4 ms·

Somewhat OT, but in case someone from Jolla or the "Sailfish Alliance" is reading these comments I just don't think Sailfish can take off with many developers i

Somewhat OT, but in case someone from Jolla or the "Sailfish Alliance" is reading these comments I just don't think Sailfish can take off with many developers if the main application development language is C++. Rust will be hitting 1.0 early next year and it would be nice for the Sailfish, Qt, and Rust communities to have official, corporate backed rust bindings for Qt and Sailfish's APIs.

jerf 12y ago
It's difficult for an already-niche product to go chasing a niche language. Niche × niche is pretty small....
- hugh4life 12y ago
  QML/Javascript and C++ options would not be going away. They kind of already rely on a niche language with QML. I do most of my programming in Javascript, yet I doubt I'd use my time learning that environment unless there was a lower language option that I found attractive. I don't trust QML/Javascript to provide what I would need to develop mobile apps like I would trust Swift or Java.
blub 12y ago
I could understand proposing a language like Python or JS, which are different enough and have big communities, but Rust makes absolutely no sense compared to C++ which anyway has a much bigger community. I just did a quick search and it looks like python can be used.
- hugh4life 12y ago
  Python(and to a lesser extent JS) are too slow... and C++ and JS are already options. Sailfish does not have an applications language option that provides the features and performance that Swift and Java provide and with Rust Sailfish can go beyond Swift and Java(in at least performance).
mbel 12y ago
Actually JavaScript seems to be used more commonly for Sailfish apps. It is supported out of the box as Qt/QML allows you to use either C++ or JavaScript. Here is a simple sailfish app built with JS (not my project): https://github.com/Simoma/tinytodo https://github.com/Simoma/tinytodo
fit2rule 12y ago
C++ as the default means that things like MOAI can come onboard as rapidly as possible. That's a good thing, yo - it means freedom and variety - and also, very important, compatibility with an existing plethora of libraries and sources. Ports are a very important aspect of their strategy, I think .. and C++ opens the door for lot of things, one of which is of course an alternative language environment, albeit portable. But, then again, things like MOAI mean that getting the host up and running on Jolla is probably going to be easy, and then .. suddenly .. there are hundreds of potential apps to be brought to the platform ..
- hugh4life 12y ago
  You do realize I called for Qt bindings right? C++ is going nowhere... C++ will always be an option that's needed... especially for games. I actually like C++ but developing in it provides too many unnecessary hassles for many apps.
Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago
If the OS is really just Linux and the apps are really just Qt then you should be able to write apps in a wide variety of languages through Qt wrappers.
- hugh4life 12y ago
  That's exactly what I called for... but the state of Qt wrappers is pretty extremely pathetic... in practice you're only dependable options are C++, javascript, and python(and PySide doesn't get much love so if you want to use python commercially you'll have to play for PyQt). But, you're comment does bring to mind one fact and that is that not all of Qt would have to be wrapped. For Haskell and Go bindings are only being built for QML. I really wouldn't trust either of those bindings without official or financial backing(like PyQt) for commercial work though.
chappi42 12y ago
Forget Rust, I want Julia :-)
shmerl 12y ago
I'd like to see Rust + Qt used, but isn't it still in early development? C++ bindings from Rust is a tricky issue. Other than that I don't agree with you. Qt has quite a lot of developers. I always had little respect for Google's choice of Java in Android which was made for the sake of getting more developers. If anything, by that logic Rust would have way less potential developers than C++.

jerf 12y ago

It's difficult for an already-niche product to go chasing a niche language. Niche × niche is pretty small....

hugh4life 12y ago
QML/Javascript and C++ options would not be going away. They kind of already rely on a niche language with QML. I do most of my programming in Javascript, yet I doubt I'd use my time learning that environment unless there was a lower language option that I found attractive. I don't trust QML/Javascript to provide what I would need to develop mobile apps like I would trust Swift or Java.

blub 12y ago

I could understand proposing a language like Python or JS, which are different enough and have big communities, but Rust makes absolutely no sense compared to C++ which anyway has a much bigger community. I just did a quick search and it looks like python can be used.

hugh4life 12y ago
Python(and to a lesser extent JS) are too slow... and C++ and JS are already options. Sailfish does not have an applications language option that provides the features and performance that Swift and Java provide and with Rust Sailfish can go beyond Swift and Java(in at least performance).

mbel 12y ago

Actually JavaScript seems to be used more commonly for Sailfish apps. It is supported out of the box as Qt/QML allows you to use either C++ or JavaScript. Here is a simple sailfish app built with JS (not my project): https://github.com/Simoma/tinytodo https://github.com/Simoma/tinytodo

fit2rule 12y ago

C++ as the default means that things like MOAI can come onboard as rapidly as possible. That's a good thing, yo - it means freedom and variety - and also, very important, compatibility with an existing plethora of libraries and sources. Ports are a very important aspect of their strategy, I think .. and C++ opens the door for lot of things, one of which is of course an alternative language environment, albeit portable. But, then again, things like MOAI mean that getting the host up and running on Jolla is probably going to be easy, and then .. suddenly .. there are hundreds of potential apps to be brought to the platform ..

hugh4life 12y ago
You do realize I called for Qt bindings right? C++ is going nowhere... C++ will always be an option that's needed... especially for games. I actually like C++ but developing in it provides too many unnecessary hassles for many apps.

Sir_Cmpwn 12y ago

If the OS is really just Linux and the apps are really just Qt then you should be able to write apps in a wide variety of languages through Qt wrappers.

hugh4life 12y ago
That's exactly what I called for... but the state of Qt wrappers is pretty extremely pathetic... in practice you're only dependable options are C++, javascript, and python(and PySide doesn't get much love so if you want to use python commercially you'll have to play for PyQt). But, you're comment does bring to mind one fact and that is that not all of Qt would have to be wrapped. For Haskell and Go bindings are only being built for QML. I really wouldn't trust either of those bindings without official or financial backing(like PyQt) for commercial work though.

chappi42 12y ago

Forget Rust, I want Julia :-)

shmerl 12y ago

I'd like to see Rust + Qt used, but isn't it still in early development? C++ bindings from Rust is a tricky issue. Other than that I don't agree with you. Qt has quite a lot of developers. I always had little respect for Google's choice of Java in Android which was made for the sake of getting more developers. If anything, by that logic Rust would have way less potential developers than C++.