On 11/07/2011, at 2:00 PM, Kevin Krammer wrote: > On Monday, 2011-07-11, Ian Wadham wrote: > >> Surely, PIM could be designed around a shared data source (a relational >> database if you must) in such a way that the various applications can >> exist independently of each other, in a loosely bound form. > > This is exactly how the new PIM applications are designed. Previous > incarnations had dependencies on each other for certain tasks, e.g. > KAddressBook and KOrganizer depended on KMail for access to certain type of > groupware data and I think KMail vice versa depended on KOrganizer for > handling events/invitations attached to email. > > The new architecture allows each application to retain their functionality > without depending on each other running or even being installed. > It's good to see that other people also find this decoupling to be a > worthwhile goal. > True. Akonadi does not call for other *PIM* apps when you fire up KMail, but it does call for Nepomuk (I know where that leads) and some things called "resource agents" that I know nothing about.
>> KMail could even survive without the >> data source. > > Definitley. KMail might be overly assertive in that regard, normally PIM > applications will indicate the unavailability of their data source by having > a > semi-transparent error overlay over their normal UI [1]. > KMail has such an overlay too, but I cannot get past it to use KMail. Only a few menu items activate and Preferences does not work at all, so I cannot set up accounts. >> I have used it without an address book for years and just >> relied on its memory for recently used email addresses. And if the user >> wants Strigi and friends to index his/her emails, cannot KMail simply tell >> them where to find the emails by updating a shared file or database? > > Actually KMail is not involved in this at all (remember decoupling?), a > helper > program is telling Nepomuk about emails and changes to email folders. > This helper is enabled by default since we assumed that quite some users of > KMail might actually be using its search for email functionality and would > like to continue to do so. > Fair enough, but I have been quite happy with occasionally using the search facilities within KMail itself and have felt no real need for anything more powerful on the desktop. > The immensely improved separation of concerns will allow a far greater > tunability than any previous version could have ever achieved. > It's just that the main focus up until now has been to provide as much of the > established functionality as possible. > OK. One must proceed a step at a time. But there are some very nice KDE apps that do work well on an Apple desktop and it would be nice if KMail was one of them. I am already using KMyMoney and maybe will use Digikam. Some of our games look good on the Macbook too, but maybe I am biased ... :-) Cheers, Ian W. >> Visit http://mail.kde.org/mailman/listinfo/kde-devel#unsub to unsubscribe <<
