Ksirtet Interview - App of the Month

Interview with the author of KSirtet, Nicolas Hadacek

You can also check out the overview of Ksirtet.

Interview by Andreas C. Diekmann with the author of KSirtet Nicolas Hadacek
Original can be found at www.kde.de

When did you start your work for this project? Who else should be mentioned when we're talking about KSirtet?

So long ago I don't even remember the year :) A quick look at the changelog gives 1998 for version 0.2 but I think I started in 1996... hum makes me feel a lot younger!

I certainly want to thank Eirik Eng from Trolltech. You may still be able to find the "tetrix" example from the Qt source. This example is based on some code from 1995 and the GenericTetris class is still used in the current version!

How is this project managed?

I've been working on my own on this project so basically only management of my free time... I welcome any interested person to tweak code and provide patches!

I think the last stable version 2.1.6b from December 2002. Do you still work on Ksirtet? Any future plans for it (by the way, what does "KSirtet" mean)?

KSirtet stands for KTetris reversed. It was first called KTetris but we changed it to avoid possible trademark litigation.

The current stable version (released with KDE 3.2) is 2.1.7 from January 2003. I must admit that I've done very little work on KSirtet in the last year (it was a pretty busy year). It's a bit difficult for me to still be motivated by KSirtet coding. My main concern is the network code for multiplayer game: it is very old and probably does not work anymore.

Also as you may know KSirtet is now just a small wrapper around the "libksirtet" library which is common to KFoulEggs and Klickety (other game clones I've been coding). It would be good to add even more games of the same breed (I've been thinking about a Bombliss clone for eg).

KSirtet is published under the GPL. What have been the reasons for this? What do you think about "Open Source"?

I never hesitated about the licensing of my code. imho GPL is the right balance between sharing and recognition. I think open source is the greatest thing that happenned to computer technology and to information processing in general (hint: Gutenberg and Wikipedia are great!!).

Is your work on KSirtet sponsored in any way?

I sometimes buy myself a few beers :)

Do you have any favourite KDE tool?

The whole desktop! I must admit I am still using XEmacs for developing but I am trying to move to KDevelop. My most used KDE tool is probably Konqueror.

How could/should the "desktop of the future" look like in your opinion?

I believe the future is getting here :) Still in my opinion KDE needs a lot of polishing and it is a hard job, less motivating that adding brand new things, and I think it really could use some new feedback system from users.

A good way to know that the desktop is maturing is to look at new features: when coders will start to implement original ideas, never seen before. A desktop like KDE is a nice playground for testing new interfaces and styles while still using the same great libraries.

Which OS and hardware do you use at work/at home?

Boring stuff like X86 and Linux :) I am still using sometimes windows at work thought mostly for office work (documents and presentations) but I've been writing my thesis in Latex; the output is so much nicer.

Could you tell us more about the person "Nicolas Hadacek"?

I could be quite shy so that won't be too detailed :) I am french but I am currently living in Boulder, Colorado for a postdoctoral job in physics. I will probably eventually go back to Europe (it still feels like my home land).

How do you spend your spare time (if there's any ;-) )?

Well I used to spend lots of time coding :) I am very keen on reading, listening to music, going out, watching (old) movies. Yeah I know I am quite an intellectual guy but I can still enjoy very much camping in the mountains (I recommend camping in the Grand Canyon), cycle-touring and snowboarding :)

Nicolas Hadacek can be reached by email at hadacek@kde.org. The interview of "Application of the Month" KSirtet is conducted by Andreas C. Diekmann.

You can check out the overview of KSirtet

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