QML/Quick on the desktop is clearly a hot topic.
I've asked about this little under a year ago [1]. Interesting
discussion, worth a read.
In the meanwhile, I've been asking questions around, like what do /r/cpp
redditors like to use [2]. Results are interesting and the comments are
as well.
I've been looking at other ecosystems with some envy, namely the growing
cross-platform C# frameworks [3, 4, 5].
Albeit they tend to the "modern" styles, like Fluent and Material, it's
worth noting how actually surprisingly integrated with the underlying
platform some of these are, via the use of "templated controls" that
ultimately are "system" ones.
Then, there's a *lot* of people that tell me "just use a web-stack",
like Electron, of neutralino.js [6] and code your UIs with HTML+JS.
Personally, my interest in C++ has been as a hobbyist so far. My pet
projects involve real-time application, requiring also relatively
performant visualizations. I'm interested in the desktop, and
particularly, I'm interested in /high density/ desktop UIs. Not
Fluent/Material stuff, designed for fat fingers, I want
information-dense UIs and I want to interact with them with my keyboard
and mouse.
With this context, what have I learned in the last year? Nothing. I'm
more confused than ever as to what to use for new projects, and there
are so many pros and cons.
Widgets are solid for this type of application. And while they are
considered a "solved problem", sometimes I feel like they are more
"labeled" as a solved problem. QTBUG-6864 is 12 years old, has 47 votes,
and I know about it because it affected me personally [7], just to name
an example.
I also wish we had QRhiWidget, even without the possibility for the
QPainter API.
Truth is that it seems the reward/effort ratio for this stuff is just
too low considering the size of the desktop market, especially the size
of the desktop market in C++.
I know QWidgets are maintained. But honestly, sometimes it does feel
like picking up deadware to start new projects.
The other day I needed a quick UI for a python thing, and used Qt
Designer for the first time (I usually just write the widgets in C++)
and it was a serious adventure trying to copy/paste elements).
On the pros, like some have said, there is quite the nice community
around QWidgets in the open-source world. Some even used by Qt itself,
like githubuser0xFFFF/Qt-Advanced-Docking-System [8].
Regarding QML/Qt Quick... Well, it doesn't feel like a desktop
framework, honestly. It's improving slowly, like the introduction of
"native"-ish desktop look-and-feel in Qt 6. But there are some things
that are really big turn-offs. First, even said "native" look-and-feel,
or the fusion look don't feel that great. Honestly, and funnily enough,
personally, I feel widgets "snappier" than QML. For real, try the "Text
Editor" examples both in Quick [9] and QWidgets versions [10] (both
available in Qt Creator) and tell me what you like more (once you ignore
the 2000s cartoonish icons on the latter). Plus some things really annoy
me, like QTBUG-93084 [11].
So, at the current time, I personally feel that I have one option that's
not future-proof, and another one that's not present-ready... I honestly
can't decide.
This comments of mine are just a personal opinion, and there is a lot of
nuance and details and arguments that I can't remember all at once while
writing an email.
Good coding,
Rui
[1] https://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/interest/2021-April/036763.html
[2]
https://www.reddit.com/r/cpp/comments/s7z3se/what_are_you_using_for_guis/
[3] https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/dotnet/maui/what-is-maui
[4] https://avaloniaui.net/
[5] https://platform.uno/
[6] https://neutralino.js.org/
[7] https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-6864
[8] https://github.com/githubuser0xFFFF/Qt-Advanced-Docking-System
[9] https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquickcontrols-texteditor-example.html
[10] https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtwidgets-mainwindows-application-example.html
[11] https://bugreports.qt.io/browse/QTBUG-93084
Às 15:42 de 21/02/2022, Mark Gaiser escreveu:
Hi,
I'm facing so many bugs in QML Controls in Qt6 (they used to be
Controls V2 in the Qt 5.x days) that I don't want to use them at all
anymore. They are bugged beyond repair and downright unusable for
native desktop integration purposes.
Is there another good open source component set out there that
integrates with the desktop. Specifically with Windows but preferably
also with Linux (kde and gnome) and Mac.
Using QWidgets should not be an alternative as it slows down
development a lot. But given the crap that QML Controls is makes me
consider switching to QWidgets instead.
Best regards,
Mark
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