I want to make my own widget. Where to start?

Development
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Well I want to start contributing to KDe xD

Sooo, any tips? I’ve already seen Get Involved/development - KDE Community Wiki , but I want some specific advice. Like, which pipeline will be best, what things to avoid, how to make my life easier.

I do not have a lot experience with programming (but more then zero!) nor software development, but I’m willing to learn. And I really liked kubuntu, so I want to make it more comfortable for me or others.

And please don’t laugh, I will really try to increase my level of knowledge in this matter. I just want to listen to people’s experiences. :sob: :folded_hands:

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My experience with various desktops is that most widgets are not much more than useless bloat created more for the sake of making something than any useful function.

I went through a similar path with Conky, first trying to discover all the things I could include in my conky - from media playback, to weather, and so on…

Eventually, only the time/day/date, networking, RAM/CPU/Disk then uptime/backup/rtcwake status remain… and I have no Plasma widgets beyond having replaced the panel clock with ‘Colorful Digital Clock’.

So tips:

  • Don’t bother creating anything unless you first see a real need to create something - something that people actually need which will actually improve their experience.

  • Explore existing widgets and find a real issue or need, then decide if it’s really worth working from scratch, or forking and improving an existing project. (like the colourful digital clock).

  • Start with a simple ‘Hello World’ test widget to get a feel for it, you could start with a simple widget to display some editable keyboard shortcuts, for example (I often knock up a text file for this and use conky to display some common shortcuts/commands that I’m trying to internallise, something like PlexHTPC’s more common shortcuts).

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