11 ms·

Qt 5.6.0 released

171 points by ronjouch 11y ago

ronjouch 11y ago
In addition to this high-level summary, you might also enjoy https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 (linked in the blog post, but easy to miss)
gulpahum 11y ago
Looks like Vulkan support didn't make it to this release. https://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/02/16/the-qt-company-joins-khronos-group-and-promotes-vulkan/ https://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/02/16/the-qt-company-joins-khro...
- deleted 11y ago
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- deleted 11y ago
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- pzone 11y ago
  Wasn't Vulkan released less than a month ago? There is a bit of a running joke about Qt 5.6 because it was branched (i.e. feature freeze!) in August of last year.
crudbug 11y ago
I started playing with QT last week. QML is great. Is the QT team working on official React API support with JSX ? This will make universal UI development a breeze.
- ronjouch 11y ago
  Nothing from the Qt Company itself, but there are some community initiatives around what you're mentioning. This recent mailing list thread mentions a few of them, especially quickflux by community contributor Ben Lau. However, nothing like what you're asking for, QML is clearly not moving in this direction. - http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2016-March/025225.html http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2016-March... - https://github.com/benlau/quickflux/ https://github.com/benlau/quickflux/ Now, regarding what's actually being done by Qt Company on the UI side, there are the new qtquick controls (currently namespaced to 'labs' as it's still a work in progress), see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjabvHSiZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjabvHSiZk and http://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/11/23/qt-quick-controls-re-engineered-status-update/ http://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/11/23/qt-quick-controls-re-engin...
  - crudbug 11y ago
    Thanks for the links. The QuickFlux is promising start for the Flux pattern in Qt. I was thinking more on the lines of React Native [1] like support in Qt. Essentially, having React render() function backed by Qt Quick Controls? [1] https://facebook.github.io/react-native/ https://facebook.github.io/react-native/
    - ronjouch 11y ago
      > QuickFlux is promising start for the Flux pattern in Qt. I was thinking more on the lines of React Native [1] like support in Qt. I know :) , and I searched for that too when I joined a QML project after working on a React one. So far there's nothing like that, thus the "around" in my comment. Now, about why no one tried that yet, I'd propose that newcomers (including me) want it but don't know the platform well enough to build it, and experienced C++/Qt-ers could try it, but they don't care about new frontend stuff like React the slightest bit, as they are used to their own thing (which works well too!). It's just two different technical worlds with different working solutions, and little interest to pick ideas from the other side of the fence. That being said, I'd love to be proven wrong.
      - crudbug 11y ago
        I am on the same boat with you. C/Java/JavaScript background. I hope someone cracks this soon.
    - benlaud 11y ago
      btw, why you want render() in another framework? Not exactly the same as React render(), I have started an experimental project to update QML UI by diff: QSyncable - Synchronize data between models https://github.com/benlau/qsyncable https://github.com/benlau/qsyncable p.s In fact, Qt Scene Graph is somehow similar to React. Both of them will only apply the changes to screen. React manipulates the DOM, but Qt manipulates the OpenGL render pipeline.
justsaysmthng 11y ago
I've used Qt many years ago (2007) and I liked the experience, but I had to move away from it because our company decided to go native on all fronts.. For internal tools/prototypes I was using JUCE for my UI needs, which is much smaller in scale that Qt, but it produced very slim executables, was fast and good enough for my needs (plus I loved the API). I still think this a great framework for small UIs and tools, especially if you're working with sound. Then I took a two years break from C++, moving to full time Objective-C, then Swift 1 and 2, working with and actually enjoying the power of UIKit.. I've developed several UI-heavy apps for iOS and some OSX stuff. This year I came back to C++ and coincidentally, Qt. What a nice come back this is. I'm thoroughly enjoying Qt (I'm currently using 5.4). The development is smooth and intuitive, I don't have to spend hours reading documentation and articles, it kind of just flows by itself (not so at all with UIKit ) After trying out many frameworks and kits, If I had to pronounce a verdict for the best cross platform UI framework - then Qt has no competition, both in terms of features and in terms of pleasure. I hope I can say the same about 5.6, will definitely try it out. Edit: let me know if you need a Qt dev, as my current project is closing to an end and I would love to continue using Qt . (message codershaman on reddit).
- Cyph0n 11y ago
  JUCE seems interesting. What kind of difference in executable size are we talking about, approximately?
  - FigBug 11y ago
    Pretty big. If you want to use LGPL Qt you need to dynamically link, so deploying will get you around 20 MB of libraries. You can do a command line JUCE app in a few hundred KB, or a GUI app in not much more.
    - tosseraccount 11y ago
      Is the support for static linking good in JUCE, such that you can release non trivial programs in a single binary with reliance only on system libraries that are pretty much guaranteed to be there.
shmerl 11y ago
I hope Debian unstable / testing now can move with updating KDE Plasma 5 to the latest version. Looks like they were stuck waiting for Qt update.
- shadeslayer 11y ago
  I'm actually running Debian testing with Plasma 5.4.3, and Plasma 5 has no hard build deps on Qt 5.6 yet. They also have 5.5.4 in experimental. So it's mostly that the Debian Qt/KDE team has a bit of a conservative approach to updating Plasma in unstable.
  - shmerl 11y ago
