[Interest] vs. Flutter

[Jason H]

<soapbox warning>
https://hub.packtpub.com/is-dart-programming-dead-already/ claims Dart is not Dead, just Mostly Dead and that Flutter will save the day... I don't want to learn yet another language to learn a toolkit. I know plenty already. C/C++, JS, Python, C#, Java, Obj-C, Perl, BASH, (Visual)BASIC, Lua, Ruby, Scala. (I'm not including SQL) I previously wrote that everything compiles to JS, and so does Dart, apparently LOL. Now everything is better than Perl, but yet another language? Given a list of those 12 languages they rejected them all and and declared they needed to make another one? It's got a NIH stench about it. 

What I've learned is that it's better to stand on the shoulders of giants than to rewrite the universe from scratch. I dream of a say where we can code things and everyone else regardless of platform can run it. I thought this was going to be .Net CLR, or Java VM, but corporate ownership initiatives derailed them (Much like the "You will" ATT ads of the 90s - we got it, but not from ATT). But C/C++ runs all more platforms/processors. Linux has come a long way in terms of bringing all CPUs a usable software ecosystem. And this though rather obtuse is one reason to pick Qt - that it'll support any system that can run a C++ compiler. You don't technically need to use QML, you can keep going with C++. 

Oh, looks like they are announcing relaunch for Dart, as of a year ago: https://sdtimes.com/webdev/google-announces-reboot-programming-language-dart/
Meanwhile they develop Tensorflow in Python?
Android in Java and now Kotlin
Where's Go[lang]
And unit tests for it all?

It's just too easy to invent a language or framework, and too hard to change an existing one. Dunning Kruger effect? Every time you create a new language or framework, you divide humanity into those who can benefit from your work and those who can't. Those who are using your platform or language against those who aren't. I'm not against experimenting, but asking other to devs to use your unique stuff should be a much bigger ask. Right now we've got Kotlin infecting Android/Java for a slightly different syntax than the languages above, no material gain. Meanwhile your veteran languages are getting infected with async stuff. 

</soapbox warning>

Qt's Mobile problems are just a backlog of ancient mobile platform concepts not yet delivered. After that backlog is resolved the maintenance is rather light, as mobile devices aren't still moving. Sure FaceID is new, but it works the same as TouchId. But these non-delivered concepts are continual pain points for its users. 
 
It's very easy for these new toolkits to wrap platform APIs, but Qt remains the only one to successfully* abstract them.

* platform parity issues persist.


> Sent: Tuesday, February 19, 2019 at 6:42 PM
> From: "Bob Hood" <bhood2 at comcast.net>
> To: "René Hansen" <renehh at gmail.com>, "Jason H" <jhihn at gmx.com>
> Cc: interest at lists.qt-project.org
> Subject: Re: [Interest] vs. Flutter
>
> On 2/18/2019 7:40 AM, René Hansen wrote:
> > I've not come across any myself, and have only built a few small things with 
> > it a bit for now.
> >
> > Initial reactions was that it is *leagues* ahead of Qt with regards to 
> > developer experience. You're not locked to an IDE, like with QtCreator, and 
> > the ui live updates across device, simulators, emulators etc. when you write 
> > changes. No need to build and .apk and wait for a build+deploy.
> >
> > There's no JS involved. It's Dart all the way. It doesn't even ship with a 
> > web runtime afaik.
> 
> I've been studying it for a while now, and I've decided that it will likely be 
> my mobile development language.  I love Qt to death for desktop, but I've 
> never been able to take to it's declarative approach.  I know others swear by 
> it, but it just never fit my brain waves for some reason.
> 
> I saw somebody in this thread moan about it being yet another language to 
> learn.  Putting aside the fact that a robust developer should know more than 
> one, Dart is quite familiar to anybody who has used a modern scripting 
> language (e.g., Python).
> 
> For me personally, Flutter's "feel" just fits mobile better in my mind than Qt.
> 
>