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Rust and QML: a timely example

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Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#11

Post by codys »

petecox wrote: post #10
oever wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The binding generator generates a binding from a JSON file. That gives C++ and Rust code. Additionally, a default Rust implementation is generated for convenience where the programmer fills in the application logic. At no point is there a need to edit a generated C++ file. Any other build tool with C++ support could be used instead of CMake. What it should do is call rust_qt_binding_generator when the binding descrip…

> At no point is there a need to edit a generated C++ file Well then maybe your example should reflect that, where a change is made in the C++ file replacing 'Simple' with 'Time'

`src/main.cpp` is not a _generated_ C++ file.

It can be seen inside the template project here:

https://phabricator.kde.org/source/rust-qt-binding-generator...

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#12

Post by mkeeter »

oever wrote: post #7
d33 wrote: post #2

Is it just me or it feels way too ugly? Multiple opaque layers of abstraction plus Rust kind of feels shoehorned when it's called from C++. Something tells me it's terribly difficult to write, debug and deploy. I don't exactly see the benefit of adding Rust here.

C++ and Rust are very different. A direct binding is near impossible. This project takes a pragmatic approach: the GUI part is QML/Qt and the logic part is Rust. The separation is quite strict. The demo application showcases more of the features than the blog does. Notably, the mapping between the Qt data models and the Rust code is something that makes development effective. This will be emphasized in the upcoming F…

As a Rust-curious C++ / Qt developer, I've been following this project with a ton of interest. Will the FOSDEM talks or slides be posted online?

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#13

Post by gatmne »

I noticed that the repository is served from a KDE domain. Is this an official KDE project?

Also, How usable is this for building GUIs on Windows? Does it play nice with QT creator?

(I'm still inexperienced with QT development so please bear with me)

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#14

Post by fulafel »

gatmne wrote: post #13

I noticed that the repository is served from a KDE domain. Is this an official KDE project? Also, How usable is this for building GUIs on Windows? Does it play nice with QT creator? (I'm still inexperienced with QT development so please bear with me)

As someone who doesn't know KDE, what is the significance of having "official KDE" status?

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#15

Post by pjmlp »

d33 wrote: post #2

Is it just me or it feels way too ugly? Multiple opaque layers of abstraction plus Rust kind of feels shoehorned when it's called from C++. Something tells me it's terribly difficult to write, debug and deploy. I don't exactly see the benefit of adding Rust here.

A bit.

This is the reason why I have learned to only use first party SDK languages for production code.

Anything else that isn't supported by a platform SDK out of the box, means extra work writing FFI bindings, complexity (is the bug on the platform libraries, FFI bindings or runtime library of the new language), harder to debug (lack of support from SDK tools).

Of course, if the goal is to try to push SDK vendors to add support, then this is probably the only path to raise awareness.

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#16

Post by pjmlp »

fulafel wrote: post #14
gatmne wrote: post #13

I noticed that the repository is served from a KDE domain. Is this an official KDE project? Also, How usable is this for building GUIs on Windows? Does it play nice with QT creator? (I'm still inexperienced with QT development so please bear with me)

As someone who doesn't know KDE, what is the significance of having "official KDE" status?

The same as in any other platform.

Having official status, means anyone coding for the said platform can be confident that everything related to the platform infrastructure (IDE, libraries, debuggers, documentation, discussion forums, build systems) will take into account the language.

Anything that is just 3rd party will have integration issues, as one needs to rely on the language community to step up to sort them out, or even left in a zombie state as interest fades away.

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#17

Post by oever »

mkeeter wrote: post #12
oever wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

C++ and Rust are very different. A direct binding is near impossible. This project takes a pragmatic approach: the GUI part is QML/Qt and the logic part is Rust. The separation is quite strict. The demo application showcases more of the features than the blog does. Notably, the mapping between the Qt data models and the Rust code is something that makes development effective. This will be emphasized in the upcoming F…

As a Rust-curious C++ / Qt developer, I've been following this project with a ton of interest. Will the FOSDEM talks or slides be posted online?

Of course.

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#19

Post by oever »

gatmne wrote: post #13

I noticed that the repository is served from a KDE domain. Is this an official KDE project? Also, How usable is this for building GUIs on Windows? Does it play nice with QT creator? (I'm still inexperienced with QT development so please bear with me)

The project has no assumption of the platform that is used. It works with vanilla Qt projects regardless of IDE or build tool. Call rust_qt_binding_generator from your build tool to generate the binding files.

This project is different from most language bindings. With it, you generate a binding just for the code specific to your project. So interface the between Rust and C++ is very small. This project does not wrap Qt API in Rust code or Rust API for Qt. Instead of using a lot of energy to heat the whole house, you put on a sweater.

Re: Rust and QML: a timely example

#20

Post by oever »

d33 wrote: post #2

Is it just me or it feels way too ugly? Multiple opaque layers of abstraction plus Rust kind of feels shoehorned when it's called from C++. Something tells me it's terribly difficult to write, debug and deploy. I don't exactly see the benefit of adding Rust here.

Rust has benefits over C++. But you cannot just port a project from C++ to Rust, especially if you use a Qt GUI.

To combine Rust with Qt you could use a language binding that wraps Qt in a Rust API. This is a very big undertaking and will result in an API that is not Rusty at all. Qt is a great toolkit but it does not have all the safety guarantees that Rust has. So the Rust API on top of Qt would have a complicated manual.

This binding generator creates code from a JSON description that is very limited compared to Qt or Rust, but it generates code that is good Qt and good Rust.

The generated code has no dependencies apart, obviously, from Qt and Rust and the generator itself is small and has no dependencies apart from Qt.

Yes, if you combine two languages, you get the warts from both languages and that is indeed uglier than using a single language.

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