GUI Development

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09-29-2013
artfulDeveloper

GUI Development

hello guys,i'm new in this forum. i hope i can learn and share a lot of experience. my question is about software development. actually i'm thinking in study QT Framework very serious. but before i would like to know if there another way or another framework cross platform. can i build softwares without a framework, maybe this ask looks very silly, but i don't have shame to do it. please help to find the maily languages and the best framework. i know the most important is not the framework neither the language but the most important is the logic. can i develop softwares using juust c++, or perhaps can be better ue another language like python.thanks
09-30-2013
Elkvis

you can do it mostly pure C++. you will always need more than just a language to do GUI. with C++, you have several options. Qt is and wxWidgets are good, and I have used them both. of the two, I prefer Qt. FLTK is another popular framework, but I have not used it. you can call the underlying API functions for win32 or X11, but that will certainly make your code much less portable.
09-30-2013
Elysia

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elkvis

...you can call the underlying API functions for win32 or X11, but that will certainly make your code much less portable.

Not to mention it will be much harder than if you use a GUI Framework.
10-01-2013
FortranLevelC++

I am about to start using Qt for the first time, and for C++ Qt programming I have recently bought this book (which is recommended by the creators of Qt):

C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (2nd Edition) (Prentice Hall Open Source Software Development Series): Jasmin Blanchette, Mark Summerfield: 9780132354165: Amazon.com: Books

I have abandoned Windows programming and I am focusing on Linux for the moment.

It seems that the rapid development environment ("Forms") of Visual Studio is fragile and it is difficult to maintain it, due to the proprietary features that keep changing with every upgrade of the compiler. Mastering the Microsoft Foundation Classes is perhaps a good idea since it would be more robust, but this is more work, and I have not made the effort to learn it seriously.

So Qt definitely seems to be very reliable and robust, and for non-commercial activities it is also free.
10-01-2013
Elkvis

Quote:

Originally Posted by FortranLevelC++

So Qt definitely seems to be very reliable and robust, and for non-commercial activities it is also free.

even for commercial products, it is free. it is licensed under the LGPL, which means that the only source that you must release on request is the source for the libraries, not your own.
10-02-2013
FortranLevelC++

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elkvis

even for commercial products, it is free. it is licensed under the LGPL, which means that the only source that you must release on request is the source for the libraries, not your own.

Thanks for the clarification. I didn't realize that there is no license fee for creating commercial software if I use the free version. This is excellent.

But at this website I found the following remark:
What are the differences between Commercial and Open Source Versions?

Quote:

What are the differences between the opensource and commercial versions of qt?

The code is basically the same. It's just you can't use some parts of Qt when using a commercial license (e.g. QtWebKit).

And this website lists the differences between commercial versions:
Qt 4.6: Qt Commercial Editions

Hopefully the free version will have the capability to draw 2D and 3D curves.

But
10-02-2013
SirPrattlepod

Quote:

Originally Posted by FortranLevelC++

Hopefully the free version will have the capability to draw 2D and 3D curves.

Well, it does... depending on what you mean by "draw 2d and 3d" curves of course (i.e. you'll have to do some work yourself obviously ;)

For graphs, also check out QCustomPlot (a great 3rd party widget IMO)

Edit: I've used QCustomPlot for both Qt4.8.x and Qt5.0.x>5.0.1 and it's very flexible and more than (very) capable for graphing requirements.

Edit2: The comparison list you've supplied is almost certainly outdated unless I'm reading it wrong. QtScript is definitely in the open source version as well as OpenGL support. Weird. Edit 3: I was reading it wrong... the comparison you provided is a comparison between two different commercial versions. Anyway, it's LGPL so read that I reckon.
10-06-2013
artfulDeveloper

thanks for the replies. i'm focusing linux and cross platform software development. i'm studing qt and c++. i know that i need more languages to do a good and stable software but for now i'm starting from the basic. i used to programing in java swing but is not so good than c++ and not have a beatifu interface.
10-07-2013
Elkvis

Quote:

Originally Posted by artfulDeveloper

and not have a beatifu interface.

with Qt Quick/QML, it's possible to make your GUI look any way you choose. you have total control over the appearance and behavior of your interface. I would very strongly recommend using Quick, rather than the pure-C++ interface to Qt, because it exposes functionality that is effectively unavailable with the normal C++ interface.