[callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Quim Gil <qu...@nokia.com>]

Hi, I hope it is ok to have here the discussion about the new project to 
bring Qt support for PhoneGap [1] - as suggested at 
http://wiki.qt-project.org/PhoneGap_for_Qt_5

Looking at https://github.com/callback/callback-qt & 
https://github.com/tranter/callback-qt there seems to be a mixture of Qt 
4 / WebKit and Qt 5 / WebKit 2 features? Since the primary focus is Qt 5 
we really need to concentrate on WebKit2, which is not a trivial change.

Think also that QWidget is out of the essential Qt 5 components. It is 
expected to be still in used for desktop but anything mobile in the 
context of Qt 5 is clearly going in the direction of Qt Quick 2. 
Therefore we can't rely on QWidget for this project.

I recommend you to check with the QtWebKit maintainers at #qtwebkit . 
Some of them are really familiar with PhoenGap and they are becoming 
aware of this project pretty quick.

btw I took the liberty of CCing Caio Marcelo from INdT since he has been 
looking at the Qt hybrid approach for quite some time.

Looking forward to the first releases and the day when this port can be 
considered part of Apache Cordova (I still need to make an effort not to 
write "Còrdova"). Also hi to Brian and other post-Nitobi folks - as you 
can see some of us can be really stubborn.  :)


[1] http://blog.qt.nokia.com/2012/01/12/qt-for-phonegap/

--
Quim

Re: [callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Caio Marcelo <cm...@gmail.com>]

Hello,

I've subscribed with my other address (caio.oliveira@openbossa.org) to
the callback-dev mailing list -- it is the preferred contact mail :-).

I think Cordova is a perfect use case for motivate the hybrid APIs in
Qt. The multiprocess architecture change the game a little bit, so
earlier support to expose QObjects in the webpage JS environment is
not there yet -- and possible won't be there the way we are used to.

There's a thread in webkit-qt mailing list that have a lot of
information about what cases we are considering
https://lists.webkit.org/pipermail/webkit-qt/2011-October/001953.html.

Next week I'll take a deeper look at Cordova API and at exising Qt backend.


Cheers,

-- 
Caio Marcelo

Re: [callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Brian LeRoux <b...@brian.io>]

Well, thats the best case scenario!  Love it and welcome Quim and Qt
friends to the fray. Pls let us know if what you need from us.

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 2:30 PM, Quim Gil <qu...@nokia.com> wrote:
> On 01/12/2012 02:08 PM, ext Brian LeRoux wrote:
>>
>> Quim, is this work going to be contributed back to the Apache Cordova
>> proj or is it a feature parity thing in Qt5 itself?
>
>
> This wants to be an Apache Cordova project and our goal is to have Qt at
> http://phonegap.com/about/features with all the features checked, with all
> what this implies.
>
> Then again this Qt for PhoneGap is a community project developed openly. We
> will be progressing as good as we can towards feature completion and stable
> quality.
>
> Any advice & requirements to make this part of the Cordova project and
> releases is welcome.
>
> --
> Quim

Re: [callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Quim Gil <qu...@nokia.com>]

On 01/12/2012 02:08 PM, ext Brian LeRoux wrote:
> Quim, is this work going to be contributed back to the Apache Cordova
> proj or is it a feature parity thing in Qt5 itself?

This wants to be an Apache Cordova project and our goal is to have Qt at 
http://phonegap.com/about/features with all the features checked, with 
all what this implies.

Then again this Qt for PhoneGap is a community project developed openly. 
We will be progressing as good as we can towards feature completion and 
stable quality.

Any advice & requirements to make this part of the Cordova project and 
releases is welcome.

--
Quim

Re: [callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Brian LeRoux <b...@brian.io>]

Quim, is this work going to be contributed back to the Apache Cordova
proj or is it a feature parity thing in Qt5 itself?

On Thu, Jan 12, 2012 at 10:28 AM, Quim Gil <qu...@nokia.com> wrote:
> The main developers of the PhoneGap for Qt 4 project believe that the work
> on Qt 5 should be simple. Let's see if I can explain why it's not based on
> my own learnings - while the real WebKit and QtWebKit maintainers explain
> their views on the project.
>
> On 01/11/2012 10:51 PM, ext Viras wrote:
>> I'm not sure if there is really that much to do.
>
> I wish you are right  :) but at least the WebKit developers at Nokia believe
> that the change to Qt 5 is indeed significant.
>
> WebKit2 is basically a new API. The WebKit(1) API is being left behind.
>
> The API for QtWebKit(1) was based on QWidget, but QWidget is an optional
> module in Qt 5 and it may well be that mobile platforms don't ship it at
> all.
>
> Qt 4 has the convenient QtWebKit Bridge mechanism to connect WebKit/JS with
> C++ native objects. But QtWebKit Bridge is really tied to Qt 4 and is not
> making it as such to Qt 5.
>
> See
>
> http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/QtWebKitForQt5
> http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/08/31/an-oldnew-approach-to-qtwebkit-hybrid/
>
>
>> That way porting to Qt5 most probably will be the work of a few
>> afternoons (after all, I re-wrote the whole Qt4 code in a few days as a
>> single person).
>
> I don't know how many afternoons will it take to get the PhoneGap API fully
> covered in Qt 5.
>
> But I specially don't know how many extra afternoons will be needing to get
> a release stable and with a good level of performance. It doesn't seem to be
> a trivial task for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone ports, so I'm not
> expecting this to be trivial for Qt 5 either.
>
> --
> Quim

Re: [callback-qt] Qt 5, WebKit2 & Qt Quick

[Quim Gil <qu...@nokia.com>]

The main developers of the PhoneGap for Qt 4 project believe that the 
work on Qt 5 should be simple. Let's see if I can explain why it's not 
based on my own learnings - while the real WebKit and QtWebKit 
maintainers explain their views on the project.

On 01/11/2012 10:51 PM, ext Viras wrote:
 > I'm not sure if there is really that much to do.

I wish you are right  :) but at least the WebKit developers at Nokia 
believe that the change to Qt 5 is indeed significant.

WebKit2 is basically a new API. The WebKit(1) API is being left behind.

The API for QtWebKit(1) was based on QWidget, but QWidget is an optional 
module in Qt 5 and it may well be that mobile platforms don't ship it at 
all.

Qt 4 has the convenient QtWebKit Bridge mechanism to connect WebKit/JS 
with C++ native objects. But QtWebKit Bridge is really tied to Qt 4 and 
is not making it as such to Qt 5.

See

http://trac.webkit.org/wiki/QtWebKitForQt5
http://labs.qt.nokia.com/2011/08/31/an-oldnew-approach-to-qtwebkit-hybrid/


 > That way porting to Qt5 most probably will be the work of a few
 > afternoons (after all, I re-wrote the whole Qt4 code in a few days as a
 > single person).

I don't know how many afternoons will it take to get the PhoneGap API 
fully covered in Qt 5.

But I specially don't know how many extra afternoons will be needing to 
get a release stable and with a good level of performance. It doesn't 
seem to be a trivial task for the iOS, Android and Windows Phone ports, 
so I'm not expecting this to be trivial for Qt 5 either.

--
Quim