Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt? • Hacker News Board

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#11

Post by readme » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:33 AM UTC

Qt is without a doubt the best cross platform desktop API.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#12

Post by shin_lao » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:34 AM UTC

zobzu wrote: post #4

patrickaljord wrote: post #2

Go nativeclient+html5. Best of both worlds. You could still distribute it as a standalone app like https://github.com/adobe/brackets/

stuff that runs in chrome ? that's not really a desktop app.

And Windows 8.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#13

Post by microtonal » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:40 AM UTC

Qt is currently probably the best multiplatform native GUI (and non-GUI) toolkit. IMO it got into that position especially because it was always well-funded (via Troll Tech and later Nokia). If Nokia dropped Qt development completely and Digia wouldn't pick up the slack, the pace of development would probably at least be comparable to Gtk+ and wxWidgets, given that Qt is very widely used (from KDE to closed-source software).

tl;dr: Qt is very much ahead of Gtk+ and wxWidgets, progress will, at worst, be comparable to that of Gtk+ and wxWidgets.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#14

Post by zobzu » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:40 AM UTC

eliben wrote: post #6

zobzu wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

stuff that runs in chrome ? that's not really a desktop app.

Well, Chromium is FOSS so you can distribute it with your application if that need arises.

He specifically wrote that he looks for platform native and desktop app.

I don't think Chrome fulfilling anything here, and Chrome is not FOSS. Chromium is. But then again, that's not what he's requesting at all.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#15

Post by aaronbrethorst » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:41 AM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #7

Qt is probably pretty hard to beat in maturity, but http://www.cocotron.org/ looks like an interesting project, allowing you to build your OS X applications for other platforms (Windows, Linux).

I would love to see Cocotron do well, but the last post on the blog is:

    Wednesday, December 22, 2010 - Cocotron is alive and kicking

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#16

Post by LukaD » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:42 AM UTC

randomdata wrote: post #7

Qt is probably pretty hard to beat in maturity, but http://www.cocotron.org/ looks like an interesting project, allowing you to build your OS X applications for other platforms (Windows, Linux).

Looks interesting but it claims to be cross-platform and only has a 'Getting started' for OSX.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#17

Post by jalcine » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:44 AM UTC

Your best bet, as many have prescribed here, will be Qt. It works DECENTLY well under GNOME and fantastically under KDE (ofc) if you're concerned about the Linux market, and works pretty well on Windows, too. Personally, with QML and the ability to style applications using stylesheets (not full CSS) and adding scripting support with QtScript is a win-win for me.

However, it really depends probably on the kind of application you're looking to build. If anything (probably silly too), you could build a HTML5 container using Qt, build a API that communicates for native actions and render the rest of the application in HTML5. Better off just making a SaaS, however.

Disclaimer: Hard-core KDE user and FOSS advocate (read: not a freetard)

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#18

Post by blub » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 6:53 AM UTC

wxWidgets is not as well supported as Qt, nor is it as mature. I heard that GTK got some updates on Mac because the MonoTouch guys needed them, but the UI is the same as far as I know.

I think you can pick something else if you want to, but the two mentioned alternatives are probably not it.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#19

Post by mseepgood » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 7:00 AM UTC

It's time to give up _cross-platform_. Doesn't work well with the increasingly different UX concepts of different platforms anyway. The only viable cross-platform is the web.

Re: Ask HN: Time to give up on Qt?

#20

Post by pjmlp » Mon, Jul 09, 2012, 7:10 AM UTC

mseepgood wrote: post #19

It's time to give up _cross-platform_. Doesn't work well with the increasingly different UX concepts of different platforms anyway. The only viable cross-platform is the web.

> The only viable cross-platform is the web.

Yeah with its mixture of CSS/HTML/JavaScript crap that works perfectly across all browsers versions and operating systems.