    I'm using Debian testing too, and noticed the delay. Before, KDE Plasma was moving quite in timely manner in Debian. By now released version is already 5.5 and 5.6 approaching, and Debian still is stuck on the older one. There were some serious Qt bugs[1] which were causing a lot of instability which were fixed in Qt 5.6 so I thought this delay was related. [1]: like this one: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985
ThePhysicist 11y ago
Qt is easily the best cross-platform UI kit that I have used, especially in combination with Python, which turns it into THE rapid prototyping tool. For my research I used PyQt/PySide to build lots of UI components for controlling my lab equipment, visualizing my data and running code in an interactive way. While doing this kind of thing using a native toolkit (MFC, GTK) would have been possible, it would probably have been much difficult and time-consuming. For me, Qt is a great example of beautiful and very good software architecture: Creating a cross-platform UI kit that works on platforms as diverse as Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android and Symbian and integrates well with the peculiar set of features of each platform is a daunting task. Qt as a UI abstraction layer solves this really beautifully, and both the philosophy and the architecture of the code is very well thought through. And in the last five years the developers added many interesting ideas (QML, Javascript support) that compete with and sometimes go beyond what's available in many native toolkits. So if you like reading good code you should have a look at Qt.
- mlvljr 11y ago
  One issue with Py* tools is, PyQt is not LGPL and PySide is for Qt 4 only at the moment. But yeah :)
- pen2l 11y ago
  > For my research I used PyQt/PySide to build lots of UI components for controlling my lab equipment, visualizing my data and running code in an interactive way. While doing this kind of thing using a native toolkit (MFC, GTK) would have been possible, it would probably have been much difficult and time-consuming. Neat. What kind of equipment were you controlling with? Is any of your code available? (I'm doing the same these days)
  - ThePhysicist 11y ago
    All kinds of lab equipment, mostly interfaced via Visa and/or Gpib. My code is on Github: https://github.com/adewes/pyview https://github.com/adewes/pyview https://github.com/adewes/python-qubit-setup https://github.com/adewes/python-qubit-setup
- 11y ago
nly 11y ago
The high DPI changes sound very promising. I experimented with Qt on Android around 18 months ago and, at the time, had to do a bunch of JNI calls to get an accurate device dpi, and do hacky workarounds, like scaling in the QML, just to get things to look half right. Qt 5.6 will be on my todo list for further experiments.
kenOfYugen 11y ago
I have never used Qt, and I feel like I have missed out. What concise sources would be recommended for someone with a Web development background, in order to start with Qt?
- majewsky 11y ago
  Have a look at the official documentation: https://doc.qt.io/ https://doc.qt.io/ I've used it in early Qt 4 times to learn Qt myself, but since it's been a while, I can't attest if the documentation is still as good as it was back then, but a quick gloss over it suggests that it is still as extensive. They seem to be focusing the tutorials on their IDE (Qt Creator), but you can also use it with other build systems (preferably CMake) if you prefer the CLI.
- dudifordMann 11y ago
  I would download the latest Qt with their IDE QtCreator. QtCreator comes default with tons of examples that range from their very early Qt4.x days to the latest Qt5 content. The examples heavily emphasize QML, which I tend to not use for performance reasons, but all of the examples are well documented.
- pzone 11y ago
  Do you know C++? If so a very fast way to learn is to clone some Qt projects, poke inside and see what makes them tick.
  - kenOfYugen 11y ago
    No I am not comfortable with C++ code. I was under the impression that JS along with QML was a viable option, guess I was mistaken.
- MegaDeKay 11y ago
  Take a look at the QML Book if you are particularly interested in the GUI side of things. It is very practical and well written. http://qmlbook.github.io/ http://qmlbook.github.io/
officialchicken 11y ago
Only one question: what changed in the License? Each version of Qt since 4.0 has been getting progressively away from open source.
- baldfat 11y ago
  I'm not sure what you are referring to? It has been LGPLv3 currently was LGPLv2.1 but v2.1 is not recommended anymore so they dropped it. "LGPLv2.1 is an older version and not recommended by the Free Software Foundation for new projects anymore." It's dual licensed and it is rather prominent everywhere on their webpage that it is a dual licensed Open Sourced / Commercial project. I have found Qt to be very Open/Free friendly, unless you have other evidence to prove other wise? If your referring to the commercial aspect I'm not sure since I only use the LGPL license.
  - majewsky 11y ago
    Seconded. Also, the KDE Free Qt Foundation [1] has slowly extended the reach of their Agreement to include all versions of Qt across all platforms, including most additional modules maintained by Qt Company. [1] The KDE Free Qt Foundation maintains a legal contract between KDE e.V. and the owners of Qt that mandates that, should Qt not see a new release for longer than 12 months, the last version of Qt be re-licensed under a permissive BSD-style license.
- distances 11y ago
  This is a strange accusation, and I'd like to hear what gives you that impression. As far as I know, Qt has been getting more open, with the Free Qt foundation including new platforms and all.
vivin 11y ago
Woo! It has a bugfix to qt-webkit that I committed. It fixes a canvas.toDataURL issue with PNGs.
malkia 11y ago
Docking has improved too: https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 - Allow programmatic resizing of dock widgets - Allow dropping dock widgets into floating docks - Allow the user to re-arrange tabified docks I haven't tried it out yet, or seen a demo, but in my previous company we spent some time finding out a solution for docking that mimicks to a degree what Visual Studio did, and we somehow did it, but it's not as good still as Visual Studio. It was very important for the artists/level builders/scripters to be able to use 3 monitors efficiently (something that the browser lacks in general), and a window spread on three of them is not what they needed. They really wanted one monitor with say the level (3d map), another monitor would have all assets for preview/selecting, and a third one for additional debugging. Then when you close, and open again the app it should remember the positions, sizes, etc. Autodesk Maya/MotionBuilder uses Qt, so if they switch to this version they'll benefit from it. As an alternative solution, but only in Python (PyQt, PySide) land, there is https://github.com/nucleic/enaml https://github.com/nucleic/enaml http://nucleic.github.io/enaml/docs/examples/ex_dock_area.html http://nucleic.github.io/enaml/docs/examples/ex_dock_area.ht... It's beautiful!
