Applications made with Qt in C++ look like native apps on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X. I'm trying to accomplish the same thing with Jambi. Is this possible? I don't think there are too many apps written with Jambi, which makes it a bit difficult to get an accurate impression of what my future apps would look like.
I could just use Java without Qt, but apps made that way don't look like native apps either, and that is something I'm trying to avoid.
So, if you have a clear yes/no answer, some examples, or just any suggestions at all, I'd love to hear from you.
Applications made with Qt in C++ look like native apps on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Some people would argue with this, but I essentially agree.
I'm trying to accomplish the same thing with Jambi. Is this possible?
Yes. Jambi operates by creating a wrapper around the C++ DLLs / shared libraries. Thus, you must distribute OS-specific jars or do some extra work not typically required by Java applications.
I don't think there are too many apps written with Jambi, which makes it a bit difficult to get an accurate impression of what my future apps would look like.
Qt Jambi has been discontinued. Although you have the source available, for most applications I'd recommend using something different at this point. Depending on your needs Qt in C++ or SWT may be better options.
The QT Jambi has been discountinued by Nokia, but there is a community born to support QtJambi for the next Qt releases.
I think there aren't so many applications written in QtJambi.
I found Nevernote, but the list is short...
Related
I want to wrap a website and create an application around it (kind of like the iPhone/iPod Facebook app) and i want the application to be as portable as possible so with a very few modification to the code it can run on pc, mac, iPod, android or any other.
I know that Java is known for it's portability but i dislike it and i don't know about QT.
I know this question is quite subjective but can you give me a couple of opinions and reasons for them any way?
Thanks in advance,
Dante
Qt is portable enough for the major platforms (Windows, Linux and MacOS). It has the advantage of being native code, so no virtual machine is needed. And it provides rich graphics and other powerfull features, and the GUI look and feel of the specific platform.
If you are considering the same code base to be shared between desktop and mobile platforms, think again. There are different constraints in terms of resources, screen dimensions, etc. Qt can be used for some mobile platforms (mainly Symbian, Maemoo), Java for Android and ObjectiveC/C++ for iPhone/iPod. So a cross mobile platform application using the same technology is not feasible (at least for the moment).
In my company we want to make a desktop software, but we want to create the better experience in the most common platforms (Windows(XP/VISTA/7), Linux and MacOs (And iOS) and several smartphones (android, webOS, windows mobile)
We have studied 3 options 1.- .Net, 2.- Java, 3.- C++ with Qt
We discarded .Net because we don't like the .net support in mac and linux. So, we have 2 options, Java and Qt. Qt sounds very good, but I don't like c++. Java sounds good, but I have the idea (and maybe i'm wrong, you tell me), that java never has the "look and feel" of a real native application. In this moment, the better choices look to be Qt, but i would like the advice of people with more knowledge and experience than me.
Thanks in advance
In my opininon and experience, Qt works fine on many platforms, although I have never tried Mac. Also, the Qt documentation is very well done,complete and easy to understand.
As for Java, I agree that it does not look perfectly native on platforms.
Hope this helps.
Eclipse is written in Java, and it has the look and feel of a native application. The reason is that it uses the SWT libraries. The SWT libraries use native widgets.
You could use some 'web' technology, either the browser or something like Adobe Air. There is no rule saying that a browser app has to run on the internet. HTML5 is going to provide advanced features that are only going to blur the lines between the web and the desktop.
This route has some advantages:
1) There are a bunch of libraries available for developing these applications, Sproutcore, ExtJS, etc.
2) You write javascript, html, css.
3) A lot of developers are familiar with these technologies, so you have a large pool of talent from which to draw.
4) Cross platform
5) Both desktops and mobile devices have browsers. So you won't have (as many) platform dependent versions of your software.
This idea might not be right for whatever you are trying to do, but you can consider it.
I just ordered an Android smartphone and want to start playing around with creating my own applications. Now the question is which language to use, the native Java or Python using SL4A (former ASE).
I tend to Python, as I know it much better than Java, but I'm wondering what I would be missing using a "second class" language on Android. On the SL4A website it is also stated to be alpha quality software, which is not exactly encouraging.
I'm also not quite sure what the limitations of the scripting environment are and if they would be problematic.
At the moment you cannot create a releasable program with Python (or any other scripting language) using SL4A. I have heard rumours that this is something Google is working on, but even if they do enable it Python apps are likely to be slow and power-hungry compared to Java. Also the scripting API only gives you access to a limited subset of the native Java API. I would not consider using SL4A for serious development work at the moment, only for one-off scripts and prototyping.
