Konversation Interview - App of the Month

You can also check out the overview of Konversation.

Please introduce yourself.

My name is Dario Abatianni - yes, that's an Italian name, though I don't speak Italian. I was born 31 years ago in Weeze, a small town near the Dutch border.

Why did you start writing yet another IRC-client, why not using XChat, KSirc or Kopete?

My first contact with the IRC network was in 1997, using a Commodore Amiga and a client called AmIRC. When I switched over to Linux I was looking for a client that was just as powerful, yet easy to use. XChat and KSirc were both very nice clients, but there was always something I didn't like, so I did it on my own. The first thing I came up with was a client written in C using the xforms toolkit. Later I fell more and more in love for KDE and the urge to have an IRC client that met my requirements as well as fit into the KDE framework grew, so I decided to drop the old project and start again from scratch. The result is Konversation.

Why did you choose the Qt/KDE-platform for Konversation? What are the advantages and the disadvantages?

Before I threw myself into learning C++ and Qt/KDE I tried several other toolkits. As mentioned before I had xforms, but I also tried GTK and Tcl/Tk, wxWindows and Java/Swing. The only toolkit that really got my attention was KDE/Qt, though. I like the way it seems to provide a "tool for the job" in nearly every situation, enabling the programmer to concentrate on the important things inside the application without having to work around missing widget types or memory allocation problems.

How does Konversation's future look like according to you?

I can't really say, since it largely depends on my free time as well as on the time the other team members are willing to spendon the project. In a perfect world, Konversation will continue to improve it's GUI, become even more friendly for the experienced as well as the inexperienced user and finally will find it's place alongside the other great applications people talk about. :)

How much time do you spend on Konversation?

In the main development time it was more than five or six hours a day. At the moment my time is rather tight, so it's sometimes not more than three or four hours a week. This will increase, though, as soon as time permits.

Which OS / distribution do you use?

I use SuSE Linux 9.1 on an i386 based system.

What does your desktop look like?

Blue. And I mean it. :)

I use eight virtual desktops, splitting up IRC, Mail, WWW and coding windows into their own realms. As wallpaper I have an image of Krystal, the blue vixen character from Starfox Adventures. I never played the game, though. I just think, she's cute :)

Otherwise, nothing fancy. It's slim and functional, with tiny icons and fonts. The more information I can display at one time, the better.

What do you do when you're not hacking?

Apart from going to work and spending my time with my girlfriend? :) I have a lot of things I'm interested in. I'm writing fictional stories every now and then, make music on my keyboard or guitar, read a good book or hang out in chat channels.

You can reach Dario Abatianni by e-mail at eisfuchs@tigress.com. The interview was taken by Bram Schoenmakers.

You can also check out the overview of Konsole.

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