10 ms·

Qt in the browser sounds cool.. but feels reminiscent of shockwave..

IshKebab 4y ago
Yeah I don't think anyone would really choose to write a new web app with Qt. I assume the target market is people that want to port their existing Qt code to the web. It could also be useful for demoing Qt apps.
- ravenstine 4y ago
  I think the better use case for having Qt in the browser is if a web app could benefit from sharing code with a mobile or desktop Qt project. Other than that, yeah, I'm not sure why anyone would use Qt for web apps besides preference.
  - llornkcor 4y ago
    Easier testing and deployment. Develop and test one platform. Deployment is a url.
- jcelerier 4y ago
  Yep, I do it with https://ossia.io https://ossia.io (https://ossia.io/score-web https://ossia.io/score-web) to make the occasional demo ; it's pretty alpha and drag'n'drop still seems to kill it but every Qt release has made it better without me having to do anything.. looking forward to updating!
  - qutierust 4y ago
    How do you do it? I didn't know qt web was a thing? I remember I heard about one project but that was gpl i think
    - jcelerier 4y ago
      ossia score is GPLv3 itself regarding the how.. Qt provides a CMake wrapper which sets up the relevant flags automatically so with CMake/Qt projects it pretty much just works. Here's my build scripts: - https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.deps.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.deps.sh - https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh
    - toyg 4y ago
      At one point Nokia pushed the idea that you would write Qt apps to run on their cloud; they had a few actual customers doing it too. I don't know if the current owners kept going with the concept. It makes sense, from the perspective of shops who invested heavily in upskilling on Qt, to reuse the knowledge to build web apps.
    - llornkcor 4y ago
      https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html
  - llornkcor 4y ago
    drag and drop requires configuring your app with asyncify option. https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html#asyncify https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html#asyncify
    - jcelerier 4y ago
      I think this is how I do it (https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh) but it still stops working after some time
- aljgz 4y ago
  Don't underestimate people's reluctance to learn new stacks.
323 4y ago
It's inevitable. The only way for Qt to compete with Electron is to become Electron.
- Jenk 4y ago
  That feels like to opposite, though. Electron brought the browser to offline/"native" apps. It literally packaged webkit in a way for web tech to be used as a desktop app, whilst Qt in the browser (and Shockwave, Java Applets, ActiveX et al) were bringing the desktop to the browser.
  - kuschku 4y ago
    Electron brings non-native content to the desktop. Qt in the browser brings non-native content to the web. Now we can have broken accessibility, usability, broken theming, and bad integration on both platforms, yay!
pjmlp 4y ago
While some people were too busy cheering the death of plugins, they were being bought back to life thanks to the rejuvenating powers of WebAssembly and WebGL. All of them already have some kind of support in WebAssembly.
- bobajeff 4y ago
  Still, overall better than the situation of having to install a plugin that may or may not be available or working fully on your system. Plus security concerns of running sometimes obscure binaries on your system to access web content.
  - pjmlp 4y ago
    You can compile heartbleed to WebAssembly, and there are ways to exploit memory corruption to change observable behaviour.
    - bobajeff 4y ago
      I'm aware it's not impossible to exploit the current plug-in free browsers we have now. It's still objectively better than before. Not that I'm satisfied with the current state of browsers mind you. I just think not being forced to install someone's binary blob to look at web content is a net benefit.
      - pjmlp 4y ago
        Except you can't disable WebAssembly, and you can't control how a SPA is implemented, see Figma for example. Now you can enjoy Flash like ads using WebAssembly + WebGL, making it all a Phyrric victory.
        ranger_danger 4y ago
        WebAssembly can absolutely be disabled: Chromium-based: --js-flags=--noexpose_wasm Firefox-based: about:config javascript.options.wasm = false

Yeah I don't think anyone would really choose to write a new web app with Qt. I assume the target market is people that want to port their existing Qt code to the web. It could also be useful for demoing Qt apps.

ravenstine 4y ago
I think the better use case for having Qt in the browser is if a web app could benefit from sharing code with a mobile or desktop Qt project. Other than that, yeah, I'm not sure why anyone would use Qt for web apps besides preference.
- llornkcor 4y ago
  Easier testing and deployment. Develop and test one platform. Deployment is a url.
jcelerier 4y ago
Yep, I do it with https://ossia.io https://ossia.io (https://ossia.io/score-web https://ossia.io/score-web) to make the occasional demo ; it's pretty alpha and drag'n'drop still seems to kill it but every Qt release has made it better without me having to do anything.. looking forward to updating!
- qutierust 4y ago
  How do you do it? I didn't know qt web was a thing? I remember I heard about one project but that was gpl i think
  - jcelerier 4y ago
    ossia score is GPLv3 itself regarding the how.. Qt provides a CMake wrapper which sets up the relevant flags automatically so with CMake/Qt projects it pretty much just works. Here's my build scripts: - https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.deps.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.deps.sh - https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh
  - toyg 4y ago
    At one point Nokia pushed the idea that you would write Qt apps to run on their cloud; they had a few actual customers doing it too. I don't know if the current owners kept going with the concept. It makes sense, from the perspective of shops who invested heavily in upskilling on Qt, to reuse the knowledge to build web apps.
  - llornkcor 4y ago
    https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html
- llornkcor 4y ago
  drag and drop requires configuring your app with asyncify option. https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html#asyncify https://doc-snapshots.qt.io/qt6-6.4/wasm.html#asyncify
  - jcelerier 4y ago
    I think this is how I do it (https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh https://github.com/ossia/score/blob/master/ci/wasm.build.sh) but it still stops working after some time
aljgz 4y ago
Don't underestimate people's reluctance to learn new stacks.

323 4y ago

It's inevitable. The only way for Qt to compete with Electron is to become Electron.

Jenk 4y ago
That feels like to opposite, though. Electron brought the browser to offline/"native" apps. It literally packaged webkit in a way for web tech to be used as a desktop app, whilst Qt in the browser (and Shockwave, Java Applets, ActiveX et al) were bringing the desktop to the browser.
- kuschku 4y ago
  Electron brings non-native content to the desktop. Qt in the browser brings non-native content to the web. Now we can have broken accessibility, usability, broken theming, and bad integration on both platforms, yay!

pjmlp 4y ago

While some people were too busy cheering the death of plugins, they were being bought back to life thanks to the rejuvenating powers of WebAssembly and WebGL. All of them already have some kind of support in WebAssembly.

bobajeff 4y ago
Still, overall better than the situation of having to install a plugin that may or may not be available or working fully on your system. Plus security concerns of running sometimes obscure binaries on your system to access web content.
- pjmlp 4y ago
  You can compile heartbleed to WebAssembly, and there are ways to exploit memory corruption to change observable behaviour.
  - bobajeff 4y ago
    I'm aware it's not impossible to exploit the current plug-in free browsers we have now. It's still objectively better than before. Not that I'm satisfied with the current state of browsers mind you. I just think not being forced to install someone's binary blob to look at web content is a net benefit.
    - pjmlp 4y ago
      Except you can't disable WebAssembly, and you can't control how a SPA is implemented, see Figma for example. Now you can enjoy Flash like ads using WebAssembly + WebGL, making it all a Phyrric victory.
      - ranger_danger 4y ago
        WebAssembly can absolutely be disabled: Chromium-based: --js-flags=--noexpose_wasm Firefox-based: about:config javascript.options.wasm = false