Take a look at Scala. It is a statically typed language on the JVM, but uses type inference to remove most of the noise that you get in Java. It also fully supports functional programming, and has a lot of pythonish features. Because it is statically typed it is as efficient as straight Java with none of the disadvantages. IMHO it is the language that Java should have been in the first place.
A lot of people are blogging about using Scala on Android, so Google around for more information.
More likely will depend what type of applications you will develop.
I would start with Java to become familiar with Android SDK. Anyway first you need to look into some examples, tutorials. Most of them are done in Java, and only a few, probably on the dev site of SL4A for that.
Also there is native development Android NDK, that can be programmed with C++.
But anyway Java rules for general applications.
Adding an update to Dave Kirby's answer:
Issue 55, Distribute scripts as APKs, in the issue tracker at SL4A deals specifically with that.
There is a solution being worked out (may be complete by now) described at SharingScripts. The only issue seems to be that you need to have a interpreter APK already installed.
you may want to check out Ruboto it is a framework for developing Android apps based on JRuby which means your JRuby code can call Android APIs and can also be called back from the Android Java side.
Here is an introduction article .
Consider ising Kivy, if you want to write Android apps with Python. The process of packing script to .apk file is described here.
The problem is, resulting .apk will be big (~7Mb for 300Kb data). It is obvious, because you need to pack there Python runtime and all libraries.
Another solution I have heard of, is Pygame for Android, but it works on lower lewel, so you need to draw graphics manually.
Unfortunately, I have not tried any of this ways yet, but it looks, that I'm going to start using kivy soon.
I am in the concept phase of an application that is going to have a lot of Audio/Video input and output. I want to do it in Java; but somehow am not fully convinced yet. What do you think? How bad could it be? And any advices?
Why I am thinking Java:
It's the language I'm most comfortable with.
Easier cross platform migration would be a bonus.
Cannot afford commercial platforms (like .NET) or not good enough in other free alternatives (like Python)
I'm also slightly inclined towards C++/Qt; but that would take more time for me as I'm not great in that and I am a bit worried about maintainability.
If you're interested, check out Xuggler. It exposes all the power of FFmpeg, but as a Java API that runs on Windows, Mac and Linux. The advantage is you get all the power of FFmpeg but from Java. The disadvantage is it requires the FFmpeg native DLLs/shared-libraries to be installed.
Easier cross platform migration would be a bonus.
Audio and video means you will be dealing with dedicated native libraries and JNI-wrappers for each supported platform; in this case, the cross-platform argument for Java does not really apply.
I believe that when you want to write an audio/video application, the programming language you will use is the second most important thing. The most important thing is the audio/video framework your application will use since this is what defines your capabilities.
I am aware of two popular generic video frameworks that can be used to accesd most multimedia types: Directshow and ffmpeg. Directshow is tied with windows, so only ffmpeg is left.
Ffmpeg has versions in both windows and unix and, although it is written in C, it can be used from a lot of languages.
There is even a number of java wrappers for ffmpeg (for instance, take a look at xuggle)!
C++ would be the first choice because of performance concerns often present in Audio/Video processing as well as the range of available libraries for video/audio.
You do make a good point about being familiar with Java. If you are pressed for time, this is even more important. However if you can spare some time for learning, C++ would be well worth it.
Regarding .NET: The .NET SDK with everything you need is freely downloadable. Get hold of a free IDE such as SharpDevelop and you are up and running. It's Visual Studio that costs money, you don't need Visual Studio to do .NET development.
Rusty.in,
How about trying to do JavaFX Media API. Recently, the version of the JavaFX is 1.2.0 with GUI Application as well. It supports the Swing. The grammar is based on the script style; however, you can deploy the existing Swing components into the JavaFX.
I hope it helps.
Tiger
Rusty, what did you wind up doing? I too have a video app I'd like to do, but really would prefer Java/JavaFX over C++. The thing about the using Flash and/or the current JavaFX video support is that Flash video playback is not frame-accurate. I really need to be able to stop/start/step on individual frames like you can with QuickTime.
Has anyone tried doing playback with Xuggler and Java/JavaFX?
I have a DVD cataloging application that I wrote a few years ago with MFC. Records are saved in a sqlite database, so basically it's a CRUD app. UI-wise, it has a tree view on the left, a list view (grid) on the top right, and an HTML view (embedded IE) on the bottom right. Nothing fancy.
I wanted to update the app with more features, but I've been using Java EE for the past couple of years and I realized that I wasn't productive at all with MFC. So I'm thinking maybe I should use something else to boost my productivity. Cross-platform would be a big bonus, but it's not absolutely required.
