4 ms·

flutter + dart might be an alternative to Qt these days for cross platform GUIs, which is what I'm learning these days, in addition to desktop it does mobile pl

flutter + dart might be an alternative to Qt these days for cross platform GUIs, which is what I'm learning these days, in addition to desktop it does mobile platforms as well.

saidinesh5 4y ago
I think you have it the other way around. In addition to mobile platforms, flutter tries to do desktop too.
pier25 4y ago
Yeah and they are integrating the Rive 2d vector graphics engine into Flutter which is way faster than Skia (and QT). https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080101186011136 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080101186011136 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1595187838454140928 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1595187838454140928
- AbuAssar 4y ago
  would you please share where he says that they are integrating the Rive 2d vector graphics engine into Flutter
  - pier25 4y ago
    It's in the first thread I shared. This tweet in particular: https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080107301306369 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080107301306369
    - sho_hn 4y ago
      What OP means is that everything there suggests the Riva folks are releasing their tech for Flutter as an add-on, while your original comment suggests the Flutter project is adopting/integrating this tech inside Flutter. I was also confused.
      - pier25 4y ago
        Oh I'm very sorry for the confusion...
- schaefer 4y ago
  Rive looks so amazing! But tragically, no Linux client. /sigh
pjmlp 4y ago
C++ is useful outside Qt, one of the top languages on the industry, Dart on the other hand...
- kernal 4y ago
  >Dart on the other hand Is a better language than Java.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    Only if stuck in legacy Java 8, and even then, Java is more useful than Dart.
not_your_vase 4y ago
Note that this is about Qt Creator, and not Qt. Though it is created by Qt company primarily to work with Qt, it is a very capable C/C++ IDE on its own right, even if you don't use Qt at all.
- karmakaze 4y ago
  So Qt is both a cross-platform toolkit and a brand of development tool? That seems confusing being not tied to using the Qt toolkit.
  - sho_hn 4y ago
    It's more a side-effect. Qt is a C++ toolkit, and Qt-based projects are either C++, or use the QML markup language, or both. Projects that use Qt for the GUI or use other Qt modules often also use other C/C++ libraries (for example, in-house stuff) and they're often hacked on together. Therefore the free IDE you can get for Qt also happens to be a very good C/C++ IDE/editor. Qt uses CMake as its native built system - arguably CMake was popularized in general when KDE adopted it, a large FOSS user of Qt. CMake is not Qt-specific, and many other C/C++ libs use or integrate well with CMake. Therefore Qt's free IDE is also very good at general CMake support. Qt is often used for embedded or heavier IoT projects, therefore the IDE has useful features for deployment and remote debugging that also work for other stuff. And so on. The Qt Company doesn't really push/advertise Qt Creator much as an independent product, but the utility is really not bad.
    - karmakaze 4y ago
      I'm guessing that the part that would make it make sense for me is that the Qt Creator is made by the team that makes Qt or something in that ecosystem that's a label they give themselves. For instance I wouldn't call an IDE I made, Swing Creator if it was made with Java Swing but I had no other association.
      - sho_hn 4y ago
        Make no mistake, the main reason Qt Creator exists is to enable and promote Qt-based development and tick a box when selling to customers. They don't sell Creator individually (it's free), so they don't really make money from it outside of Qt sales. Qt competes for major business in markets like automotive or general embedded, where vendor frameworks are from the "one-stop solution for Windows" generation that come with IDEs aimed at specialists that get trained to use them, e.g. because they have a mechatronics/Simulink/etc background more than a programming one. Or because they're designers and used to Photoshop/Figma and you need something you can import into. These are often horribly old and crufty Eclipse derivatives or even OG Win32 MFC apps. Examples would be boutique solutions you've never ever heard of but probably used or seen in a car, e.g. the Kanzi toolkit, or STM's TouchGFX for microcontrollers. So Qt decided to make one too to round out the value prop. It's just that Qt (a) grew up originally as a desktop UI toolkit for PCs (so using it for a desktop app works out) and (b) is on a much cleaner, much more general-purpose tech stack, so it happens to actually be fairly good and reasonably general-purpose. Partly also because the Qt folks who wrote it simply used other desktop IDEs or classic hacker's editors before and decided to make a IDE they would themselves like to use. That said, The Qt Company has more recently done some acquisitions that actually do go more into the direction of branching out into development tools. They acquired Froglogic, makers of Squish (a GUI unit testing framework in wide use) and also a Coverity-like code scanner. So who knows, maybe they'll reposition Creator a bit.
dekhn 4y ago
by the time flutter and dart expire, Qt will still be embedded in billions of cars and military devices.
ogoffart 4y ago
I'd also like to mention Slint: https://slint-ui.com https://slint-ui.com It is a modern alternative to QML.

