ISV/Developer Information

Tools

• You can use Git and Subversion version control systems to access the KDE source repository.
• There is a list of tools available, that can be used for developing KDE applications. These include low-level debuggers, as well as the KDevelop *Integrated Development Environment (IDE), and various design programs.
• You may also want to read the Build instructions.
• Several volumes of development documentation will help you getting started with your development.

Libraries and Interfaces

D-Bus

D-Bus is the message bus used in KDE 4, that is used for inter-process communication (IPC) between different KDE applications. D-Bus can be used in order to remotely control KDE applications from your own application or to provide scriptable interfaces for your own application. It has replaced DCOP in the KDE 4 release.

• D-Bus Tutorials
  This tutorials show what D-Bus is and how to use it.
  See also: D-Bus tutorial at freedesktop.org.

KIO-Slaves

KDE is network transparent. This means that each application can access files via many network protocols just as if they were stored locally. There exist access modules (KIO-Slaves) for Samba (Windows Shares), HTTP, FTP and many other protocols.

• Using KIO Slaves
  KIO Slaves are the subprocesses KDE uses to fetch remote files without blocking the user interface. This document discusses how they work and how to use them.

Portland: xdg-utils and DAPI

KDE actively supports The Portland Project aiming at making cross-desktop application development easier. For more information on this fairly young project, please refer to The Portland Project's website hosted on Freedesktop.org.