Here are the options based on my research:
Java / Swing: I can utilize my Java knowledge; great third party libraries (such as Spring for IoC and Hibernate for ORM); cross-platform. Downside is, JRE required for users; Swing seems to be in the "maintanence" mode and it's not getting much attention from Sun.
C++ / Qt: native application;
cross-platform. But I'm new to Qt so
I have to learn it first.
C# / WPF: WPF seems to be the future
of Windows GUI development and I'm
impressed by some WPF sample apps. I
have some experience with C# but I
need learn WPF. Downside is, Windows
only; .NET 3.5 runtime required.
So what would you use if you were in my situation? Thanks in advance for any suggestions.
If you want to learn some new skills while developing this application, then C# / WPF, and LINQ in C# 3.0 is really great if you didn't have it in Java.
If you just want to get on speed, then you already answer your own question, Java / Swing. It is what you are good at.
I'm actually a big C# fan, but since you said that cross-platform would be a huge bonus, I think that Qt might actually be better for that. C# can be cross-platform via Mono, but I've had better results with Qt in that respect. They also have real good documentation in QtAssistant to get you started.
Consider PyQt + Python as well if your productivity is a big issue. Trust me when I say the learning curve for Qt is well worth it, and not as hard as it may seem at first.
Sqlite support is in both the Python standard libraries and the QSql module in Qt if you prefer to use that.
PyQt + Python is a cross-platform option as well, since Python is available for many platforms and Qt's cross-platform to begin with.
The controls you mentioned you used in your application are all available in Qt.
The only other tool apart from raw C++ is Delphi. Period.
With other tools you will have problems in the deployment.
With Delphi you will produce native exes, self-contained. Also, the database connectivity is great.
You never will be dissapointed by lack of controls or 3d party tools, a lot with source code and with free/commercial toolset.
And the compiling times are the fastest in this galaxy ;)
So, if you are serious in provide no-hasle app for your customers, and that customers are not tech-oriented like developers so could be confused because which one of the 4 .NET runtimes install, want minimal support, easy downloads, click-click-install-go, apps that work instanly like Skype,TopStyle (made with Delphi) and others,then Delphi/C++ is are your only option. Seriously. The ONLY options.
If you want a cross-plataform solution, then FreePascal/Lazarus could work if your GUI is minimalist.
In most cases, as long as the scope of the project is reasonably small, and the computational needs are modest, I tend to favor using TCL/Tk. I have not yet learned a gui api in which I'm more productive than tk (not to say that there isn't one, just that I've tried several and found them slower). TCL is not the most wonderful language to program in, to be sure, although there are a number of add-ons that help a lot, specifically [incr tcl] and tcllib.
The reason I choose this instead of other systems, I prefer coding in python, for instance, is because deployment with tcl/tk is close to unbeatable. With Starkit, you end up with a single file double clickable application that requires no installer, and is trivially portable.
Well if you really want a class platform type of application, I would convert it into a web application and host it. That way if one user uploads dvd information or a dvd cover picture another user could take advantage of that information already input into the system.
If your going to develop for the desktop try to make feel like its an application made for that platform by utilizing the OS UI tools. And for windows, pick your 3rd option C# /WPF.
If you have some non UI code in your MFC app that you would like to reuse then consider QT. Otherwise pick whatever you prefer to learn.
Instead of C#/WPF you could give Silverlight a look. You app seems simple enough that it would not take a lot to get up and running. Similar to the demos that are shown off at conferences.
Once you get the basics down it will be fairly easy to add some cool features like animations, movie clips, album art, coverflow like interface etc.
You will be able to target Windows/Mac users and possibly Linux with Moonlight. But I haven't looked at Linux in the past 8 years so I really can't say much about it.
With Eclipse RCP, you get Java, cross-platform development (see Delta Pack), native look (via SWT) and a great framework collection for desktop development (declarative UI, plugin management etc.). You should definitely give that a try.
I went the C++/wxWidgets (but you could do Qt) route a few months back when presented with almost the exact same scenario (upgrade an app with a SQLite db). wxWidgets was fairly easy to pick up, had everything I needed, and was way easier than MFC. The best part was I found a good C++ wrapper for SQLite on CodeProject (e.g., CPPSQLite) and had the whole thing up an running in no time... The project sold me on wxWidgetss, in case you couldn't tell.
I would actually look very closely at something like adobe air. It is cross platform and can be html/javascript based so chances are you won't have a heck of a lot to learn except maybe a javascript library or two. It has the ability to talk to a local datastore or over the interweb to a webservice or RESTFUL service. Development is free with aptana. Check out some of the stuff written in it:
http://www.adobe.com/products/air/showcase/