New app, mid development. Switch to Qt5?
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We're evaluating if we should re-base our development from 4.8.3 to 5. If we're going to switch now is the time. We are about to start javascript / QML integration into the application. If I understand correctly the transition is mostly painless except for script/QML integration. This has been completely changed to use V8 and is very different.
Am I correct in that QML2 + v8 is very different from Qt 4.8's QML + script?
Is Qt5 in good enough shape to build a commercial application on now (tentative release by end of year) ? Or would we be chasing a lot of bugs still?
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Yes and no.
Yes, the backend for QtQuick2 is very different.
No, the QML frontend has just gone through minor changes. See "QML Applications in Qt 5":http://doc-snapshot.qt-project.org/5.0/qtquick-porting-qt5.html.
There are still some issues with Qt 5 and some minor API changes going on, which might or might not affect you. We are using Qt 5 for two projects and both aren't at a relevant scale.
As to the question if there will be a commercial-grade Qt 5 release by the end of the year. Well, maybe, or maybe not. It is at least planned as far as I know.
The "releasing mailing list":http://lists.qt-project.org/pipermail/releasing/ is a good place to start if you want to follow the state of Qt 5.
One major design goal of Qt 5 was source code compatibility with Qt 4. So you might release your application with Qt 4 and port it later on to Qt 5.