- malkia 11y ago
  Seems like it's matching Visual Studio :) - https://woboq.com/blog/qdockwidget-changes-in-56.html https://woboq.com/blog/qdockwidget-changes-in-56.html Awesome job Qt folks!
- dkersten 11y ago
  Does this work for QtQuick/QML or is it QWidgets only?
  - malkia 11y ago
    I'm not sure, but I would say QWidgets only, e.g. it's QDockWidget
- ago 11y ago
  Wow, finally being able to resize dock widgets. I've been searching for this forever, always thinking I was doing something wrong. At least now I know it wasn't really possible. This finally allows me to get my last major UI task out of my todo list :)
chx 11y ago
Supposedly https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 is fixed which means you can dock a laptop while using KDE.
known 11y ago
Check http://qtweb.net/ http://qtweb.net/
- oblio 11y ago
  Spam? The link says the domain is available...
  - chris_wot 11y ago
    Not for me, though there appear to be broken images.
    - oblio 11y ago
      This site is temporarily unavailable If you manage this site and have a question about why the site is not available, please contact Domain.com directly. :(
allenskd 11y ago
As someone who have spent the last six months learning C++ (making the transition from web developer) all I can say is that it'll be hard for me to leave Qt framework. It's very pleasant to work with it (although some corner cases can give you headaches). I'm mostly working with Qt Quick/QML in general (previously I used the widgets but I needed "easy access" to more eye candy effects without spending too much time in code. There's a overhead to pay though).
- santaclaus 11y ago
  > As someone who have spent the last six months learning C++ (making the transition from web developer) Any particular reason why? I know a lot of people doing the opposite (because there are so many more web dev gigs out there).
  - JoeAltmaier 11y ago
    There are a lot of windows to be washed, and a lot of floors to be scrubbed too.
  - allenskd 11y ago
    I want to expand my knowledge. I'm almost done with college and I'm both thrilled and terrified on what will I encounter from here on, there is still a lot to learn. I'm not as good as many people here I just lurk most of the time, although, I've been doing web development for years, mostly self-taught. I had the opportunity to freelance as well. Most of my drive to learn C++ is curiosity and the need to be able to write/understand C++ code because I wanted to work with it, I've been meaning to get an Arduino kit too. I'd love to enter the field in C++ as junior dev if possible, at the same time I won't neglect web development if the opportunity is there. As I said before, I want to expand. I won't just "throw away" web development either. Lastly, I'm not in the US, the job market here is pretty terrible, and have found it hard to look for a place to work. I can work in the U.S, but sadly being both college student + no cash to do much it's pretty hard to pull off.
chx 11y ago
This might be the QT release where you can dock a laptop finally with KDE5 (KF5 or whatever they call it this week) running as https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 seems to be fixed...
jkarneges 11y ago
Most people think of Qt as a UI framework but it's also an excellent foundation for CLI/server apps, as an alternative to the C++ standard library and/or Boost. Qt is split into many sub-libraries so you only link to what you need. For example, one of my projects (pushpin.org) uses Qt but only links to the core and network libs; no GUI/X11/etc.
- e12e 11y ago
  It's also AFAIK one of surprisingly few sources of a utf-8 aware cross-platform string class/libraries for c++.
dekhn 11y ago
Qt is one of the nicest frameworks I've worked with. I write code that I expect to run (and look roughly the same) on all 3 major plats (win, linux, osx) and Qt does this a lot better than the alternatives. But what I really appreciate about Qt is the entire system was designed from the ground up by grownups who understand how to deploy software and have it last for over a decade. most of the frameworks today feel like they were developed by kids with little experience to solve limited problems now ,and then fall over as they evolve into something more complex.
- slavik81 11y ago
  It's amazing to me that they maintain binary compatibility across minor version bumps. Anything linked against Qt 5.0 (released 2012) will work with Qt 5.6 without even recompiling.
  - dekhn 11y ago
    I also like that you can cast QObjects across dynamic library boundaries.
Ramiuz 11y ago
Will it be worth it/extremely hard to learn C++ just to use Qt? (I always read here and reddit about how hard/inefficient/easy to fail is everything is in C++) (Eng. background and software dev full time)
- ta0967 11y ago
  C++ is worth knowing, if only superficially, without any regard for Qt.
  - Koshkin 11y ago
    I am not sure about that. Not in the sense of gaining wisdom as would be in case of, say, Lisp or Haskell -- or even C. C++ is all just nuts and bolts, a more or less coherently implemented collection of paradigms originated in other languages. It is very useful from the practical standpoint, no doubt, but being "worth knowing", "superficially" - not so much IMHO.
  - joezydeco 11y ago
    Thankfully Qt doesn't go very deep into C++. I've shipped entire GUis without a single template.
- 1and2equals0 11y ago
  Worth it if you need to use a cross-platform desktop framework and don't like java. C++ is most definitely harder to use than many (newer, thus) more modern languages but you will be rewarded by the niceness of Qt.
- pzone 11y ago
  C++ is certainly difficult, but if your expectations are mainly based on Reddit's opinion of C++, probably the language is not as bad as you think.
- sevensor 11y ago
  If you just want to use Qt, I recommend PyQt / Python. But there are worse ways to learn C++ than via Qt, if learning C++ is your goal.
hugh4life 11y ago
