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0 pointsrubymamis2y ago0 comments

> I would draw everything myself.

I wouldn't be too fast to recommend this. I have quite a lot of experience with Qt[1], and I manged to get a good look and feel across different operating systems. Yes, you'll need to customize Qt Quick components yourself. But that's easy. Also, Qt is improving its support for native components, they now support native dialogs and file pickers in Qt Quick[2]. Another important thing, is that you can always extend your app using open source libraries - for example - qwindowkit allows you to create native frameless windows.[3]

I highly recommend Qt. And related to this post, you can write some extremely responsive and fast applications with it.

[1] https://www.get-plume.com/

[2] https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtlabsplatform-index.html

[3] https://github.com/stdware/qwindowkit

0 comments

moshegramovsky2y ago

You're right. QT is a good choice if you are willing to work within the bounds of the framework. QT is definitely not a good choice if you want to make a lot of customizations. If you want to make an app like Spotify, don't use QT.

verall2y ago

Spotify just uses electron, if you want your app to look like an electron app, use that. I think it's hideous.

rubymamisOP2y ago

Why exactly? With QML it’s incredibly easy to creat custom, animated and complex UIs.

Also, if I remember correctly there was a time when Spotify was written in Qt.

fizzynut2y ago

When you write your own UI, you get used to quickly + easily being able to create custom elements that do/behave exactly as you want and even iterate on those elements to get the best user experience.

Lets say I want to control pan/tilt/zoom/focus/aperture/etc of a remote camera. If I ask lets say an expert in UI framework Z to do it, it will take them 10x longer to create a very painful experience using standard elements with poor input latency, so someone actually trying to setup a camera over/under shoots everything, but it technically "ticks every box". The path to create a better experience just isn't really there and it is difficult to undo/change all the boilerplate/structure, so version 1 isn't improved for years because it took so long to create the first iteration.

rubymamisOP2y ago

Sounds like a very specific example. But I'm still unconvinced - what will make this particular UI slow using Qt? The camera view? My Qt note-taking app is faster and more responsive than native apps like Apple Notes and best-in-class Bike Outliner. Both in loading speed (4x) and resizing (with word-wrapping) of a large text file (War and Peace).

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markus_zhang2y ago

Is there a way to get a Win95 look in Win10 QT?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

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moshegramovsky2y ago

verall2y ago

Spotify just uses electron, if you want your app to look like an electron app, use that. I think it's hideous.

rubymamisOP2y ago

Why exactly? With QML it’s incredibly easy to creat custom, animated and complex UIs.

Also, if I remember correctly there was a time when Spotify was written in Qt.

fizzynut2y ago

rubymamisOP2y ago

1 more reply

markus_zhang2y ago

Is there a way to get a Win95 look in Win10 QT?

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse