I need to develop an application to interact with an FPGA through TCP in a Linux environment. Given that I'm mainly an OS X guy and have only had minimal exposure to Linux, I figure that writing in Qt, which I'm slightly familiar with, in OS X will be the easiest way to get the job done.
Anyways, I was pretty disappointed after getting set up with Qt Creator, given that I'm used to Xcode and Storyboards for iOS development. I'm sure that if I stuck with it I'd figure out my way around, but I don't plan on ever doing much Qt in the future; if I am making something that needs to look pretty, I'd rather do it natively.
Long story short, is there any way that I can use Xcode/Storyboards to create my application's UI? Or any alternative to Qt Creator that would better suit someone who's most comfortable with Obj-C/Cocoa?
Two options in Qt for designing UI
Programmatically, using the Qt class Widgets
Use Qt Creator's designer
I don't believe there is any current method to create the UI with Xcode and Storyboards. You could just use Qt Creator to design the UI, then import it into your XCode project, but learning Qt Creator and using it for what it does best is probably going to be easier for you in the long term.
Note that you can use Objective-C with Qt, in Qt Creator.
Related
I have a friend who has an entry-level background in programming and is looking for a free GUI framework (IDE, GUI toolkit and GUI designer ) that:
He can use on Mac OS X to build Windows applications
It's very easy to use.
He is not interested in becoming a programmer, but would like to build an application for his work (not CS-related).
What are some good GUI frameworks/prog. languages he can use?
Qt including Qt Creater and Qt Designer is worth a try.
Especially, if your app should finally run cross-platform, on phones or on other embedded devices. Qt natively supports C++, but can also be used with 3rd-party extensions with Python (PyQt) and probably other languages.
On a Mac I have to recommend making Cocoa applications in Xcode written in Objective-C. Xcode is free to download and use, you pay if you want to submit applications to the Mac App Store.
I personally use Xcode every day and I think it's a great IDE. Currently has compiler support for Obj-C, C++, C and maybe more (not sure). More importantly for your needs, Xcode does a great job of integrating your code with its build in "interface builder" to help you quickly and easily create a nice UI.
NOTE: Xcode includes a new compiler feature (ARC) Automatic Reference Counting which is create for a new user. You can learn the language without having to worry about manual memory management.
Your friend should consider using PySide, a Python binding for the Qt GUI framework already mentioned.
With PySide you can use the Qt tools to create GUI elements interactively
and code your application logic in Python, which is a language often appreciated by non-programmers (and programmers too!) for its simplicity and intuitiveness.
Xcode includes a WYSIWYG editor for native controls and views. This was formerly a separate program called Interface Builder, but the editor was moved into the Xcode IDE at version 4.
AppKit is the framework it uses in most cases -- that's Objective-C. It's well supported. Your friend can also use it for source code editing and building and debugging apps. If he wants to write UIs programmatically, Xcode and AppKit are also good options.
I'm looking at writing an application that I would like to use on Windows, OSX, and iOS (maybe pushing into Android if other people want to use it). I want to duplicate as little work as possible and I'm having a hard time finding information on the best way to do this.
From what I've found so far I can't use a framework like QT because iOS doesn't support QT so it looks like I'm stuck recreating the interface for each target. I'm looking at writing the business logic in C++ because it seems to be supported by the native tools (Visual Studio and xCode).
Has anyone had experience with a setup like this and if so can you point me towards a good reference for this kind of development?
Really there it not a lot of choice right now. Qt is certainly coming to iOS and WP7 so C++ is a good solid evolving platform.
However there is also the mono project which offers C# across platforms.
http://xamarin.com/monoforandroid
From my understanding, you write in c# and it compiles to the platforms preferred language.
I am thinking about something that would allow to develop applications independent of the GUI library, but allow Qt and GTK being plugged in as needed.
I'd just use Qt. It includes a Gtk-like style, mimics Gtk standard dialogs and even uses Gtk file dialogs if run under Gnome, so basically it integrates itself into Gtk as good as anything (except Gtk of course), or at least it integrates itself better into Gtk than Gtk does into Qt.
You can try to use wxWidgets but you tend to get "lowest common denominator" if you go that route. Your better bet is to design your software such that you can plug in an implementation of the necessary "views" in the desired toolkit, and keep your core UI toolkit independant.
Obviously this is more work, but if there is a strong business need, then so be it.
I don't know of any framework doing something like that (I don't know how it could possibly be done without suffering from a heavy "lowest-common-denominator" syndrome), but I do "cross toolkit" development (applications that use more than one GUI toolkit) and I wrote an article about why and how to do it:
http://www.hardcoded.net/articles/cross-toolkit-software.htm
You can try Tk, which supports themes. There is a tile-qt and tile-gtk theme. There is a 2010 Google Summer of Code project to improve these themes. And, of course, when you use Tk you also get support for Windows and OSX out of the box.
Qt is a framework, it uses GTK underneath (at least on Unix).
There was a mobile toolkit that let you write everything in JS but compiled to the native code on each platform. I forget the name but it was a victim of the iPhone lockdown.
I've been doing web development for about six years now, and somehow have entirely avoided ever developing a desktop application.
I am considering writing a desktop application (I'm thinking something similar to a Word clone) on Linux but have no idea where to start. I hear of Qt and GTK+, but I'm curious if there are any frameworks that are similar to web development. Language isn't a problem, as long as it isn't Java.
You really want to go with Qt these days. Both Nokia and Intel are now pushing it as the main GUI in their new distro Meego. This means, if you are using Qt, you'll be able to target all their platforms (both desktop, embedded and phone domain), including all the platforms already supported by Qt.
Qt also comes with a GUI Designer and an IDE which will support you in the whole process, and soon there will be QML, which is a declarative UI language, for even more rapid development of apps.
Take a look here:
http://qt.nokia.com/products
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U7IgwNrcln8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoo_Ows1ExU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fr5FuGhTqm8
GTK+ and QT are GUI frameworks. They use xlib under the hood and encapsulate the nuances of xlib and provide you with an easier interface.
For rapid development you can use GLADE and quickly build GUI applications in C/C++.
Check out wxWidgets, it's another framework that is usually compared with Qt & GTK+
Go for Qt. And, if you are webdev, you will find in QML one of the best instruments EVER.
It has:
A Declarative approach to UI definition and Graphics elements Behavious/Animations
It's cool and simple at the same time
For now is only available in a couple of (old) binary drops, or by clone-compiling qt.gitorious.com/qt, branch ">4.7"
If you don't have to release today, but do you have time to develop and test, then QML should be "stable" by end H1 2010. If I got the schedule right ;-)
We are selling an image processing application (about 120k lines of code) developed with wxWidgets. We planned everything to be as most cross platform as possible in case the porting from Windows to other OS was needed. And in fact we are going to realiza a version for Mac.
We haven't tested wxWidgest on Mac yet, but we haven't read very good things about it.
In general, do you think is it worth to port from wxWidgets to QT? Do you believe it will be an hard and long job?
Is QT for Mac much better than wxWidgets implementation?
Is QT much more productive that wxWidgets?
I would like to add that we would'n like to keep code bases for gui, so the choice is just wxWidgets vs QT.
Test your application on Mac, and then decide. If there are only a few wrinkles to iron out, why put in all that extra work to switch toolkits?
It will be a long hard job. Without knowing more about your application and situation, it is hard to say whether making the switch is worth the effort. I do know that I would rather work on a Qt app than a wx app.
I have a friend who recently switched a significant wx application to Qt, and he is quite happy with the change. Mac support is one of his (boss's) important features, but I think wx's support for Mac was adequate, if not stellar.
My experience has been that Qt is definitely more productive than wx.
It is worth noting that wxWidgets on the Mac is transitioning to Cocoa. This should be done for wxWidgets 3.0, but is testable with the development release wxWidgets 2.9 now. Is Qt Cocoa or Carbon based?
We have an application that runs under Windows and the Mac, built using wxWidgets. The application performs very well on both platforms.
I recommend switching over to Qt. wxWidgets is a GUI toolkit, whereas Qt is an application framework with much, much more features.
I can't say anything about their mac implementations, but i can clearly say that i am far more productive using Qt. When i was using wxWidgets, i was a student and then when i got a job, i started using Qt.
wxWidgets gave me a feeling of incompleteness, but as i said, this may be caused by the fact that i was an inexperienced student but nonetheless, i think Qt is way better.
Until you have investigated more and have a good reason(s) to switch toolkits, then absolutely not.
We are using wxWidgets for Linux & the like, Mac, and Windows. It's a great toolkit and certainly much more than just a GUI.
Like dtw and NuSkooler, we are using wxWidgets on Mac (carbon/cocoa), Linux (32/64), Windows (32/64) and all works fine. In wx, we use gui, filesystem, threads, html libs.
+1 for Qt
I have used both wxWidgets and Qt extensively on different projects for the Windows platform writing C++ applications.
Having used both and compared the two after, I would absolutely use Qt over wxWidgets. You need to consider (as some of the others have pointed out) if the re-factoring effort is is something you have time for and are willing to do.
Also consider the cost -- this may not matter in your situation, but unlike wxWidgets, the Qt Library is not free for commercial use. I have spoken to TrollTech at length and read through their licensing agreement to verify this; you definitely have to pay unless you GPL your application.
Regarding licensing see:
http://qt.nokia.com/about/licensing/frequently-asked-questions
"Will you continue to offer Qt under a
commercial license?"
"Yes, absolutely. Our commercial
licensing will continue."
"Why would I want to buy a commercial
license? What is the difference?"
"The commercial Qt license includes
email support, access to upgrades and
allows you to develop fully closed
source software. The LGPL carries some
restrictions regarding the ability for
users to relink libraries and other
restrictions that may impose
architectural requirements that some
organizations might not be comfortable
with."
Qt is definitely worth the money though, even if you are not doing cross-platform development. It has a lot more and better documentation. Qt and wxWidgets are not perfect... The fact that they are bloated and provide APIs for networking, data structures, and database handling is not necessarily a good thing. Sometimes sticking with the STL or Boost libraries (if you're coding in C++) is a much better solution.
Good luck.
-bn
+1 for wxWidgets. A big project of mine used wxWidgets and found it a nice framework to use, and an easy enough framework to get your head around to modify if you need to (to support Mac specific features).
Try it: you could be 80% there when you first generate the binary.