My problem with Qt is that it seems like only Python has language bindings that are good long term bet for a project. I'd like to see bindings for Go, Rust, Node.js, and C#/.NET Core with dependable long term commitment to quality. I think there's more a business case to do these than there ever were for Qt Jambi(Swing and SWT existed) or PySide(basically, duplicating PyQt because it's GPL not LGPL).
- jalfresi 11y ago
  There are go bindings that are excellent (https://github.com/go-qml/qml https://github.com/go-qml/qml). this, combined with the Google Material style kit (http://github.com/papyros/qml-material http://github.com/papyros/qml-material) results in very simple, clean apps with all the goodness of go. For me, the only drawback is not being able to expose a go object as a model, involving a bit of back and forth, but the rest is very very clean.
  - hugh4life 11y ago
    Go does seem to have the best bindings of the platforms I listed, but the reason I put Go on the list is that go-qml hasn't been a commit to the repository in over a year, the mailing list traffic has significantly decreased, and seems to support rather old versions of Qt(though this may be wrong, the docs should be update or made more clear that it means the older version and later).
    - jalfresi 11y ago
      All very valid points. It would be a shame if the project died. QML and Go just seem to be perfect partners.
- rhodysurf 11y ago
  Here are non-qml bindings for Go. IT actual qorks quite well. https://github.com/visualfc/goqt https://github.com/visualfc/goqt
maxxxxx 11y ago
Is Qt still a good platform for new desktop apps? I often have to choose a framework for new line of business apps on Windows. The choice usually is WPF but I'd prefer Qt. Last time I looked into it it looked a really well thought out framework. And I am one of the weird people who prefer C++ over C#. My only concern is availability of 3rd part components like data grids, reporting and other widgets. There are many of them for WPF but I am not sure they exist for Qt. Can Qt interact with .NET components?
- rhodysurf 11y ago
  You can use Qt Charts or Qt 3d. Here is a link to the charts docs http://doc.qt.io/QtCharts/ http://doc.qt.io/QtCharts/
justinclift 11y ago
It was all good until this bit: "In addition, Pepper plugins (PPAPI), such as Flash, are now supported." Ugh. :(
- deleted 11y ago
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- justinclift 11y ago
  Someone downvoted that? Guess they like Qt adding vulnerabilities. :(
  - distances 11y ago
    You just misunderstood what Qt meant by that line. It's not like they would be shipping Flash with Qt.
jlubawy 11y ago
Another plus to this release is they have official VS2015 binaries that you can download, so I don't have to build from source anymore which will save a lot of time.
twqtisgreatbut 11y ago
I really like Qt and think its an incredible framework overall. Even if you don't use the Qt libraries, QtCreator is one of the best C++ IDEs out there imo (though qmake really sucks and they've been dragging their feet on a proper replacement for years) The real show stopper for me with Qt is its licensing though. LGPL is a no-go on closed mobile platforms and its commercial license at $350/month is completely unreasonable for smaller developers. Really, the LGPL is a horrible license because of its clause that you must be able to change out the LGPL portion of the software. Also almost every time there's a thread about Qt I see a bunch of (presumably) web developers start talking about React. In fact, in pretty much every thread talking about any similar framework someone has to mention React. I'm not a web developer and I've only looked at React briefly but I guess I just don't get it. Could someone explain succinctly what the big deal is? I've used Qt a lot -- what do all these people mentioning React want Qt to offer? Why is it brought up so often? Is it really that revolutionary? Almost seems like a cult.
- CamperBob2 11y ago
  Why not just put your proprietary stuff in a closed-source library and distribute the rest of the source in accordance with the LGPL? What's so horrible about that? Even iOS allows dynamic linking nowadays.
  - twqtisgreatbut 11y ago
    The problem isn't dynamic linking, its the requirement that the end user must be able to re-link a modified version of the LGPL code. So for example, the user should be able to replace the Qt libraries your application links to. On closed platforms like iOS and Android (on Google Play) this isn't really possible. How would your user access your application, modify it and re-sign it?
    - shawn-butler 11y ago
      Previous discussion on HN of the mail app Sparrow and their approach in complying with LGPL on iOS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4302517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4302517 May be helpful to you.
zyngaro 11y ago
At $350 monthy it's way too expensive. They should consider introducing an indie or individual developer licences at a lower price point.
- cosarara97 11y ago
  Isn't the LGPL good enough?
  - vietdung2910 11y ago
    Can I publish dynamically linking Qt app on ios App Store?
- motti 11y ago
  They announced a start-up/small business plan [1] of $49/month. [1] http://www.qt.io/start-up-plan/ http://www.qt.io/start-up-plan/
z3t4 11y ago
Can't have a Qt thread without mentioning Nokia Meego, the best phone ever.
chris_wot 11y ago
I'd love to know more about this COIN system that has been released. Jenkins causes a lot of pain for LibreOffice infrastructure devs.
alatkins 11y ago
Can anyone comment on what the uptake of QML is like? Or are most still sticking with the traditional C++/Widgets approach? Are there any major limitations to using pure QML?
- distances 11y ago
  I don't know any numbers, but if I'd start a new project, I'd go with C++ logic with QML UI. It automatically steers you to a better application architecture when there's a clear divide between data and representation. As for limitations, large applications with custom QML may become hard to maintain. I'd expect web development to face the same issue, not sure how they've solved it. Basically refactoring is always a risky operation since you'll find out the breakages only at runtime. For small/medium apps this won't be a problem, but I saw a project with multiple teams on the same codebase for years, and it did cause quite some issues. Then again, there was no alternative with that project. Widgets wouldn't have been an option at all.

