Can D be cute? (Qt)

[Lutger]

Justin Johansson wrote:

...
> Qt, as many of you will know, is a C++ GUI framework produced by
> formerly TrollTech and now acquired by Nokia for $xxx million (60 or
> 160M I read somewhere).  So Nokia pays megabucks for a GUI framework
> that is C++ at its core.  Questions are, why is Qt worth so much to
> Nokia, why is Qt so damn popular on the Linux platform and what is the
> secret of Qt's success given that it is basically a C++ framework
> wrapped in some "meta-object compiler"?

1: Nokia is going to use Qt for everything, most importantly Symbian and 
Meego. 

2: It's attractive not only because it is so huge, well designed and 
supported, but also because it performs, is cross-platform and looks good 
everywhere (as opposed to Java and gtk)

3: The C++ and meta-object compiler are not the core of it's success, but 
rather the combination of:
- well-designed
- HUGE coherent framework
- good cross-platform capability
- both open source and commercial
- used by KDE, sponsored by Nokia

> Having now been exposed to Qt for a few weeks and beginning to
> understand its architecture of "signals and slots" and a pre-processor
> that compiles down to C++, I am now wondering whether D is powerful
> enough to achieve the same sorts of things that Qt seems to be doing.
> 
> If I understand correctly, Qt brings a degree of "reflection capability"
> to C++ amongst other things.  Qt does a tremendous job of circumventing
> the gaps in plain old C++ to achieve great goodness for GUI development
> by way of its meta-object compiler.

I think it is no problem, since basically it's a framework that uses runtime 
reflection coupled with an event system. This shouldn't be hard to achieve 
(or beat) in D.
 
> May I ask if others on this NG are across Qt and D might be capable of
> slotting into some of this market for cross-platform GUI development.

Languages wise: surely, why not? The thousands of man-years a hypothetical D 
toolkit is behind Qt plus starting from 0% marketshare poses a slightly 
bigger problem though :) Not to mention D doesn't even have compilers on all 
the platforms Qt runs on. 
 
> As always, discussions such as these can go anywhere and everywhere on
> DigitalMars D NG, and that's much of the joy in staying with this NG if
> only as a bystander at times.
> 
> Cheers and best regards to all,
> 
> Justin Johansson