Qt Everywhere
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Hi,
Qt has the potential to be everywhere. But it seems some people don't allow it. It is technically feasible for Qt to work on platforms like Android, Webos, Windows phone 7 and iPhone. But these fellows allow only their own sdks / languages. So particularly on the mobile arena, how can we achieve the Qt everywhere vision ? On desktop, this is already a reality though for cross platform applications, Java may be the first choice. I wonder what is the motivation behind the iPhone and Android ports if they won't be allowed in the end, or am I wrong and the ports are really useful ? I would like to know what people here think about this. I got a feeling that even Symbian development is not moving over to Qt fully since many apps are still written in Java ME.
-JK
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As from my point of view Android and iPhone ports will not be acceptable in Market/Store, but they can be used for custom applications that are only part of huge programming products and are installed directly to phone without Market/Store.
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Jayakrishnan.M, for now lighthouse port for Android is not acceptable by Market at all because it uses modified NDK to build Qt libraries itself. Also another problem is size of Qt libraries. From my point of view Qt apps will become acceptable to Android platform only when Google will accept placing them in system-wide folders, not in application folder.
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Denis, That was my concern. Google won't allow it. Anyway, let's wait and see.
Lyuts, Qt everywhere is Nokia's vision and it is a good thing. It doesn't mean Qt only. It doesn't mean restricting other platforms or anything like that. So I don't think there is a question setting monopoly.
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Denis, are you sure about this restriction on the NDK and the Market?
Anyways, now that "Apple has come to their senses":http://www.engadget.com/2010/09/09/apple-backpedaling-on-some-ios-development-restrictions-will-al/ the iPhone port project becomes more interesting :)
I also like the fact that Blackberry bought QNX, which "Qt happens to run on":http://labs.trolltech.com/blogs/2009/07/30/three-new-babies/, and we can expect coming Blackberry devices to switch to QNX.
Windows Phone 7 is another story. As far as I know, they only allow .NET / Silverlight apps - which I guess means Qt won't be allowed on it - even if it's Windows CE running at it's core. One can only hope Microsoft comes to their senses too.
Anyways - Qt Everywhere is true for the desktop, but it is NOT yet true for the mobile. I think if the community, partners and companies contribute - and Nokia help and push not just their own platforms, it can absolutely happen.
Apple has tried locking developers in, which doesn't work long term. Nokia could be completely opposite, and make it easy for developers to target not just Symbian and MeeGo, but all the major mobile platforms.
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snowpong, not absolutely sure but read somewhere about it.
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snowpong, will be great to receive answer from Google itself.
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[quote author="snowpong" date="1284066809"]
Anyways - Qt Everywhere is true for the desktop, but it is NOT yet true for the mobile. I think if the community, partners and companies contribute - and Nokia help and push not just their own platforms, it can absolutely happen.
Apple has tried locking developers in, which doesn't work long term. Nokia could be completely opposite, and make it easy for developers to target not just Symbian and MeeGo, but all the major mobile platforms.
[/quote]
Yes, very true. On mobile it is far from being everywhere. The smart installer is said to work reliably only on a couple of Symbian devices, N97 mini being one. Correct me if I'am wrong. In fact I like to be wrong here. I don't know if it will work well on other devices in near future. So how do we deploy apps made with Qt on Symbian phones ? True that most of the Symbian devices support Qt. But without a reliable means of deployment, it is of not much use. Bundling Qt is not an option in most cases. So as of now, we can use Qt if we are targeting N8 and probably N97 mini.
About Nokia's openness, it is a good thing. But it will hurt Qt adoption. With J2me present, and with much more installed base, most of the applications for Symbian will be done in J2me rather than Qt. So Qt may be a platform for the future. We may still have to wait for 1 - 2 years, wait for Meego to get popular. Thats a troubling thought for a Qt lover like me. Also, now I'am more hopful about the iPhone port.