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

[Patric]

  On 26.8.2010 г. 16:01, Kai Koehne wrote:
> On 8/26/2010 12:36 PM, ext Patric wrote:
>> [...]
>> So I would like to ask few questions to clarify the current and future
>> idea situations.I'm sure it'll be helpful for other guys like me that
>> are trying to comprehend the new aspects of QT.
>>
>> 1. Currently the official way of doing mobile development for Symbian
>> and Maemo is through standard QT widgets.
> Yes, kind of. You can also implement your own custom UI with
> QGraphicsView, but then again Qml, which also builds on QGraphicsView,
> is probably the easier path to take.
>
> Check out e.g.
>
> http://wiki.forum.nokia.com/index.php/Porting_Mobile_Applications_to_Qt
>
> for a more in depth explanation.
I see. I read that and it was very informative. Thank you for the link. 
So maybe I can use partly QML and party standard widgets. Or full QML, 
I'll have to check the tutorials first. But how's the support for  
localization with QML ?
>> 2. Standard QT widgets inherit the UI style of the platform but are not
>> optimized for mobile experience.
> Yes.
>
>> 3. Qt Orbit (UI extensions for mobile development) is also not official
>> widget set.Do they inherit the native UI ? Guess they are not supported
>> be UI Designer either.
> Orbit builds on top of QGraphicsView, while Qt Designer only works with
> QWidgets. So there is little chance we will ever support them in Qt
> Designer.
That's unfortunate (for QT Designer support). And are they gonna support 
native look ?
>> 4. Are these mobile development extensions the future official QT mobile
>> widgets ?  Are they gonna be supported in QT Designer and are they gonna
>> be common for Symbian and Maemo as official widgets for both platforms ?
>> 5. Is QML currently suitable for mobile development as an alternative of
>> standard widgets/orbit ?
> Depends on the application/requirements :) Qml does not yet feature UIs
> with native look and feel.
And will it feature ? As far as I understand the idea behind QML is 
exactly to be fancy and custom.
>> 6. Also I can't really find documentation or Orbit or some tutorial or
>> even widget screen shots, apart of some small video on youtube.
>> 7. I understand that your advice is to currently go with standard
>> widgets, since Orbit still don't have good support neither do QML.
> Sorry, I can't tell you much about Orbit. I haven't checked it out myself.
No problem. I'm asking the whole forum, I'll be happy if somebody who 
can put more light join the thread.
>> 8. Are there other alternatives than standard widgets/orbit/qml for UI
>> mobile design ?
> May I add MeegoTouch to the list? :)
Well, that's just too much... So we have QT Widgets... we have QML, we 
have Orbit and we have MeegoTouch. And they are all QT based.

But as far as I understand :
1. QT Widgets should work on Symbian and on Maemo/MeeGo.
2. QML also should work on both.
3. Orbit is Symbian oriented.
4. MeegoTouch is Maemo oriented.

So what's going with the common UI library ? QT is not very much 
cross-platform if we have Orbit for Symbian and MeegoTouch for MeeGo. Am 
I missing something ? Please some Orbit guy answer here :)

>> 9. I'll be happy to receive some general info about the future of QT
>> mobile development... since I'm strongly interested in Nokia/QT and
>> there is really a lot of misleading information on the net on this topic.
> If I'd be you I'd stay with pure Qt/QtMobility as far as it gets me:
> Since they're further down in the stack than e.g. Orbit, it's ensured
> that your app will work on a wide range of devices and platforms. I have
> high hopes that QML will have quite an impact, too.
>
> However, there are obviously still some missing pieces when relying on
> pure Qt. We're working on filling them, but this will take time. Until
> then you might have to (partly) rely on platform specific code, or
> platform specific frameworks like Orbit and MeegoTouch.
I see. But I still don't understand why Orbit and MeegoTouch are called 
"platform specific", since they are written on QT and there is QT Mobility.
Is the reason that they still don't use QT mobility but platform 
specific APIs ?

And should I understand that Orbit is not meant to be a common UI 
framework for both Symbian and Maemo/MeeGo ?

> Btw, this is just my personal opinion, so no 'official' answer, I'm
> afraid :)
>
> Kai
>
Thank you very much for your support, Kai. I really think there should 
be more information on this matter on the web, so we as mobile 
developers can know towards what to head.

If anyone has more information on this please share it.

Regards,
Patric