--- What's this? ---
The folder "k" contains the root directory of my build of KDE Frameworks 5 on Windows using emerge (http://techbase.kde.org/Getting_Started/Build/Windows/emerge).
Packed using 7zip (http://http://www.7-zip.org/). Size of the extracted archive is around 10 GB.

Installations of python (3.5 and 2.7) are also included, for a fully functional emerge tool. Un7zip to drive K:\ (see "Config and paths", below), enter
  K:\
  cd K:\k\emerge
  kdeenv.bat
in a command line, and you should be all set up. kate and kwrite can be run directly from Explorer, without setting any paths.

--- Intended audience ---
The intended audience includes:
- Developers wishing to work with the KDE platform on Windows
- Users who have been told to try this archive, explicitly, and by a trusted person (e.g. to check if a bug is still present)
- Users who are really curious *and* aware that curiousity killed the cat. If you do not belong to any of these categories, then this archive is not for you.

--- Why shouldn't I just build my own tree using emerge? ---
If you want to do that, by all means, do! That's still the canonical way to get a build environment of KDE on Windows. And the more people are going this way, the sooner any problems on the path will be recognized and fixed.

This archive is targetted at those who would like a shortcut. I know I would have liked to have one, for various reasons. I share it in the hope that more developers will start looking at KDE on Windows at all, when getting started is really easy. This in turn, should help most in improving our support for the Windows platform.

--- Compiler and platform ---
I compiled for i386 (32bit) and using MinGW (4.9.2). If you plan on using a different compiler, or compiling for a different architecture, then this archive will not be of any use to you.
I compiled on a Windows 8.1 (virtual) box. You should be fine with any desktop version of Windows starting at Windows 8.1 or later. That is not optimal, I know, but currently I lack a suitable Windows 7 license. Windows XP is no longer supported in emerge.

--- What's included? ---
All KF5 frameworks, their dependencies, kate / kwrite, and rkward. This is a snapshot from git around Mid-Freburary 2016. Thus, KF5 version should be roughly 5.19.0.
Qt is at 5.5.1.

You should find all sources included. In theory, you should be able to rebuild everything, without the need to download any additions (using the "--offline" option of emerge). I have not tried this, though. If you find anything missing, please drop me a note. Do heed all copyright notices!

--- What's not included and caveats ---
- QtWebEngine is not included, as that refuses to compile with MinGW. (Which is downright shameful, if you ask me!)

--- Config and paths ---
My KDE was rooted at K:\k . The runtime should work fine, even if you extract the archive to a different path. However, absolute path references are all over the build system. So if you want to compile anything, you probably have to make sure to use the same root path I did. Hint: Try using subst K: C:\Where\you\actually\extracted\this\archive . You may also have to make some adjustments in K:\k\etc\kdesettings.ini. Note that all git and svn checkouts are anonymous and thus read-only.

--- More technical details ---
I had to apply some small patches to khtmlpart, locally. If this gets into conflict with patches included upstream, "git checkout -- ." is your friend.

Finally, I copied the MinGW runtime libs from k\mingw\bin\ to k\bin, in order to make KDE applications start without having to set the path, first. Hope that doesn't cause any probs, elsewhere.

Thomas Friedrichsmeier, 2016-03-03