[Android-development] Questions and requests

[Eskil Abrahamsen Blomfeldt]

On 01/28/2013 11:32 AM, Yves Bailly wrote:
> Greetings all,
>
> I've had a look at http://qt-project.org/wiki/Qt5ForAndroid about
> the porting of Qt5 on Android, based on Necessitas. Here are a few
> questions about this porting.
>
> 1) The use of Necessitas relies on the Ministro utility, which downloads
>     needed Qt binaries the first time a Qt-based app is started, because
>     only dynamic libraries are currently possible when using Necessitas.
>     Is there any plan to allow a static build, therefore not needing
>     Ministro nor any additionnal download?
>     While the rationals for dynamic linking are perfectly valid, some user
>     simply don't understand the need to install something else (Ministro)
>     and just uninstall the application without even trying. In those cases
>     a static build is preferable (from a user point of view), even if it
>     comes with a size price.

Hi, Yves.

For the first release (5.1) of Qt for Android, we will aim to be on par 
with what is available in Necessitas and we will focus primarily on the 
development experience. Deployment will be centered around Ministro, and 
while it is of course possible to build independent .apk packages, 
either by bundling libraries or doing static builds, it's not something 
we will actively support for the first version. This means that you're 
on your own if you want to deploy your app without the Ministro dependency.

For later versions of Qt for Android, we see the need to have 
alternative deployment methods to meet different use cases. Whether this 
is static builds or a way to distribute the libraries and plugins in 
your app bundle is currently not decided, so it's quite possible to have 
an impact on the process here if you want to get involved. At the moment 
we have not researched the different options and we have not identified 
all the possible pitfalls.

>
> 2) The supported modules for the "first experimental release" are quite
>     limited, albeit surely already a huge job. Do you plan to make QtWidgets,
>     QtWebKit and others available as well in the future?
>
> Thanks for your answers and a Great Thanks for your hard work :-)
>

QtWidgets is part of QtBase and already works. It is however not very 
well-suited for touch screen input, and there are some limitations still 
with regards to using combo boxes and dialog boxes.

QtWebKit is a bit up in the air at the moment. It depends on how much 
attention it gets. It's not within the scope of the 5.1 release of the 
Qt for Android project here at Digia, and will not be considered a 
showstopper for the Qt 5.1 release.

For subsequent releases, definitely QtWebKit and other modules will be 
ported, yes.

-- Eskil