Discover Solid

Presentation

We're now facing the wireless revolution. Most new networks and devices can be reached through the ether so they'll appear and disappear as your computer move, or the world around it. Computing lost its last limitation to a fully dynamic environment, and users must be able to make use of it.

So, we created the Solid API in order to allow KDE applications to reach this new dynamic environment. Therefore, It will be possible for you to benefit from the latest mobiles technologies available.

Moreover, we developed Solid with the concept of robustness in mind. Solid will be tested again and again, to ensure the most bug safe behavior, because network and portable devices are things the user specially wants to just work.

Applications

Nobody can be certain as to how Solid will be used by developers, but there are three kinds of applications that should appear:

Simple helper applications

These will help you accomplish a simple task with available hardware or networks. For example, if your computer detects a new wireless network that has higher bandwidth or a better signal then a Plasma applet might ask you if you'd like to switch to it. An application could simply list available hardware and networks, providing detailed information for debugging.

Main applications

Applications that you use for your work can be made aware of Solid. It could be a very simple change. For example, if you plug in a portable music player then Konqueror might have an entry in the right-click menu to upload selected files to the device. Solid could also be used for more extensive changes. Imagine turning on a bluetooth video screen and having every multimedia application provide you with the option of remote playback.

Many KDE applications are already aware of hardware and networks to some extent, but with Solid this awareness could become far more pervasive and robust.

Desktop-wide policy changes

An example policy might deal with your computer hibernating. You'd want network interfaces to go down and for network-enabled applications to gracefully handle the disconnection; USB devices should be synced to avoid data loss; CPU-intensive eye candy should be disabled to save battery power. If all KDE applications integrate Solid then this would become a reality.

Examples

Here are some applications which uses Solid:

• Hardware Browser: this application will allow you to navigate through all your hardware
• KFormat: This application will allow you to format your floppies and portable devices