[Qt-qml] please help me decide if qml is the right solution for my project

[mailings at novaimages.de]

Hi

my name is Thomas Ganshorn.
I use qt since about 6 years i think and am really happy about most of it.
Now i think about using QtQuick for a fun project of mine a starship simulation.
( http://www.novaimages.de/bridgesim)
But currently i am not sure if it is really "ready" to use and makes sense
(from a technical and coding efficiency standpoint)

The project consists of basically three parts.
A server application that simulates the starship and the gameworld.
A DataView application that needs to visualise many data in different forms (pie
and line diagrams, radar screens, ... )
and a userinterface application.

For version 1 the server application and the dataview application where one app
running on each machine.
They were developed with standard QT code having many parameters to define the
look of them.
The userinterface are different html5 pages talking over the http protocol to
the server applications.

Now i think about rewriting the userinterface and dataview mechanism but here
comes the question, what to use.

i have basically three ways to go
- Use html5 for userinterface and datavisualisation
- use quick for userinterface and datavisualisation
- write my own "ViewDefinition system" that allows custom placement and
configuration of my c++ (custom) widgets.

I want to
- have an easy way for others to modify the look and feel. Going from Battlestar
Galactica to StarTrek or MassEffect
- fast userinterface because the machines used are not high performance
- touch capability
- remote userinterface capability (ui works on machine 1, server is on machine
2)


Pro HTML5
-> one userinterface library for all devices
-> simple to change look and feel by using css
-> webgl for 3d already integrated
-> canvas for drawing diagrams and other non trivial datavisualisation
-> i know how to use it
-> works on ios, android, ... too

Con HTML5
-> http protocol overhead is rather large
-> does not work so well with two different screens (one is a touchscreen, the
other can only modified externally)


Pro "Own ViewDefinition" System
-> I know what to do
-> view and widget configuration will be easier for other people than myself

Con
-> It looks like a subsystem of QtQuick


Now my questions to qtQuick
-> It looks as if it needs much more c++ work to connect the ui to the system
(just writing a datamodel is more work than otherwise necessary)
-> is it faster than eg chrome11 ? Probably graphics but the scriptengine ?
-> does it scale ? I do not have only a small phone screen, i have a large ui as
you can see on the website
-> how to allow styling ?
       I want to provide a baselibrary of widgets the users can then use to
create their userinterfaces.
       Is there something like css allowing global definition of colors, images
or other style mechanisms ?
       (Having 100 buttons where i have to set the colors would be really
annoying)
-> Is it more than just an experiment for smartphones and does it make sense to
learn ?
    using html5 technices makes sense because you can use them in any other job
to.
-> How stable is the system ? Will it change all the time so i have to redo the
coding in c++ and qml ?
  
      
My concerns are
- the connection between QML and C++.
  If i see eg the Texteditor tutorial there is far more code than working
traditionally and some real ... well kind of weird "workarounds" necessary
  which really give me a bad feeling
- html and css is rather common and many people can work with it. I do not want
to write all the uis on my own, most probably defining some
  templates but the rest has to be done by non techies. Currently i fear qml
would be way to much for them
- for datavisualisation (piecharts, line and pointdiagrams, ...) do i need to
write my own c++ code ? Or is more complex drawing functionality then just
  some images and rectangles possible ?

So can you please help me decide ? What would you suggest ?

Greetings Thomas
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