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--- qt:motivations [2011/01/01 10:00] – [A word on multi-platform programming in general] mithat
+++ qt:motivations [2011/03/21 21:04] – [A word on multi-platform programming in general] mithat
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 ====== Motivations ======
-I have decided that I need to teach myself **[[http://qt.nokia.com|Qt]]** in my [[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/copious+free+time|copious free time]]. I had long resisted learning Qt for a few reasons, topping the list being Qt's heavyweight (i.e., non-native) widgets and the lack of a good fully integrated IDE. However, at some point Qt began painting with native widgets when possible on many platforms (KDE was always native; I believe GTK+, Windows, and OS X now also paint with native OS widgets), and recent releases of the [[http://qt.nokia.com/products/developer-tools/|Qt Creator]] IDE work acceptably well in integrating GUI design and code writing (automatically linking the two as with [[http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi|Delphi]], [[http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/|Visual Studio]], [[http://www.netbeans.org/|Netbeans]], [[http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/|Lazarus]], and [[http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/|SharpDevelop]]).
+I have decided that I need to teach myself **[[http://qt.nokia.com|Qt]]** in my [[http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/copious+free+time|copious free time]]. I had long resisted learning Qt for a few reasons, topping the list being Qt's heavyweight (i.e., non-native) widgets and the lack of a good fully integrated IDE. However, at some point Qt began painting with native widgets when possible on many platforms (KDE was always native; I believe GTK+, Windows, and OS X now also paint with native OS widgets), and recent releases of the [[http://qt.nokia.com/products/developer-tools/|Qt Creator]] IDE work acceptably well in integrating GUI design and code writing, automatically linking the two as with [[http://www.embarcadero.com/products/delphi|Delphi]], [[http://www.microsoft.com/visualstudio/en-us/|Visual Studio]], [[http://www.netbeans.org/|Netbeans]], [[http://www.lazarus.freepascal.org/|Lazarus]], and [[http://www.icsharpcode.net/opensource/sd/|SharpDevelop]].
 My enthusiasm for Qt had also been tempered by its licensing. In the past, it was available under a libre and gratis GPL or an expensive commercial license, and anything made with the GPL version was required to be published under a GPL-compatible license. In early 2009, Qt [[http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2009/01/14/nokia-to-license-qt-under-lgpl/|converted]] their GPL offering to LGPL, which lets you link to Qt libraries even in proprietary apps. So licensing is no longer an issue.
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 The goal of multi-platform programming is to write once and compile anywhere.((Or, as in the case with Java, compile once and deploy anywhere.)) This is a huge goal, and one that not unexpectedly is essentially impossible to achieve perfectly. There are just too many differences in the way platforms work--from the OS level up all the way up to interface conventions. This leads to the following statement:
-**If you plan to develop your project to reach multiple platforms using //One Holy Code Base//™, you must accept compromises.**
+**If you plan to develop your project to reach multiple platforms using //OneHolyCodeBase//™, you must accept compromises.**
-There are people who tell you this isn't the case. They are lying. There are people who say multi-platform development is doomed to failure. I believe they are lying as well. The simple truth is that multi-platform development based on One Holy Code Base is possible, isn't perfect, and may not be the best (or even easiest) way for you to solve your multi-platform problem. The key is to develop an understanding of what the limitations (and strengths) of multi-platform programming are, and then apply it when it makes sense. And I can't think of anything but experience to give you this understanding.
+There are people who tell you this isn't the case. They are lying. There are people who say multi-platform development is doomed to failure. I believe they are lying as well. The simple truth is that multi-platform development based on OneHolyCodeBase™ is possible, isn't perfect, and may not be the best (or even easiest) way for you to solve your multi-platform problem. The key is to develop an understanding of what the limitations (and strengths) of multi-platform programming are, and then apply it when it makes sense. And I can't think of anything but experience to give you this understanding.