News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by cageface on Saturday November 02, 2024 @05:41AM (#42025187)
The cross platform desktop gui toolkits all have some very big downsides and tend to result in bad looking UIs too.
Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by rubymamis on Saturday November 02, 2024 @05:53AM (#42025252)
I've built my app[1] using Qt (C++ and QML), and I think the UI looks decent. There's still a long way for it to feel truly native, but I've got some cool ideas.

[1] https://get-notes.com/

Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by rty32 on Saturday November 02, 2024 @10:06AM (#42026470)
You are probably not solving the same problems many other people are facing.

Many such applications are accessible on the web, often with the exact UI. They may even have a mobile/iPad version. They may be big enough that they have a design system that needs to be applied to in every UI (including company website). Building C++ code on all platforms and running all the tests may be too expensive. The list goes on.

Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by rubymamis on Saturday November 02, 2024 @12:04PM (#42027186)
I just started prototyping a mobile version of my app (which shares the code as my desktop app) and the result looks promising (still work-in-progress tho).

Offering a web app is indeed not trivial. Maybe Qt WebAssembly will be a viable option if I can optimize the binary and users wouldn't mind first long load time (and then the app should be cached for instant load). Or maybe I could build a read-only web app using web technology.

Currently, my focus is building a good native application, and I think most of my users care about that. But in the future, I can see how a web app could be useful for more users. One thing I would like to built is a web browser that could load both QML and HTML files (using regular web engine), so I could simply deploy my app by serving my QML files without the binary over the internet.

Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by cageface on Saturday November 02, 2024 @11:02AM (#42026784)
That's definitely one of the best looking Qt apps I've seen.
Re:Direct Sockets API in Chrome 131 by rubymamis on Saturday November 02, 2024 @12:05PM (#42027194)
Thank you! I think Qt is absolutely great. One need to put a little effort to make it look and behave nicely. I wrote a blog post about it[1], if you're interested.

[1] https://rubymamistvalove.com/block-editor