171 points by ronjouch 11y ago

In addition to this high-level summary, you might also enjoy https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 (linked in the blog post, but easy to miss)

gulpahum 11y ago

Looks like Vulkan support didn't make it to this release. https://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/02/16/the-qt-company-joins-khronos-group-and-promotes-vulkan/ https://blog.qt.io/blog/2016/02/16/the-qt-company-joins-khro...

deleted 11y ago
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pzone 11y ago
Wasn't Vulkan released less than a month ago? There is a bit of a running joke about Qt 5.6 because it was branched (i.e. feature freeze!) in August of last year.

crudbug 11y ago

I started playing with QT last week. QML is great. Is the QT team working on official React API support with JSX ? This will make universal UI development a breeze.

ronjouch 11y ago
Nothing from the Qt Company itself, but there are some community initiatives around what you're mentioning. This recent mailing list thread mentions a few of them, especially quickflux by community contributor Ben Lau. However, nothing like what you're asking for, QML is clearly not moving in this direction. - http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2016-March/025225.html http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/development/2016-March... - https://github.com/benlau/quickflux/ https://github.com/benlau/quickflux/ Now, regarding what's actually being done by Qt Company on the UI side, there are the new qtquick controls (currently namespaced to 'labs' as it's still a work in progress), see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjabvHSiZk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqjabvHSiZk and http://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/11/23/qt-quick-controls-re-engineered-status-update/ http://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/11/23/qt-quick-controls-re-engin...
- crudbug 11y ago
  Thanks for the links. The QuickFlux is promising start for the Flux pattern in Qt. I was thinking more on the lines of React Native [1] like support in Qt. Essentially, having React render() function backed by Qt Quick Controls? [1] https://facebook.github.io/react-native/ https://facebook.github.io/react-native/
  - ronjouch 11y ago
    > QuickFlux is promising start for the Flux pattern in Qt. I was thinking more on the lines of React Native [1] like support in Qt. I know :) , and I searched for that too when I joined a QML project after working on a React one. So far there's nothing like that, thus the "around" in my comment. Now, about why no one tried that yet, I'd propose that newcomers (including me) want it but don't know the platform well enough to build it, and experienced C++/Qt-ers could try it, but they don't care about new frontend stuff like React the slightest bit, as they are used to their own thing (which works well too!). It's just two different technical worlds with different working solutions, and little interest to pick ideas from the other side of the fence. That being said, I'd love to be proven wrong.
    - crudbug 11y ago
      I am on the same boat with you. C/Java/JavaScript background. I hope someone cracks this soon.
  - benlaud 11y ago
    btw, why you want render() in another framework? Not exactly the same as React render(), I have started an experimental project to update QML UI by diff: QSyncable - Synchronize data between models https://github.com/benlau/qsyncable https://github.com/benlau/qsyncable p.s In fact, Qt Scene Graph is somehow similar to React. Both of them will only apply the changes to screen. React manipulates the DOM, but Qt manipulates the OpenGL render pipeline.

justsaysmthng 11y ago

I've used Qt many years ago (2007) and I liked the experience, but I had to move away from it because our company decided to go native on all fronts.. For internal tools/prototypes I was using JUCE for my UI needs, which is much smaller in scale that Qt, but it produced very slim executables, was fast and good enough for my needs (plus I loved the API). I still think this a great framework for small UIs and tools, especially if you're working with sound. Then I took a two years break from C++, moving to full time Objective-C, then Swift 1 and 2, working with and actually enjoying the power of UIKit.. I've developed several UI-heavy apps for iOS and some OSX stuff. This year I came back to C++ and coincidentally, Qt. What a nice come back this is. I'm thoroughly enjoying Qt (I'm currently using 5.4). The development is smooth and intuitive, I don't have to spend hours reading documentation and articles, it kind of just flows by itself (not so at all with UIKit ) After trying out many frameworks and kits, If I had to pronounce a verdict for the best cross platform UI framework - then Qt has no competition, both in terms of features and in terms of pleasure. I hope I can say the same about 5.6, will definitely try it out. Edit: let me know if you need a Qt dev, as my current project is closing to an end and I would love to continue using Qt . (message codershaman on reddit).

Cyph0n 11y ago
JUCE seems interesting. What kind of difference in executable size are we talking about, approximately?
- FigBug 11y ago
  Pretty big. If you want to use LGPL Qt you need to dynamically link, so deploying will get you around 20 MB of libraries. You can do a command line JUCE app in a few hundred KB, or a GUI app in not much more.
  - tosseraccount 11y ago
    Is the support for static linking good in JUCE, such that you can release non trivial programs in a single binary with reliance only on system libraries that are pretty much guaranteed to be there.

shmerl 11y ago

I hope Debian unstable / testing now can move with updating KDE Plasma 5 to the latest version. Looks like they were stuck waiting for Qt update.

shadeslayer 11y ago
I'm actually running Debian testing with Plasma 5.4.3, and Plasma 5 has no hard build deps on Qt 5.6 yet. They also have 5.5.4 in experimental. So it's mostly that the Debian Qt/KDE team has a bit of a conservative approach to updating Plasma in unstable.
- shmerl 11y ago
  I'm using Debian testing too, and noticed the delay. Before, KDE Plasma was moving quite in timely manner in Debian. By now released version is already 5.5 and 5.6 approaching, and Debian still is stuck on the older one. There were some serious Qt bugs[1] which were causing a lot of instability which were fixed in Qt 5.6 so I thought this delay was related. [1]: like this one: https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985

