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I fully agree, but I also think Apple is moving in that direction with Dashcode, although it doesn't really provide the full functionality of Xcode+Interface bu

I fully agree, but I also think Apple is moving in that direction with Dashcode, although it doesn't really provide the full functionality of Xcode+Interface builder. I think, the time when HTML5+JS+CSS will become everyday for small apps is the day when there are some robust UI frameworks. We are moving in that direction with the different frameworks, e.g. Cappucino [http://cappuccino.org/ http://cappuccino.org/]. In the meantime you can take a look at Qt Quick [http://blog.qt.nokia.com/2010/02/15/meet-qt-quick/ http://blog.qt.nokia.com/2010/02/15/meet-qt-quick/]. It uses a declarative language, called QML, for defining UI and the app logic can be either JS or hooked into Qt objects written in C++. I've only played with it a couple of days, and already I am sold on the possibilities for rich animated fast UIs.

wallflower 17y ago
Thanks for the heads up on Qt. It seems a lot of development time, especially early on, is consumed with debugging and fitting pieces together properly. What is your impression so far of the ease of debugging (not on hardware, the simulator)? XCode's Instruments and their debugger are tools I've only started getting more out of using.
- somebear 17y ago
  When you talk about debugging with a simulator I assume you are thinking about targeting a mobile device, so correct me if I'm wrong. One of the strength of Qt when developing for mobile devices is that you can develop your app on the desktop and debug it there (to a point), and then deploy to the device and tweak. Of course, when you start using device specific features you will have to go in hardware or a simulator. At the moment the EPOC emulator which comes with the Symbian SDK leaves a lot to be desired. Many of the phone specific features (like sensors or location) are not supported, so you will have to goto hardware for those anyway. Unfortunately, I don't know what the plans are with regards to simulator for Symbian. That said, debugging in target from Qt Creator is quite often nice. The problem comes when Qt Creator simply says that you have a Generic OS related error, then you are pretty much stuck. Hope that helped answer some of your questions.
godDLL 17y ago
Dashcode seems to have been stale for a while now, so I'd be hesitant to bet on it (you can't really extend it, as we don't own the source).
- somebear 17y ago
  I hadn't looked at it for a while, just thought it was the tool for making dashboard widgets.

wallflower 17y ago

Thanks for the heads up on Qt. It seems a lot of development time, especially early on, is consumed with debugging and fitting pieces together properly. What is your impression so far of the ease of debugging (not on hardware, the simulator)? XCode's Instruments and their debugger are tools I've only started getting more out of using.

somebear 17y ago
When you talk about debugging with a simulator I assume you are thinking about targeting a mobile device, so correct me if I'm wrong. One of the strength of Qt when developing for mobile devices is that you can develop your app on the desktop and debug it there (to a point), and then deploy to the device and tweak. Of course, when you start using device specific features you will have to go in hardware or a simulator. At the moment the EPOC emulator which comes with the Symbian SDK leaves a lot to be desired. Many of the phone specific features (like sensors or location) are not supported, so you will have to goto hardware for those anyway. Unfortunately, I don't know what the plans are with regards to simulator for Symbian. That said, debugging in target from Qt Creator is quite often nice. The problem comes when Qt Creator simply says that you have a Generic OS related error, then you are pretty much stuck. Hope that helped answer some of your questions.

godDLL 17y ago

Dashcode seems to have been stale for a while now, so I'd be hesitant to bet on it (you can't really extend it, as we don't own the source).

somebear 17y ago
I hadn't looked at it for a while, just thought it was the tool for making dashboard widgets.