I'm genuinely curious: what doesn't Qt offer that a desktop app might need?
I'm genuinely curious: what doesn't Qt offer that a desktop app might need?
In Qt you use the Designer, you need to learn about the layout system if you want to do good UIs, but your GUI is saved in a file and then the c++/python code implements the event handlers and app logic.
Also, because QML is still not as good as the rest of Qt. But it's the right approach - a dedicated framework for desktop apps that is not built on things intended for completely different purposes (like HTML), but stealing the good ideas from there, like using a markup language to define the UI tree, and bindings.
Really, what we need is a cross-platform WPF with less fat. HTML is not it - it's cross-platform WPF with more fat, and not optimized for UI.
The reason why developers, myself included, migrate to VSCode is really simple: because it's the best all-around cross-platform IDE right now for many scenarios, and because it has a thriving extension ecosystem to tailor it further. But it is that in spite of being written in Electron, not because of it. If Microsoft announced that it is being rewritten in Qt tomorrow, I'd be ecstatic.
Just to give you an example of what kinds of issues using web tech for desktop-like experience can cause:
https://github.com/Microsoft/vscode/issues/22900
(Yes, I'm well aware that they fixed it. The point is that the offending code needed to be written in the first place. A native desktop app using 13% of the CPU to render a blinking cursor would be considered an insane bug to have in the first place.)