Re: Questions on cross-platform development...

[Arun Sharma <arun@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Nov 17, 2000 at 03:59:14AM -0800, Sudhakar Chandrasekharan wrote:
> > BTW (and since I've never used QT, take this with a pinch of salt), I think
> > QT has some vague 'extensions' to C++ ... You might not like that very much.
> > More info from ppl who've worked with it please.
> 
> I've heard abt the C++ mangling too.  If memory serves me right... you 
> have to run your code thorugh a pre-processor or something to mangle it 
> before it can be compiled.  Arun, any input?
> 

Oh, you're talking about the meta object compiler, signals and slots.
Their website has a high level presentation on it. It's all about
being able to use strings to do message passing.

In the absence of the qt extensions to C++, the API you expose will
be a C++ API - something like onButtonClick(). With qt extensions, you
just expose certain signals - which are a bunch of strings. Their magic
glue takes care of calling the right functions. They also ensure type
safety of argument to call backs.

And they've made sure that their stuff works on most platforms and
that their C++ parser is ANSI compliant.

Bottomline: It adds complexity. They could've done without it (like MFC),
but it does add some value.

http://doc.trolltech.com/metaobjects.html

I also see Qt as a class library. Kinda like java.* APIs that Sun provides.

	-Arun