[Development] Convenience Imports in QML

[Alan Alpert]

On Wed, Dec 12, 2012 at 3:04 PM, Lincoln Ramsay <a1291762 at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 13/12/12 07:12, Alan Alpert wrote:
>>
>> Hmm... so you're suggesting that we tie the imports for a single
>> application into a single file (manageable by the build system)? That
>> might work...
>>
>> So all the application source files would look like this:
>>
>> import QtQml from MyImports
>> import QtQuick from MyImports
>>
>> There would be one file somewhere (MyImports.qmlimports?) containing this:
>> import QtQml 2.0
>> import QtQuick 2.0
>> import QtQuick.Window 2.0
>> import QtQuick.Particles 2.0
>> import QtAudioEngine 1.0
>> import QtMultimedia 5.0
>> import QtWebkit 3.0
>>
>> which creator would automatically generate for a new Qt 5.0.0
>> application and which is deployed with the application.
>>
>> Then the engine resolves it entirely from deployed files, and sees
>> (effectively)
>> import QtQml 2.0
>> import QtQuick 2.0
>>
>> in each file, maintaining the existing versioned import behaviour
>> (just a lot easier for developers).
>>
>> Is this what you're suggesting?
>
>
> I can see how this would be useful to a project with lots of QML files but
> it could make it problematic to move code from one project to another (since
> versions may change unexpectedly). It feels like it goes against the whole
> idea of versioned imports, which was to allow files to upgrade as-needed.
> Then again, is it really supported to use different versions of the same
> import across a single app? I know you can't use QtQuick 1.0 and 2.0... are
> there other instances where it's impossible (or a really bad idea) to use
> multiple versions of the same import?

It's not actually an application limitation, it's just impossible to
use QtQuick 1.x and 2.x in the same visual tree. It's theoretically
possible (but a bad idea) to use both in the same application.

It's usually a bad idea to mix major versions of the same module. With
minor versions though it is definitely very supported to use different
versions of the same import across a single app.  Or even the same
file, so you could do
import QtQuick 1.0
import QtQuick 1.1 as QQ11

Item { QQ11.PinchArea {} }

>
> Ultimately, I think this idea is somewhat orthogonal to the original idea,
> which was identifying the versions of modules in a Qt release (though you
> could implement the latter using the former).
>
> eg.
>
> Something.qml:
> import QtQuick from MyImports
>
> MyImports.qmlimports:
>
> import QtQuick from Qt 5.0
> import QtMultimedia from Qt 5.0
>

Actually the original idea was just to make it easier for people to
deal with all these imports. Both ideas help with that, perhaps they
would complement each other like in your example?

--
Alan Alpert