5 ms·

Why bother with Electron? Qt is lightweight, has Ruby bindings, and looks native on everything. Use Furoshiki to build distributable binaries for each platform

Why bother with Electron? Qt is lightweight, has Ruby bindings, and looks native on everything. Use Furoshiki to build distributable binaries for each platform.

52-6F-62 9y ago
I just recently started experimenting with Qt and it is an actual charm to work with. I haven't tried out any bindings or languages outside of C++ with it yet, and haven't built anything serious, but I understand the love some people have for it better after trying it.
bigtunacan 9y ago
Is this the Furoshiki project you are referring to? https://github.com/shoes/furoshiki https://github.com/shoes/furoshiki I'm just wondering since it says it is alpha and only supports Shoes.
- jamesgeck0 9y ago
  Oh, whoops. I knew it was mostly used with Shoes apps right now; I didn't realize it literally didn't work with non-Shoes apps.
inferiorhuman 9y ago
As a fan of Qt I've gotta disagree there. Qt looks native on X11 systems but looks really out of place on OSX.
djsumdog 9y ago
I started down the electron path and will probably back out. So many get-started things in electron are just massive boiler-plate. Electron-vue is awful boiler plate with so much pre-made crap I don't understand how any of it fits together and some really simply stackoverflow questions have gone forever without being answered: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48337401/unable-to-test-better-sqlite3-within-a-project-based-on-electron-vue-boilerplate https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48337401/unable-to-test-... Not to mention electron apps are massive (Slack is 90M+ for a fucking chat client. Audium/Pidgin anyone?) Electron is a huge step backwards really. I don't see why people praise it so much.
- mikewhy 9y ago
  So you picked an "awful boilerplate" where you "don't understand how any of it fits together" and that's a failing of Electron?
  - djsumdog 9y ago
    They're all awful boilerplate. Almost every single toolkit or getting started example I looked at involved cloning something of boilerplate, including React, Vue, etc. I couldn't even find decent clean examples, and as I tried putting them together, there was just a total lack of documentation and frustrating amounts of searching and finding dead/unanswered fourm and stackoverflow posts.
Buttons840 9y ago
Electron has more permissive licensing. I'm open to suggestions for a light weight alternative to Electron has an equally permissive license and still looks good. I've done some research and I'm not sure what I can legally do using Qt without open-sourcing my app. This may sound like FUD, because it is, I am uncertain what the legal situation is, can't get a straight answer, and fear I might end up facing a lawsuit or $500 a month in licensing fees. I'm just looking to experiment with a side project and a little passive income, I'm not doing anything that would justify $500 a month.
- papaf 9y ago
  The QT licencing is confusing because different components have different licences. However Qt is used successfully in commercial projects by sticking to the LGPL licenced components: https://www1.qt.io/licensing-comparison/ https://www1.qt.io/licensing-comparison/
  - Buttons840 9y ago
    I think I don't know enough about lower level programming to know if I'm dynamic linking or not. I feel like I have a casual understanding of it, but not enough to take on personal liability.

Why bother with Electron? Qt is lightweight, has Ruby bindings, and looks native on everything. Use Furoshiki to build distributable binaries for each platform.

52-6F-62 9y ago

I just recently started experimenting with Qt and it is an actual charm to work with. I haven't tried out any bindings or languages outside of C++ with it yet, and haven't built anything serious, but I understand the love some people have for it better after trying it.

bigtunacan 9y ago

Is this the Furoshiki project you are referring to? https://github.com/shoes/furoshiki https://github.com/shoes/furoshiki I'm just wondering since it says it is alpha and only supports Shoes.

jamesgeck0 9y ago
Oh, whoops. I knew it was mostly used with Shoes apps right now; I didn't realize it literally didn't work with non-Shoes apps.

inferiorhuman 9y ago

As a fan of Qt I've gotta disagree there. Qt looks native on X11 systems but looks really out of place on OSX.

djsumdog 9y ago

I started down the electron path and will probably back out. So many get-started things in electron are just massive boiler-plate. Electron-vue is awful boiler plate with so much pre-made crap I don't understand how any of it fits together and some really simply stackoverflow questions have gone forever without being answered: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48337401/unable-to-test-better-sqlite3-within-a-project-based-on-electron-vue-boilerplate https://stackoverflow.com/questions/48337401/unable-to-test-... Not to mention electron apps are massive (Slack is 90M+ for a fucking chat client. Audium/Pidgin anyone?) Electron is a huge step backwards really. I don't see why people praise it so much.

mikewhy 9y ago
So you picked an "awful boilerplate" where you "don't understand how any of it fits together" and that's a failing of Electron?
- djsumdog 9y ago
  They're all awful boilerplate. Almost every single toolkit or getting started example I looked at involved cloning something of boilerplate, including React, Vue, etc. I couldn't even find decent clean examples, and as I tried putting them together, there was just a total lack of documentation and frustrating amounts of searching and finding dead/unanswered fourm and stackoverflow posts.

Buttons840 9y ago

Electron has more permissive licensing. I'm open to suggestions for a light weight alternative to Electron has an equally permissive license and still looks good. I've done some research and I'm not sure what I can legally do using Qt without open-sourcing my app. This may sound like FUD, because it is, I am uncertain what the legal situation is, can't get a straight answer, and fear I might end up facing a lawsuit or $500 a month in licensing fees. I'm just looking to experiment with a side project and a little passive income, I'm not doing anything that would justify $500 a month.

papaf 9y ago
The QT licencing is confusing because different components have different licences. However Qt is used successfully in commercial projects by sticking to the LGPL licenced components: https://www1.qt.io/licensing-comparison/ https://www1.qt.io/licensing-comparison/
- Buttons840 9y ago
  I think I don't know enough about lower level programming to know if I'm dynamic linking or not. I feel like I have a casual understanding of it, but not enough to take on personal liability.