ThePhysicist 11y ago

Qt is easily the best cross-platform UI kit that I have used, especially in combination with Python, which turns it into THE rapid prototyping tool. For my research I used PyQt/PySide to build lots of UI components for controlling my lab equipment, visualizing my data and running code in an interactive way. While doing this kind of thing using a native toolkit (MFC, GTK) would have been possible, it would probably have been much difficult and time-consuming. For me, Qt is a great example of beautiful and very good software architecture: Creating a cross-platform UI kit that works on platforms as diverse as Linux, Windows, MacOS, Android and Symbian and integrates well with the peculiar set of features of each platform is a daunting task. Qt as a UI abstraction layer solves this really beautifully, and both the philosophy and the architecture of the code is very well thought through. And in the last five years the developers added many interesting ideas (QML, Javascript support) that compete with and sometimes go beyond what's available in many native toolkits. So if you like reading good code you should have a look at Qt.

mlvljr 11y ago
One issue with Py* tools is, PyQt is not LGPL and PySide is for Qt 4 only at the moment. But yeah :)
pen2l 11y ago
> For my research I used PyQt/PySide to build lots of UI components for controlling my lab equipment, visualizing my data and running code in an interactive way. While doing this kind of thing using a native toolkit (MFC, GTK) would have been possible, it would probably have been much difficult and time-consuming. Neat. What kind of equipment were you controlling with? Is any of your code available? (I'm doing the same these days)
- ThePhysicist 11y ago
  All kinds of lab equipment, mostly interfaced via Visa and/or Gpib. My code is on Github: https://github.com/adewes/pyview https://github.com/adewes/pyview https://github.com/adewes/python-qubit-setup https://github.com/adewes/python-qubit-setup
11y ago

nly 11y ago

The high DPI changes sound very promising. I experimented with Qt on Android around 18 months ago and, at the time, had to do a bunch of JNI calls to get an accurate device dpi, and do hacky workarounds, like scaling in the QML, just to get things to look half right. Qt 5.6 will be on my todo list for further experiments.

kenOfYugen 11y ago

I have never used Qt, and I feel like I have missed out. What concise sources would be recommended for someone with a Web development background, in order to start with Qt?

majewsky 11y ago
Have a look at the official documentation: https://doc.qt.io/ https://doc.qt.io/ I've used it in early Qt 4 times to learn Qt myself, but since it's been a while, I can't attest if the documentation is still as good as it was back then, but a quick gloss over it suggests that it is still as extensive. They seem to be focusing the tutorials on their IDE (Qt Creator), but you can also use it with other build systems (preferably CMake) if you prefer the CLI.
dudifordMann 11y ago
I would download the latest Qt with their IDE QtCreator. QtCreator comes default with tons of examples that range from their very early Qt4.x days to the latest Qt5 content. The examples heavily emphasize QML, which I tend to not use for performance reasons, but all of the examples are well documented.
pzone 11y ago
Do you know C++? If so a very fast way to learn is to clone some Qt projects, poke inside and see what makes them tick.
- kenOfYugen 11y ago
  No I am not comfortable with C++ code. I was under the impression that JS along with QML was a viable option, guess I was mistaken.
MegaDeKay 11y ago
Take a look at the QML Book if you are particularly interested in the GUI side of things. It is very practical and well written. http://qmlbook.github.io/ http://qmlbook.github.io/

officialchicken 11y ago

Only one question: what changed in the License? Each version of Qt since 4.0 has been getting progressively away from open source.

baldfat 11y ago
I'm not sure what you are referring to? It has been LGPLv3 currently was LGPLv2.1 but v2.1 is not recommended anymore so they dropped it. "LGPLv2.1 is an older version and not recommended by the Free Software Foundation for new projects anymore." It's dual licensed and it is rather prominent everywhere on their webpage that it is a dual licensed Open Sourced / Commercial project. I have found Qt to be very Open/Free friendly, unless you have other evidence to prove other wise? If your referring to the commercial aspect I'm not sure since I only use the LGPL license.
- majewsky 11y ago
  Seconded. Also, the KDE Free Qt Foundation [1] has slowly extended the reach of their Agreement to include all versions of Qt across all platforms, including most additional modules maintained by Qt Company. [1] The KDE Free Qt Foundation maintains a legal contract between KDE e.V. and the owners of Qt that mandates that, should Qt not see a new release for longer than 12 months, the last version of Qt be re-licensed under a permissive BSD-style license.
distances 11y ago
This is a strange accusation, and I'd like to hear what gives you that impression. As far as I know, Qt has been getting more open, with the Free Qt foundation including new platforms and all.

vivin 11y ago

Woo! It has a bugfix to qt-webkit that I committed. It fixes a canvas.toDataURL issue with PNGs.

malkia 11y ago

Docking has improved too: https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 https://wiki.qt.io/New_Features_in_Qt_5.6 - Allow programmatic resizing of dock widgets - Allow dropping dock widgets into floating docks - Allow the user to re-arrange tabified docks I haven't tried it out yet, or seen a demo, but in my previous company we spent some time finding out a solution for docking that mimicks to a degree what Visual Studio did, and we somehow did it, but it's not as good still as Visual Studio. It was very important for the artists/level builders/scripters to be able to use 3 monitors efficiently (something that the browser lacks in general), and a window spread on three of them is not what they needed. They really wanted one monitor with say the level (3d map), another monitor would have all assets for preview/selecting, and a third one for additional debugging. Then when you close, and open again the app it should remember the positions, sizes, etc. Autodesk Maya/MotionBuilder uses Qt, so if they switch to this version they'll benefit from it. As an alternative solution, but only in Python (PyQt, PySide) land, there is https://github.com/nucleic/enaml https://github.com/nucleic/enaml http://nucleic.github.io/enaml/docs/examples/ex_dock_area.html http://nucleic.github.io/enaml/docs/examples/ex_dock_area.ht... It's beautiful!

