So, what will happen?
1) Qt c++ devs will invest in Visual Studio and learn silverlight/XNA
or
2) Qt c++ devs simply switch to c++ development for iOS + Android
1) Qt c++ devs will invest in Visual Studio and learn silverlight/XNA
or
2) Qt c++ devs simply switch to c++ development for iOS + Android
By the way, the consensus in the Qt community is that this is bad news both for Qt and for the entire community.
What gui framework can we now use - MFC and Gnome?
It's even better than MS + HTC or something. Being on Nokia has better visibility, especially in the eastern side of the world.
For Nokia, some Qt guys making the change + .Net ppl can't be smaller than than the current developer base.
but nokia is huge, i get your point.
They are simply refocusing their efforts to get Silverlight (which is a pretty good piece of engineering IMO) put to use elsewhere.
As far as I can see, that is a pretty good strategic decision.
Silverlight and Azure are different things, but they're both marketed towards developers who would like to take functionality, much of it in the form of internal apps, and make it accessible on the web or otherwise over WAN. I know this, because some Microsoft folks were pitching Azure to me just yesterday!
Yes, things don't make sense if you're stuck on "compete = comparable." A little reflection, and you should realize this isn't a very good assumption. (Teleconferencing and airlines, anyone?)
See this Stackoverflow answer: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3804219/what-is-the-diffe...
Basically, it's probably easier and less messy to just learn Obj-C.
The runtime method dispatch of Objective-C (protocols!) makes it possible. Basically Objective-C gives you what Qt had to kludge in with qmake/moc. And it's still pretty fast!
When I see how little code I have to write to do something basic in Cocoa/Obj-C, and how well it turns out, any problems I have with syntax go out with the window.
If you can think abstractly and use/like languages like Ruby and Lisp (and their reflection/metaprogramming features), I think you'll be surprised by the amount of stuff you can do at runtime in native code. I started doing Obj-C a week ago and am about to submit my first free, 90% custom-drawn control app to Apple for approval.
Yes, the syntax is initially unappealing, but you get over it after about a day. On top of that, Xcode + Interface Builder is the best GUI dev environment I've used yet.
They were right.
I still believe Objective-C, paired with Cocoa is far and away the best programming language and environment out there. I've worked on the internals of windows, lots of C++, lots of Java (used to be my favorite), done .net, done a bunch of scripting languages, python, perl, lingo and actionscript, and lisp and erlang.
On the server it should be erlang (for serious code, for less serious use your favorite script)... and on desktop and mobile, Objective-C and Cocoa are really quite spectacular.
Like Ruby/Python it has a specific style that gives you a different perspective than other languages. I now find myself using ObjC style-isms in other languages.
This is how I felt about erlang. But the importance of concurrency was so high to me that I forced myself to learn the language, and now I love it.
A couple times learning a new language after being annoyed that it isn't like the language you already know, and I think people might recognize that every language has a reason for being....