Questions before starting with Qt

[MartinM]

Hello,

I think about starting with Qt. But before spending a lot of time I would like to ask the community to take the time and answer some questions to help me find out if Qt is the right choice for me at all.
First of all I describe my situation:
I am looking for a tool to develop applications for WinCE. I checked C# but it feels strange to me as a long time C and C++ programmer. But I don't want to get into MFC and pure Win32API programming. So I came across Qt...
Also I think it would be a great thing to develop for desktop Windows (where I currently use C++ Builder) and Win CE with the same tool.
Now my questions
general:
- How difficult is it to install Qt for developing for WinCE and for desktop windows both on one PC (win XP)?
- How long will it take until a first application is ready?
- And how long until one understands enough to start a bit larger application?
WinCE applications:
- How large will the framework be? Can it be scaled down to contain only what I need? How is the framework installed on WinCE, just placing dlls together with the exe?
- Are there limitations in WinCE Qt compared with desktop windows Qt?
- Does WinCE Qt (or also desktop windows Qt) still use windows functions like registry win32 API functions, functions imported from other dlls...
- Are there tutorials especially for Qt under WinCE?
desktop windows:
- Is it possible to create an exe that contains everything needed to run the application? So just send someone the exe, no installation, just start it on any windows PC(from win95 to win 7)?
- Are there special functions to be added like there are additional controls for Visual C or VCLs for C++Builder?

Thank you very much for any help

Martin

[wysota]

- How difficult is it to install Qt for developing for WinCE and for desktop windows both on one PC (win XP)?

Well... haven't done that but in general it should be the same like for any other two platforms which comes down to installing different versions of Qt to two different directories in your system. Then it's just a matter of using tools properly.

- How long will it take until a first application is ready?

For the desktop - about 10 minutes including the installation. For embedded it will be a little longer, as you have to do more things and the installation is surely more complex - I'd give it 2 hours top.

- And how long until one understands enough to start a bit larger application?

Well... it solely depends on the one trying to understand things You should start with a tutorial or two which should take approx. 1-2 hours (if you wish to understand what you are doing) and then you can dive into examples and your own code.

- How large will the framework be?

It depends on the features you want.

Can it be scaled down to contain only what I need?

Yes. This can be done on two layers. First you can remove all libraries you don't use. Second, you can strip out every library from functionality you don't need.

How is the framework installed on WinCE, just placing dlls together with the exe?

Yes, that's correct.

- Are there limitations in WinCE Qt compared with desktop windows Qt?

No, no limitations in the API. Of course some things can't be done because of the limitations of the embedded platform (and the device) itself.

- Does WinCE Qt (or also desktop windows Qt) still use windows functions like registry win32 API functions, functions imported from other dlls...

Yes. Qt uses WinAPI and other libraries under the hood.

- Are there tutorials especially for Qt under WinCE?

Haven't seen any apart the ones in the official documentation. But that should be enough to get you started (there are few hundred examples in the docs).

desktop windows:
- Is it possible to create an exe that contains everything needed to run the application? So just send someone the exe, no installation, just start it on any windows PC(from win95 to win 7)?

From 2000 to 7, yes. 95 and 98 are not supported by recent releases of Qt. And surely you won't be able to statically build a Qt application that will run correctly on both 95 and 7.

- Are there special functions to be added like there are additional controls for Visual C or VCLs for C++Builder?

Can you be more specific? Added where and by whom?

[MartinM]

Hello wysota,

and thank you for the quick reply.
Concerning the "special functions" I was thinking about what I know as toolboxes for C++ builder. I used one that provided components for data visualization like graphs and 3D plot. But there are mny others out.
So my question was if there are toolboxes and how to find them, maybe there is a kind of market place for such.

Thank you for any help

Martin

[wysota]

Concerning the "special functions" I was thinking about what I know as toolboxes for C++ builder. I used one that provided components for data visualization like graphs and 3D plot. But there are mny others out.
So my question was if there are toolboxes and how to find them, maybe there is a kind of market place for such.

Oh... you mean "custom widgets" or "addons"? Yes, there are some. You can see a link to one in my signature (hmm... I just noticed I can't see my signature. Anyway, here is a link: wwWidgets). Qwt (which has a dedicated subforum on this forum) is a very popular addon, there are others both free (both as in free beer and as in freedom) and commercial.

[MartinM]

Hello Wysota,

thank you for these infos, Qwt looks great for my special purposes (even though no 3D plot yet) and yours look very good for general use.
I will keep them in mind

Thank you very much

Martin

[wysota]

Qwt looks great for my special purposes (even though no 3D plot yet)

You want a 3d plot? Be my guest - QwtPlot3D.

[MartinM]

Hello wysota,

and thank you for this great link.
Well, now it is up to me to get started, let's go

Thank you very much

Martin