Preparing first 0.10.0-beta1 for KDE4…

There is one year, Marcel and me we have started to port digiKam code to Qt4/KDE4. Yes, already one year of work...Tempus fugit...

Helped by Laurent Montel, code have been ported progresivly. This have take a while because digiKam code is huge and API changes are enormous. This is a complex task to do it : porting to new api, make regression tests, fix new bugs, an validate new code... Also, when bugs come from KDE4 or Qt4 shared libs, the puzzle become infernal to solve. Laurent, as KDE core developer, has reported all problems discovered with digiKam port. He have make an important role during this time

digiKam code is not alone to be ported. We have played with all shared libraries code used by digiKam (libkipi, libkexiv2, and libkdcraw). Unforget too, kipi-plugins which are not yet fully ported.

This is why, the KDE4 port is long and not simple. And i can said that i'm not yet fully satisfied by this job. Not all regression tests have be done, and it still know bugs to fix before to plan a final release.

Also, a lots of new features have been implemented with KDE4 port: XMP support, new Database schema/interface, a lots of new search tools (fuzzy, duplicates, geolocation, metadata, etc...), sidebar integration everywhere, multiple roots albums, network transparency, etc... New features are nice, but introduce new bugs of course.

But, we cannot delay to infine. With Marcel, we have decided to prepare the first beta1 release. All main new features have been implemented. it will be time to toggle in a beta cycle to polish and finalize code everywhere... before the end of this year. It will be a long stage, but it's necessary. I won't to publish a buggy "stable" release...

This is why i recommend to all people who will test this new release, to run digiKam outside a production environment. Use a dedicated repository of photos to not take a risk to lost something. To resume, do not use yet digiKam for KDE4 in production, until the final release.

digiKam 0.10.0-beta1 is planned for next week end. It will be an exiting moment for me, and for all digiKam users i hope...