flutter + dart might be an alternative to Qt these days for cross platform GUIs, which is what I'm learning these days, in addition to desktop it does mobile platforms as well.

saidinesh5 4y ago

I think you have it the other way around. In addition to mobile platforms, flutter tries to do desktop too.

pier25 4y ago

Yeah and they are integrating the Rive 2d vector graphics engine into Flutter which is way faster than Skia (and QT). https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080101186011136 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080101186011136 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1595187838454140928 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1595187838454140928

AbuAssar 4y ago
would you please share where he says that they are integrating the Rive 2d vector graphics engine into Flutter
- pier25 4y ago
  It's in the first thread I shared. This tweet in particular: https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080107301306369 https://twitter.com/guidorosso/status/1639080107301306369
  - sho_hn 4y ago
    What OP means is that everything there suggests the Riva folks are releasing their tech for Flutter as an add-on, while your original comment suggests the Flutter project is adopting/integrating this tech inside Flutter. I was also confused.
    - pier25 4y ago
      Oh I'm very sorry for the confusion...
schaefer 4y ago
Rive looks so amazing! But tragically, no Linux client. /sigh

pjmlp 4y ago

C++ is useful outside Qt, one of the top languages on the industry, Dart on the other hand...

kernal 4y ago
>Dart on the other hand Is a better language than Java.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  Only if stuck in legacy Java 8, and even then, Java is more useful than Dart.

not_your_vase 4y ago

Note that this is about Qt Creator, and not Qt. Though it is created by Qt company primarily to work with Qt, it is a very capable C/C++ IDE on its own right, even if you don't use Qt at all.

karmakaze 4y ago
So Qt is both a cross-platform toolkit and a brand of development tool? That seems confusing being not tied to using the Qt toolkit.
- sho_hn 4y ago
  It's more a side-effect. Qt is a C++ toolkit, and Qt-based projects are either C++, or use the QML markup language, or both. Projects that use Qt for the GUI or use other Qt modules often also use other C/C++ libraries (for example, in-house stuff) and they're often hacked on together. Therefore the free IDE you can get for Qt also happens to be a very good C/C++ IDE/editor. Qt uses CMake as its native built system - arguably CMake was popularized in general when KDE adopted it, a large FOSS user of Qt. CMake is not Qt-specific, and many other C/C++ libs use or integrate well with CMake. Therefore Qt's free IDE is also very good at general CMake support. Qt is often used for embedded or heavier IoT projects, therefore the IDE has useful features for deployment and remote debugging that also work for other stuff. And so on. The Qt Company doesn't really push/advertise Qt Creator much as an independent product, but the utility is really not bad.
  - karmakaze 4y ago
    I'm guessing that the part that would make it make sense for me is that the Qt Creator is made by the team that makes Qt or something in that ecosystem that's a label they give themselves. For instance I wouldn't call an IDE I made, Swing Creator if it was made with Java Swing but I had no other association.
    - sho_hn 4y ago
      Make no mistake, the main reason Qt Creator exists is to enable and promote Qt-based development and tick a box when selling to customers. They don't sell Creator individually (it's free), so they don't really make money from it outside of Qt sales. Qt competes for major business in markets like automotive or general embedded, where vendor frameworks are from the "one-stop solution for Windows" generation that come with IDEs aimed at specialists that get trained to use them, e.g. because they have a mechatronics/Simulink/etc background more than a programming one. Or because they're designers and used to Photoshop/Figma and you need something you can import into. These are often horribly old and crufty Eclipse derivatives or even OG Win32 MFC apps. Examples would be boutique solutions you've never ever heard of but probably used or seen in a car, e.g. the Kanzi toolkit, or STM's TouchGFX for microcontrollers. So Qt decided to make one too to round out the value prop. It's just that Qt (a) grew up originally as a desktop UI toolkit for PCs (so using it for a desktop app works out) and (b) is on a much cleaner, much more general-purpose tech stack, so it happens to actually be fairly good and reasonably general-purpose. Partly also because the Qt folks who wrote it simply used other desktop IDEs or classic hacker's editors before and decided to make a IDE they would themselves like to use. That said, The Qt Company has more recently done some acquisitions that actually do go more into the direction of branching out into development tools. They acquired Froglogic, makers of Squish (a GUI unit testing framework in wide use) and also a Coverity-like code scanner. So who knows, maybe they'll reposition Creator a bit.

dekhn 4y ago

by the time flutter and dart expire, Qt will still be embedded in billions of cars and military devices.

ogoffart 4y ago

I'd also like to mention Slint: https://slint-ui.com https://slint-ui.com It is a modern alternative to QML.