malkia 11y ago
Seems like it's matching Visual Studio :) - https://woboq.com/blog/qdockwidget-changes-in-56.html https://woboq.com/blog/qdockwidget-changes-in-56.html Awesome job Qt folks!
dkersten 11y ago
Does this work for QtQuick/QML or is it QWidgets only?
- malkia 11y ago
  I'm not sure, but I would say QWidgets only, e.g. it's QDockWidget
ago 11y ago
Wow, finally being able to resize dock widgets. I've been searching for this forever, always thinking I was doing something wrong. At least now I know it wasn't really possible. This finally allows me to get my last major UI task out of my todo list :)

chx 11y ago

Supposedly https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 is fixed which means you can dock a laptop while using KDE.

known 11y ago

Check http://qtweb.net/ http://qtweb.net/

oblio 11y ago
Spam? The link says the domain is available...
- chris_wot 11y ago
  Not for me, though there appear to be broken images.
  - oblio 11y ago
    This site is temporarily unavailable If you manage this site and have a question about why the site is not available, please contact Domain.com directly. :(

allenskd 11y ago

As someone who have spent the last six months learning C++ (making the transition from web developer) all I can say is that it'll be hard for me to leave Qt framework. It's very pleasant to work with it (although some corner cases can give you headaches). I'm mostly working with Qt Quick/QML in general (previously I used the widgets but I needed "easy access" to more eye candy effects without spending too much time in code. There's a overhead to pay though).

santaclaus 11y ago
> As someone who have spent the last six months learning C++ (making the transition from web developer) Any particular reason why? I know a lot of people doing the opposite (because there are so many more web dev gigs out there).
- JoeAltmaier 11y ago
  There are a lot of windows to be washed, and a lot of floors to be scrubbed too.
- allenskd 11y ago
  I want to expand my knowledge. I'm almost done with college and I'm both thrilled and terrified on what will I encounter from here on, there is still a lot to learn. I'm not as good as many people here I just lurk most of the time, although, I've been doing web development for years, mostly self-taught. I had the opportunity to freelance as well. Most of my drive to learn C++ is curiosity and the need to be able to write/understand C++ code because I wanted to work with it, I've been meaning to get an Arduino kit too. I'd love to enter the field in C++ as junior dev if possible, at the same time I won't neglect web development if the opportunity is there. As I said before, I want to expand. I won't just "throw away" web development either. Lastly, I'm not in the US, the job market here is pretty terrible, and have found it hard to look for a place to work. I can work in the U.S, but sadly being both college student + no cash to do much it's pretty hard to pull off.

chx 11y ago

This might be the QT release where you can dock a laptop finally with KDE5 (KF5 or whatever they call it this week) running as https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-42985 seems to be fixed...

jkarneges 11y ago

Most people think of Qt as a UI framework but it's also an excellent foundation for CLI/server apps, as an alternative to the C++ standard library and/or Boost. Qt is split into many sub-libraries so you only link to what you need. For example, one of my projects (pushpin.org) uses Qt but only links to the core and network libs; no GUI/X11/etc.

e12e 11y ago
It's also AFAIK one of surprisingly few sources of a utf-8 aware cross-platform string class/libraries for c++.

dekhn 11y ago

Qt is one of the nicest frameworks I've worked with. I write code that I expect to run (and look roughly the same) on all 3 major plats (win, linux, osx) and Qt does this a lot better than the alternatives. But what I really appreciate about Qt is the entire system was designed from the ground up by grownups who understand how to deploy software and have it last for over a decade. most of the frameworks today feel like they were developed by kids with little experience to solve limited problems now ,and then fall over as they evolve into something more complex.

slavik81 11y ago
It's amazing to me that they maintain binary compatibility across minor version bumps. Anything linked against Qt 5.0 (released 2012) will work with Qt 5.6 without even recompiling.
- dekhn 11y ago
  I also like that you can cast QObjects across dynamic library boundaries.

Ramiuz 11y ago

Will it be worth it/extremely hard to learn C++ just to use Qt? (I always read here and reddit about how hard/inefficient/easy to fail is everything is in C++) (Eng. background and software dev full time)

ta0967 11y ago
C++ is worth knowing, if only superficially, without any regard for Qt.
- Koshkin 11y ago
  I am not sure about that. Not in the sense of gaining wisdom as would be in case of, say, Lisp or Haskell -- or even C. C++ is all just nuts and bolts, a more or less coherently implemented collection of paradigms originated in other languages. It is very useful from the practical standpoint, no doubt, but being "worth knowing", "superficially" - not so much IMHO.
- joezydeco 11y ago
  Thankfully Qt doesn't go very deep into C++. I've shipped entire GUis without a single template.
1and2equals0 11y ago
Worth it if you need to use a cross-platform desktop framework and don't like java. C++ is most definitely harder to use than many (newer, thus) more modern languages but you will be rewarded by the niceness of Qt.
pzone 11y ago
C++ is certainly difficult, but if your expectations are mainly based on Reddit's opinion of C++, probably the language is not as bad as you think.
sevensor 11y ago
If you just want to use Qt, I recommend PyQt / Python. But there are worse ways to learn C++ than via Qt, if learning C++ is your goal.

