[Development] Platform Content Selection

[André Pönitz]

On Mon, Jan 07, 2013 at 05:03:05PM -0800, Alan Alpert wrote:
> With the new cross-platform focus, we need some way for QML to
> load platform specific content at runtime. [...]
> It's really Qt that's cross-platform focused now, not me. [...]

These are interesting statements.

Given that being cross-platform has been _the_ core promise of Qt
since its inception (and yes, I conveniently ignore 2010 +/-1.5 year
or so), this "new cross-platform focus" must be meant to relate to
QML only.

Am I really supposed to read this as "when $someone invented QML,
cross-platform was not a consideration, now there's suddenly a need
to glue on a few cross-platform features"?

If so, wouldn't it make sense to repeat some of the basic reasoning
that led to this invention, and double-check its validity in this
"new" world?

A few questions that come to mind are:

 - Which real world problems do we address? [By "real world" I
   explicitly do include handset makers, and potential single-
   platform interest in that area, but it's definitely not
   restricted to those]
 
 - Given the just identified problems we want to solve, what are
   the possible options to solve them? 

 - Assuming that QML is one of those options, where does
   it _theoretically_ rank in terms of 
    * implementation effort on the Qt side
    * maintenance 
    * utility for the users
    * migration cost for the users

 - Same as previous question: What's the actual state?
    * what kind of effort is needed to make it "smooth"
      from a developer point of view?
    * what kind of maintenance effort do we face in the
      long term?
    * are users happy with it?
    * how much effort did it take them to migrate?

I certainly can can find "answers" to these questions myself,
but I wouldn't mind to establish some kind of consensus here.

> I just want this so that SameGame runs beautifully on BB10 :) .
> So while I'd welcome feedback from any source, I *need* to hear
> it from people interested in other platforms (or even just
> cross-platform development!).

Is the question whether Qt should _also_ allow to develop single-
platform toy applications, or whether Qt should be shoehorned
into something that _only_ allows development single-platform toy
applications?

My answers to those would be different (and obviously 'yes' and
'no', respectively).

Andre'

PS: That's just a personal opinion, standard disclaimers apply.