4 ms·

I dream of the inverse of the react native or electron trend. In this world one would write his application using Qt Quick for all the platforms including the w

I dream of the inverse of the react native or electron trend. In this world one would write his application using Qt Quick for all the platforms including the web! Using Emscriptem you would be able to compile your C++ code to asm.js or webassembly and make your application run flawlessly in your browser with WebGL, canvas or HTML5 as a backend. Some people already started working on that: https://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/09/25/qt-for-native-client-and-emscripten/ https://blog.qt.io/blog/2015/09/25/qt-for-native-client-and-... Even using React, Redux, flexbox layout and all these fancy frameworks, I still find the web stack a huge hack that tries to bend HTML and CSS to recreate the feeling of an app (like SPAs). QML is simply more expressive for layouts and bindings.

jordanbaucke 10y ago
agreed.
ComodoHacker 10y ago
I hope in that universe everybody won't be downloading a copy of Chromium/Webkit/whatever with every desktop app.
- winter_blue 10y ago
  The GP said "I dream of the inverse of the react native or electron trend". That means no Chromium or other bundled web browser with every desktop app. With Qt, you app will be light-weight, blazing fast, and have a native look and feel (as Qt uses native widgets whenever possible).
  - aljones 10y ago
    React Native doesn't bundle a web browser. It uses native widgets.
- _wmd 10y ago
  Qt already bundles QWebEngine, which is essentially a copy of Chromium
  - santaclaus 10y ago
    Are all Qt apps shipping and linking against QWebEngine though?
    - dschulz 10y ago
      Not if you don't explicitly link against the relevant modules. That is usually done by adding a few entries in the Qt project file (qmake) and then including the headers. http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginecore-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginecore-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginewidgets-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginewidgets-module.html
  - ComodoHacker 10y ago
    I'm looking at 32M Qt5WebKit.dll shipped with Zeal. Is this it?
dragonshed 10y ago
Funny, I recently looked into using QML & Qt Quick as a lightweight alternative to electron, and although there are some promising factors with the approach, it became apparent that things would take a lot more work and experimentation than simply using electron. A nimble, feature-complete starter client that is fully scriptable with javascript, i.e. qmlscene without the rough edges, would be ideal.
- rhardih 10y ago
  Is this due to unfamiliarity / learning curve with the technology or limitations found using Qt Quick? Because what you're describing sounds an awful lot like the base example when starting a new Qt Quick application project.
dragly 10y ago
Here is a demo of a QML sandbox in the browser using Qt+Emscripten if you are interested[1]. And the blog post in which I wrote about it[2]. It's quite big and not very well performing, but Qt might be useful for larger web apps one day. [1] http://ovilab.net/projects/qt-emscripten/qml-sandbox/ http://ovilab.net/projects/qt-emscripten/qml-sandbox/ [2] http://dragly.org/2016/04/27/experimental-qt-and-qml-in-the-browser/ http://dragly.org/2016/04/27/experimental-qt-and-qml-in-the-...

jordanbaucke 10y ago

agreed.

ComodoHacker 10y ago

I hope in that universe everybody won't be downloading a copy of Chromium/Webkit/whatever with every desktop app.

winter_blue 10y ago
The GP said "I dream of the inverse of the react native or electron trend". That means no Chromium or other bundled web browser with every desktop app. With Qt, you app will be light-weight, blazing fast, and have a native look and feel (as Qt uses native widgets whenever possible).
- aljones 10y ago
  React Native doesn't bundle a web browser. It uses native widgets.
_wmd 10y ago
Qt already bundles QWebEngine, which is essentially a copy of Chromium
- santaclaus 10y ago
  Are all Qt apps shipping and linking against QWebEngine though?
  - dschulz 10y ago
    Not if you don't explicitly link against the relevant modules. That is usually done by adding a few entries in the Qt project file (qmake) and then including the headers. http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginecore-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginecore-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginewidgets-module.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtwebenginewidgets-module.html
- ComodoHacker 10y ago
  I'm looking at 32M Qt5WebKit.dll shipped with Zeal. Is this it?

dragonshed 10y ago

Funny, I recently looked into using QML & Qt Quick as a lightweight alternative to electron, and although there are some promising factors with the approach, it became apparent that things would take a lot more work and experimentation than simply using electron. A nimble, feature-complete starter client that is fully scriptable with javascript, i.e. qmlscene without the rough edges, would be ideal.

rhardih 10y ago
Is this due to unfamiliarity / learning curve with the technology or limitations found using Qt Quick? Because what you're describing sounds an awful lot like the base example when starting a new Qt Quick application project.

dragly 10y ago

Here is a demo of a QML sandbox in the browser using Qt+Emscripten if you are interested[1]. And the blog post in which I wrote about it[2]. It's quite big and not very well performing, but Qt might be useful for larger web apps one day. [1] http://ovilab.net/projects/qt-emscripten/qml-sandbox/ http://ovilab.net/projects/qt-emscripten/qml-sandbox/ [2] http://dragly.org/2016/04/27/experimental-qt-and-qml-in-the-browser/ http://dragly.org/2016/04/27/experimental-qt-and-qml-in-the-...