hugh4life 11y ago

My problem with Qt is that it seems like only Python has language bindings that are good long term bet for a project. I'd like to see bindings for Go, Rust, Node.js, and C#/.NET Core with dependable long term commitment to quality. I think there's more a business case to do these than there ever were for Qt Jambi(Swing and SWT existed) or PySide(basically, duplicating PyQt because it's GPL not LGPL).

jalfresi 11y ago
There are go bindings that are excellent (https://github.com/go-qml/qml https://github.com/go-qml/qml). this, combined with the Google Material style kit (http://github.com/papyros/qml-material http://github.com/papyros/qml-material) results in very simple, clean apps with all the goodness of go. For me, the only drawback is not being able to expose a go object as a model, involving a bit of back and forth, but the rest is very very clean.
- hugh4life 11y ago
  Go does seem to have the best bindings of the platforms I listed, but the reason I put Go on the list is that go-qml hasn't been a commit to the repository in over a year, the mailing list traffic has significantly decreased, and seems to support rather old versions of Qt(though this may be wrong, the docs should be update or made more clear that it means the older version and later).
  - jalfresi 11y ago
    All very valid points. It would be a shame if the project died. QML and Go just seem to be perfect partners.
rhodysurf 11y ago
Here are non-qml bindings for Go. IT actual qorks quite well. https://github.com/visualfc/goqt https://github.com/visualfc/goqt

maxxxxx 11y ago

Is Qt still a good platform for new desktop apps? I often have to choose a framework for new line of business apps on Windows. The choice usually is WPF but I'd prefer Qt. Last time I looked into it it looked a really well thought out framework. And I am one of the weird people who prefer C++ over C#. My only concern is availability of 3rd part components like data grids, reporting and other widgets. There are many of them for WPF but I am not sure they exist for Qt. Can Qt interact with .NET components?

rhodysurf 11y ago
You can use Qt Charts or Qt 3d. Here is a link to the charts docs http://doc.qt.io/QtCharts/ http://doc.qt.io/QtCharts/

justinclift 11y ago

It was all good until this bit: "In addition, Pepper plugins (PPAPI), such as Flash, are now supported." Ugh. :(

deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
justinclift 11y ago
Someone downvoted that? Guess they like Qt adding vulnerabilities. :(
- distances 11y ago
  You just misunderstood what Qt meant by that line. It's not like they would be shipping Flash with Qt.

jlubawy 11y ago

Another plus to this release is they have official VS2015 binaries that you can download, so I don't have to build from source anymore which will save a lot of time.

twqtisgreatbut 11y ago

I really like Qt and think its an incredible framework overall. Even if you don't use the Qt libraries, QtCreator is one of the best C++ IDEs out there imo (though qmake really sucks and they've been dragging their feet on a proper replacement for years) The real show stopper for me with Qt is its licensing though. LGPL is a no-go on closed mobile platforms and its commercial license at $350/month is completely unreasonable for smaller developers. Really, the LGPL is a horrible license because of its clause that you must be able to change out the LGPL portion of the software. Also almost every time there's a thread about Qt I see a bunch of (presumably) web developers start talking about React. In fact, in pretty much every thread talking about any similar framework someone has to mention React. I'm not a web developer and I've only looked at React briefly but I guess I just don't get it. Could someone explain succinctly what the big deal is? I've used Qt a lot -- what do all these people mentioning React want Qt to offer? Why is it brought up so often? Is it really that revolutionary? Almost seems like a cult.

CamperBob2 11y ago
Why not just put your proprietary stuff in a closed-source library and distribute the rest of the source in accordance with the LGPL? What's so horrible about that? Even iOS allows dynamic linking nowadays.
- twqtisgreatbut 11y ago
  The problem isn't dynamic linking, its the requirement that the end user must be able to re-link a modified version of the LGPL code. So for example, the user should be able to replace the Qt libraries your application links to. On closed platforms like iOS and Android (on Google Play) this isn't really possible. How would your user access your application, modify it and re-sign it?
  - shawn-butler 11y ago
    Previous discussion on HN of the mail app Sparrow and their approach in complying with LGPL on iOS: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4302517 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4302517 May be helpful to you.

zyngaro 11y ago

At $350 monthy it's way too expensive. They should consider introducing an indie or individual developer licences at a lower price point.

cosarara97 11y ago
Isn't the LGPL good enough?
- vietdung2910 11y ago
  Can I publish dynamically linking Qt app on ios App Store?
motti 11y ago
They announced a start-up/small business plan [1] of $49/month. [1] http://www.qt.io/start-up-plan/ http://www.qt.io/start-up-plan/

z3t4 11y ago

Can't have a Qt thread without mentioning Nokia Meego, the best phone ever.

chris_wot 11y ago

I'd love to know more about this COIN system that has been released. Jenkins causes a lot of pain for LibreOffice infrastructure devs.

alatkins 11y ago

Can anyone comment on what the uptake of QML is like? Or are most still sticking with the traditional C++/Widgets approach? Are there any major limitations to using pure QML?

distances 11y ago
I don't know any numbers, but if I'd start a new project, I'd go with C++ logic with QML UI. It automatically steers you to a better application architecture when there's a clear divide between data and representation. As for limitations, large applications with custom QML may become hard to maintain. I'd expect web development to face the same issue, not sure how they've solved it. Basically refactoring is always a risky operation since you'll find out the breakages only at runtime. For small/medium apps this won't be a problem, but I saw a project with multiple teams on the same codebase for years, and it did cause quite some issues. Then again, there was no alternative with that project. Widgets wouldn't have been an option at all.