klik-ing KOffice-1.5.0 Beta (the most easy way to testdrive it)

I've been busy with the KOffice-1.5.0 Beta klik packages. Most of the initial b0rkenness is gone now: missing dependencies, differently named libraries on different distros, etc. Thanks to isaac (who built Debian Sarge compatible .debs (for Sarge as well as for Sid) and who tries to update them from time to time too), klik and Debian users have access to well done (yet unofficial) packages. Here is the list of klik links:

• klik://koffice-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KOffice/koshell klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://karbon-1.5-beta
                                     --->  Karbon klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kchart-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KChart klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kformula-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KFormula klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kexi-1.5-beta
                                     --->  Kexi klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kivio-1.5-beta
                                     --->  Kivio klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kplato-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KPlato klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kpresenter-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KPresenter klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://krita-1.5-beta
                                     --->  Krita klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kspread-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KSpread klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kthesaurus-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KThesaurus klik info page, with links to user feedback
• klik://kword-1.5-beta
                                     --->  KWord klik info page, with links to user feedback

And you do remember that you need the klik client installed on your system, do you? It's only a 20 kBytes download, and usually a 20 seconds effort. See some of my previous blogging, or the klik FAQ if you want to know more.

Don't be impatient if you wait for one of the applications to startup. It is slower than usual, for various reasons: the klik packages set their own environment variables: e.g. KDEHOME=$HOME/.koffice15klik/ (so that your usual $HOME/.kde/ settings remain unaffected by your klik experiments; KDEVARTMP=/var/tmp/$USER-koffice15klik and KDESYCOCA=$KDEVARTMP/koffice15kliksycoca; unfortunately Krita wouldn't find its plugins without calling kbuildsycoca --noincremental from the wrapper script. The --noincremenatal switch enforces a completely new creation of the KDE System Configuration Cache at the separate, klik-exclusive $KDESYCOCA file -- but it also introduces a 5++ second penalty in startup time (and -- another drawback -- it will not obey to user defined themes, colors, fonts etc., but will start up with the builtin defaults). I hope you can bear with it... It's for testing only, see?

If you testdrive the packages, please consider to give a short klik info. A simple KDialog edit line will pop up after the you klik-ed and built any KOffice *.cmg file. Whatever you enter there, will be visible at the top of the klik server comments page. The 50 newest klik infos are displayed there in realtime. Feedbacks are also logged at application specific pages with URLs templated like http://[appname].klik.atekon.de/comments/.

A wiki page tries to follow the results users report, as well as bugs that get discovered and fixed.