tell me how the bug can be reproduced. This is essentially.
    g) In case of crashes re-configure Quanta with the --enable-debug switch and
    generate a backtrace. You must have gdb installed to do so. Send me the
    backtrace.
    h) Send me the document which caused the problem, or the quantarc file if
    it's a startup crash. (See 6/b.)

I'm waiting your bugs and wishes.

8. Developer info
-----------------
  If you are a C++ developer, first of all read the HACKING file about coding rules.
  If you are interested in getting involved with the development of Quanta
contact us on our developer list (quanta-devel@kde.org). You can contribute in
more ways than just coding in C++. For example you can create templates, XML
files to adapt new languages and more.
  If you would like to make a contribution to the project to help defer our
very real development expenses you may use PayPal and send to Eric Laffoon
sequitur@easystreet.com. Bank transfers are also possible.

9. Contacting us, mailing lists
-------------------------------
  We have two mailing lists. For the general users there is the Quanta user
mailing lists at http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/quanta .
  If you would like to become a Quanta developer, you may want to subscribe to
the Quanta developer list at http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/quanta-devel
Subscription to this list is moderated.
  In case of urgent issues, and if the above isn't good for you, contact the
current maintainers using their addresses found at Help->About Quanta->Authors.


Enjoy Quanta+!

The Quanta team