# Miscellaneous questions

Why does &kde; use &Qt;?

&Qt; is a very sophisticated toolkit that provides everything that is needed to build a modern user interface. &Qt; is written in C++, thus allowing object-oriented development which ensures efficiency and code reuse in a project the size and scope of &kde;. In our opinion there is no better toolkit available for &UNIX; systems and that it would have been a grave mistake to try to build &kde; on anything but the best.

Why does &kde; not use gtk, xforms, xlib, whatever?

There are a number of toolkits available. To provide a consistent user interface and to keep used resources such as memory to a minimum, &kde; can use only one of them. &Qt; was selected for the reasons mentioned above.

But &Qt; isn't free, is it?

It is! As of September 4, 2000, version 2.2 of the &Qt; libraries were licensed under the GPL, thereby fulfiling all aspects of free software.

Does &kde; have terminal emulators with transparent background?

Yes! An exciting new feature for &kde; 3.4 is support for the new X composite extension. This allows for effects such as translucency and drop shadows for all windows, easily configurable through &kwin;'s configuration dialog. This requires you to be using X.org version 6.8.0 or newer and have:

    Section "Extensions"
    Option  "Composite" "Enable"
    EndSection

In your `xorg.conf`.

How do I create icons for non-&kde; applications that I can put in the K menu? Where do these icons go?

Create them using your favorite image manipulator, for example, GIMP, or the &kde; Icon Editor and put them in `$`KDEDIR`/share/icons(/mini)` or `$`HOME`/.kde/share/icons(/mini)`.

What about &kde; programs that do not have icons? How do I get them into the menu?

Use &kmenuedit;. To access it use the &RMB; on the K button and select Menu Editor.

Does &kde; have a graphical &FTP; client?

Yes, and it is none other than your favorite file manager, &konqueror;. You can drag and drop remote files into local folders.

How do I exit &kde;?

Simply click on the K button and select Logout. In addition, if you right click on an empty area of the desktop, you will be presented with a menu containing logout as one of the options.

Depending on your configuration of the &X-Window;, &Ctrl;&Alt;&Backspace; might also do the trick by killing the X server, but its use prevents session management and cannot be recommended.

Is there a program that checks for new mails at my ISP if and only if I am online?

&korn; will do the job. If you are not connected, it will just sit there (idling).

Is it really necessary to upgrade to the latest version?

We recommend to always use the latest stable release. If you don't, it will probably be difficult to get answers to your questions. If you have a problem with an old version, the answer will probably be Please upgrade and try again. Note that new versions also sometimes fix security problems.

How do I copy and paste in &kde;?

The simplest method is to use your mouse:

1. Highlight the text you want to copy by holding down the &LMB; and dragging across the text.

2. Go to the destination area; depending on your configuration, you might need to click it using the &LMB; to give it focus.

3. Click the &MMB; to paste. If you have a two button mouse and are emulating a three button mouse, push both buttons simultaneously.

For more information about cutting and pasting in &kde; please see the &klipper; hand book, accessed by typing ``help:/klipper`` into the &konqueror; address bar.

How do I convert the default &RedHat; menus into a menu in the K menu?

Click on the K button and select System Appfinder.

What is CVS?

It stands for Concurrent Versions System. It is a version control system and is based on RCS (Revision Control System), but offers more functionality. It is used to maintain source code under development. It will keep multiple versions of things (handy if you broke something and have to back up and get a clean old version), and allows people remote access over the Net to pick up the latest source code and even to check in new files if they have permission. It is also open source (you pay for support if you want it), and since it is free it is the system of choice for people writing more free products, such as &kde;.

Does &kde; support dual screen (Xinerama)?

Yes, you need to have a multi-headed X server (⪚ MetroX or XFree86 4.0 and above) and a &kde; >= 2.2.1

Why does Drag and Drop not work with Xinerama?

You should upgrade to XFree86 4.2.0 for this to work properly.

How do I check which version of &kde; I am using?

Fire up your &kde; Control Center. It comes up with an Info Screen including the version of &kde; The &kde; version is also included in the application's About dialog.

Can I write commercial software for &kde;?

You can use the &kde; libraries to write commercial and closed source as well as commercial and open source software. If you write open source software you can use the &Qt; free edition. But if you write closed source software you may not use the &Qt; free edition; you need to obtain the &Qt; professional edition from Troll Tech.

If you want more information, please contact Troll Tech directly.

How do I go about creating themes and icons?

Go see http://artist.kde.org.

Is KLyX dead?

Yes. But future versions of LyX will be &GUI; independent. Check the progress of the various &GUI; frontends here.

How can I get to know about development updates?

You might want to subscribe to the various &kde; mailing lists available, especially kde-cvs, which lists all commits done to the &kde; CVS repository. Check http://lists.kde.org if you want to read without subscribing.