[Interest] Qt is good because...

[Rui Maciel]

On 03/26/2012 11:09 PM, Quim Gil wrote:
> Thank you for the fast edits and replies, here and at
> http://qt-project.org/wiki/Qt-is-Good&
> http://qt-project.org/forums/viewthread/15808/
>
> Some questions to dig deeper. Note that these arguments should be
> convincing for developers currently familiar with other platforms
> (mainly mobile, if you ask me) and considering to get started with Qt.
>
> On 03/26/2012 02:58 PM, ext Rui Maciel wrote:
>> To me, Qt's main selling points are:
>>
>> - FLOSS
>
> Summarized at "Open development = better planning" - anything else?

I don't know if being a FLOSS project leads to that.  The only aspect I 
referred to was the ability to learn how Qt works and to share any fixes 
and changes with anyone that the FLOSS license grants.


>> - C++
>
> Please help explaining this further (as I'm not a C++ developer myself).
> Also we need to explain this next to QML, Javascript and HTML5

Personally, I don't care for Javascript and HTML5, and I'm yet to see 
any usefulness in QML.  In addition, I suspect that if Qt got stripped 
of a number of features it would actually improve.


> otherwise we risk keeping the perception that Qt is C++ only and scaring
> away many mobile developers more familiar HTML / CSS / Javascript that
> would fit perfectly in the context of Qt Quick&  Qt WebKit.

Personally, I'm ok with the idea of Qt being C++ only, and only a GUI 
toolkit.


>> - signals&   slots (aka observer pattern)
>
> Help explaining the beauty of this functionality compared to other
> toolkits is appreciated. Again, how to explain how great this is to a
> newcomer?

The observer pattern isn't exclusive to Qt, nor is event handling.  Qt's 
way of doing signals & slots tended to be easier than the way callbacks 
were typically handled.  I don't know if it is still true today, as some 
FLOSS callback systems which popped up recently, such as libsigc++, are, 
in my opinion, superior to Qt's offering.

Qt's offering may be seen as a bit more resilient when dealing with 
errors introduced by the programmer, but I suspect that this is mainly 
due to the fact that some programming errors fail silently instead of 
returning a long and nasty compiler or runtime error.  This isn't 
necessarily better or worse, as it can be seen as being both depending 
on the scenario.


>> - cross-platform GUI toolkit
>
> This one is now addressed at "Cross platform = multiple targets&  user
> sectors"
>
>
>> It also helps that Qt's default widget styles are easy on the eyes.
>
> "Good quality, easy to read code"?

I was referring to how Qt applications look.  Plastique looks nice, for 
example.  Qt also provides an interesting set of widgets.


Rui Maciel