Upgrade QT5!

asked 2020-05-18 11:21:07 +0200

accumulator gravatar image

updated 2020-05-18 11:21:52 +0200

Dear Jolla,

There have been hints and suggestions dropped in the past few years on a Qt upgrade being worked on, and would likely be coming down the pipes in Sailfish 3.x. However, it's been awfully quiet when it comes to a roadmap, and on Qt in particular.

It's sad to see the (IMO) best linux based phone on the market lagging behind Ubuntu phone or even android when it comes to Qt. The ecosystem is small as it is, and to stay viable, we need every developer on the platform we can get.

It would help immensely if we would have QtQuick Controls 2 available, which would allow developers to more easily target multiple platforms without having to write a completely different UI when porting to another platform. This would work in reverse as well, existing QQC2 applications are more easily ported to Sailfish (even if that doesn't use Silica styling, which is ok)

I think the developer community deserves a more concrete timeline from Jolla on Qt, not just vague statements when asked in the IRC developer meetings.

A few past posts highlighting the limitations we encounter:

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Comments

8

All we can do is hope and monitor the community meetings, only Jolla know why it's taking so long but we must bare in mind that Jollas priorities are different now. The corporate and government partners are clearly the priority at the moment as this is the mechanism for Jolla to survive financially.

As for Qt Quick Controls I have to disagree, Sailfish has a beautiful shell, while controls do make porting easier it ruins the flow of the interface, we had a similar issue on Symbian with native, Qt Widgets and Qt Quick UI components styling used by Apps it confused users and looked awful.

Allstar12345 ( 2020-05-18 13:16:17 +0200 )edit
4

If you want to just hope, that's fine but I'm done with that. I'm well aware of the corporate direction Jolla is taking, but there's no significant monetary cost to keep the community informed. Without the community Jolla wouldn't be where it is today so I do not think this little bit of communication is too much to ask.

You do know that you don't HAVE to use QQC2 when it's available right? You can still use the existing Silica. And, do you not use any android apps?

accumulator ( 2020-05-18 14:05:34 +0200 )edit
8

I want a Qt upgrade as much as the next person but I've accepted that no amount of shouting is going to make it magically appear.

The issue with QQC is the themes are desktop orientated unless you use Material Design or the Universal design, of course you don't have to use QQC but from experience the fragmentation can ruin the experience for users.

I don't even have Android support installed, I use my Jolla for App development mostly, I believe in UI continuity and not fast and dirty ports that have a different user experience to the rest of the platform.

This is why I support the open sourcing of Silica or atleast providing full documentation so we don't have to do little hacks or use private API's.

Allstar12345 ( 2020-05-18 14:25:33 +0200 )edit
3

I use my phone as a tool, not as a painting.

Edit: implying my post is 'shouting' is actually quite insulting

accumulator ( 2020-05-18 14:32:28 +0200 )edit
4

The shouting part is an English saying (local dialect), it has no offense intended.

I also use my device a tool but keeping the continuity helps new users massively to adapt to what can be a bit of a confusing experience if you're not used to gestures.

Allstar12345 ( 2020-05-18 15:12:49 +0200 )edit