4 ms·

Are you aware of QML, which is part of the Qt framework? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML

by fnl 9y ago

gregschlom 9y ago
Yep, came here to say that. QML is absolutely great for making UIs, in fact I wish we could use it for the web, too.
- _wmd 9y ago
  Be careful what you wish for. https://github.com/qmlweb/qmlweb https://github.com/qmlweb/qmlweb
alexandernst 9y ago
Yes. QML is a step in the right direction, but the syntax is kind of awkward, and you still need C++ on the background, which makes it harder to use, more expensive (in terms of man/hours cost) and slower to develop than <the JS framework of the month> + HTML/CSS.
- ZenoArrow 9y ago
  > "you still need C++ on the background" There are ways around that. For example, DOtherSide is a C library to bind to QML, and binary releases for Windows and Linux are made available on the GitHub page, so in principal you could try out QML without needing to directly use a C/C++ compiler: https://github.com/filcuc/DOtherSide https://github.com/filcuc/DOtherSide There are also a few other languages with QML bindings, such as Rust (the Rust binding is based on DOtherSide): https://www.vandenoever.info/blog/2017/02/17/a-simple-rust-gui-with-qml.html https://www.vandenoever.info/blog/2017/02/17/a-simple-rust-g...
- fnl 9y ago
  Not that most companies would care, as dev cost seems to be all that matters these days, but the upsides are much faster and leaner applications than what you get from Electron.
  - bpicolo 9y ago
    Can't talk as to rendering and such, but python isn't going to be a performance win vs JS. V8 is faster than cpython by a decent margin for typical tasks on typical data structures. You'll need to dip into clang or whatnot for really hardcore perf either way
    - discreteevent 9y ago
      It's not the js that's the problem. It's the dom. QML was designed from the ground up for optimal rendering on the gpu and from the ground up for applications rather than documents.
    - kbutler 9y ago
      Performance of Python driving UI components implemented in C beats performance of JavaScript driving UI components implemented in JavaScript on top of the DOM.
    - fnl 9y ago
      You won't be using Python with QML at all, but rather JS - so you still can enjoy the speedy development vs. a traditional Widget app, and you get a far more efficient runtime, too. http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtqml-javascript-expressions.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtqml-javascript-expressions.html
- joezydeco 9y ago
  Not to mention that QML/QDeclaritive pulls in a Javascript engine to make it all work. =) I still develop 100% in QWidgets, which probably makes me a dinosaur but at least I know what I'm getting out of it.

Are you aware of QML, which is part of the Qt framework? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML

by fnl 9y ago

Are you aware of QML, which is part of the Qt framework? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML

gregschlom 9y ago

Yep, came here to say that. QML is absolutely great for making UIs, in fact I wish we could use it for the web, too.

_wmd 9y ago
Be careful what you wish for. https://github.com/qmlweb/qmlweb https://github.com/qmlweb/qmlweb

alexandernst 9y ago

Yes. QML is a step in the right direction, but the syntax is kind of awkward, and you still need C++ on the background, which makes it harder to use, more expensive (in terms of man/hours cost) and slower to develop than <the JS framework of the month> + HTML/CSS.

ZenoArrow 9y ago
> "you still need C++ on the background" There are ways around that. For example, DOtherSide is a C library to bind to QML, and binary releases for Windows and Linux are made available on the GitHub page, so in principal you could try out QML without needing to directly use a C/C++ compiler: https://github.com/filcuc/DOtherSide https://github.com/filcuc/DOtherSide There are also a few other languages with QML bindings, such as Rust (the Rust binding is based on DOtherSide): https://www.vandenoever.info/blog/2017/02/17/a-simple-rust-gui-with-qml.html https://www.vandenoever.info/blog/2017/02/17/a-simple-rust-g...
fnl 9y ago
Not that most companies would care, as dev cost seems to be all that matters these days, but the upsides are much faster and leaner applications than what you get from Electron.
- bpicolo 9y ago
  Can't talk as to rendering and such, but python isn't going to be a performance win vs JS. V8 is faster than cpython by a decent margin for typical tasks on typical data structures. You'll need to dip into clang or whatnot for really hardcore perf either way
  - discreteevent 9y ago
    It's not the js that's the problem. It's the dom. QML was designed from the ground up for optimal rendering on the gpu and from the ground up for applications rather than documents.
  - kbutler 9y ago
    Performance of Python driving UI components implemented in C beats performance of JavaScript driving UI components implemented in JavaScript on top of the DOM.
  - fnl 9y ago
    You won't be using Python with QML at all, but rather JS - so you still can enjoy the speedy development vs. a traditional Widget app, and you get a far more efficient runtime, too. http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtqml-javascript-expressions.html http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/qtqml-javascript-expressions.html
joezydeco 9y ago
Not to mention that QML/QDeclaritive pulls in a Javascript engine to make it all work. =) I still develop 100% in QWidgets, which probably makes me a dinosaur but at least I know what I'm getting out of it.