[Qt-interest] Hello, regarding the QT mobile widgets

[Kai Koehne]

On 8/25/2010 11:13 PM, ext Patric wrote:
>   Thank you for the answer.
>
> This all sounds very interesting.
>
> A lot of things have changed since I last used QT two years ago. I want
> to create a mobile app to run on Maemo and Symbian. I'm a little bit
> confused actually... so I would be happy if I get answers to some simple
> questions.

Hi Patric,

let me add my 2 cents:

> 1. I see there is a lot about QML around the reference. Is the "QML way"
> going to replace the traditional UI Designer way of making UIs ? Is it
> mature right now ?

Yes, it's mature, and people are using it for production code. No, it 
won't replace QWidgets in the foreseeable future. Actually both 
technologies are complementary: QWidget is good for 'traditional' UIs 
with native OS look. Qml shines when it comes to slick, unique looking 
UIs with animations, transition effects and so on.

> 2. Is the QML editor available now and in stable state ?

The QML _text_ editor is mature, and available e.g. in QtCreator 2.0.1 . 
The QuickDesigner isn't ready yet: consider it a technical preview (but 
it's also included in 2.0.1 if you enable the plugin).

Anyway QML is really designed to be programmed also in text, so even 
without the QuickDesigner it's IMO a joy to work with.

> 3. I don't quite see the place of qt-orbit in this situation. As far as
> I can see from the QML demo video it's very good looking.
> 4. I read somewhere that it's good QML to be used for building mobile
> application UIs. Is it possible right now and is it true ? Should I use
> it for my mobile project or should I use the standard widgets ? Can I
> connect these QML components to C++ code ?

Yes, you can easily connect QML components to C++ code:

http://doc.trolltech.com/4.7-snapshot/qtbinding.html

Whether it's best to use QWidgets or QML really depends on the type of 
the application / how it should look like.

Just check out the examples/demos that will ship with 4.7, both QWidget 
based an QML based ones. This should give you a fairly good 
understanding  what to use when.

But consider that Qml is only available in Qt 4.7, and depending on your 
own schedule / target devices this might be a good argument to stay with 
QWidget or Orbit.

Kai


-- 
Kai Koehne
Software Engineer
Nokia, Qt Development Frameworks

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