Plasma (KDE)
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{{Infobox Software
| name = Plasma
| logo =
| screenshot = [[Image:KDE 4.png|250px]]
| caption = Plasma in 4.0
| developer = Aaron Seigo as project lead and [http://plasma.kde.org/cms/1031 others]
| latest_release_version =
| latest_release_date =
| operating_system = [[Linux]], [[Unix-like]]
| genre = Widget engine, desktop
| license = [[GNU Lesser General Public License]]
| website = http://plasma.kde.org
}}
'''Plasma''' is a fundamental rewrite of several desktop interaction technologies included in the [[KDE]] desktop environment for [[Linux]] and other [[Unix]]-like systems. It most notably replaces the previous [[KDesktop]] shell, [[Kicker (KDE)|Kicker]] taskbar and [[SuperKaramba]] widget engine used in the KDE 3 series with a unified workspace for [[KDE 4]]. Plasma also provides a resolution-independent interface for KDE, making the desktop look identical almost regardless of screen size or resolution. Plasma's applets are collectively called ''plasmoids'', but range from informative [[widget engine|widgets]] to mini-applications like calculators and dictionaries. An important feature of Plasma is that there is no longer a distinction between panels, like the taskbar, desktop icons and widgets; they are created the same way.
Plasma separates components into "data engines" and their visualization counterparts. This is intended to reduce the total programming effort when there are multiple possible visualizations of given data; and to make it easier for the data engine and its visualizations to be written independently. The planned replacement for KMenu in later versions of KDE 4, called Raptor, will make extensive use of this.
== Features ==
Plasma features ''containments'', essentially an applet that contains other applets. Two examples of containments are the desktop background and the taskbar. A containment can be anything the developer wants: an image (either [[raster graphics]] or an [[Scalable vector graphics|SVG]] image), animation, or even [[OpenGL]]. Images are most commonly used, but with Plasma the user could set any applet as the desktop background without losing functionality of the applet. This also allows for applets to be dragged between the desktop and the taskbar (two separate containments), and have a separate visualization for the more confined taskbar.
The scalable nature of the Plasma widgets allows for them to be resized and rotated to any size, with only a brief pause to redraw themselves. The [[Kross (KDE)|Kross]] scripting framework will be used to allow developers to write widgets in a variety of programming languages in addition to [[C++]] <ref>[http://www.linux.com/feature/114560 Linux.com :: KDE's Plasma is heating up<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>. Widgets are aware of their size and can be made to show more or less data depending on their size.
Plasma can support other widgets. Support for SuperKaramba (the widget engine used in the KDE 3 series) has been added for legacy support. Support for Apple [[Dashboard (software)|Dashboard]] and [[Features_of_the_Opera_Internet_suite#Widgets|Opera browser widgets]] is expected in future releases of KDE 4<ref>[http://commit-digest.org/issues/2007-07-22/ commit-digest.org - 22nd July 2007<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>.
== Roadmap ==
Most of the planned improvements to Plasma involve taking advantage of new features in [[Qt]] 4.4, including widget on canvas and the Qt port of [[Webkit]] for easy [[HTML]]/[[Cascading Style Sheets|CSS]] rendering within widgets. Other goals are to have more complete documentation, improve existing widgets, replacing redundant code, and others.
==References==
<references />
== External links ==
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*[http://plasma.kde.org/ Plasma home page]
*[http://techbase.kde.org/Projects/Plasma Plasma developer wiki]
*[http://www.linux.com/feature/114560 Linux.com Plasma article]
*[irc://irc.kde.org/plasma #plasma] IRC channel
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