Which language to learn for Qt development? [closed]

Question

I am new to programming. I have some Knowledge Of C++ and have learned Python.

Now i want to develop a Qt Gui Application. Which language should i use for Qt development C++ or Python with PyQt. I found Python to be easy language.

Answer 1

There is no definite answer to this question. With that said...

Pros and cons you often hear

• Python is easy, C++ is hard (in comparison to Python)

• C++ is fast, Python is slow (so to speak) performance wise.

In reality...

Both arguments can be true or false, you can make slow C++ program, but you can also make fast Python program, you could also say C++ is not that hard if you know it really good etc.

Qt is written in C++ so the documentation examples are in C++. This is not really a problem since it is easy to port this to Python. Although I've found that for example animations with state machine cause segmentation faults with PyQt and PySide is not all that stable yet.

So which one to pick?

Depends on your skill and assignment. If it is work you are doing go with what you know best and asses how much speed you actually need, not every app has a need for lower level code.

If you know Python, you could start building your prototype in Python, then port to C++ parts that you deemed slow and bind them back to the Python (using SIP for example) or even port the whole application to C++. This approach also makes good exercise.

But even if you wrote your whole app in Python I doubt you and your clients would ever notice the "slowness" or "fastness" if you go with C++. These things usually depend on skill of a programmer.

Conclusion

It's entirely up to you to choose what are you are most comfortable with and to understand what your app really needs, but both languages will do the job in most cases.

My subjective advice would be to go with Python and port to C++ if you really need to. Sole reason for this advice is that you do not need to type as much in Python as you do in C++ but this can also be seen as a silly reason.

Answer 2

I just finished a reasonably large project with PyQT... I think your choice should depend on three factors:

1. How big is your audience (less than 100 installations? More?)

2. How much functionality do you need? (Databases + graphics + plotting + signal analysis + network access + blah blah blah)?

3. How rapidly do you need to develop, both now and in the future?

C++/QT is great for 1) Big audience, 2) Low to medium functionality, and 3) Slow to medium development speed. Of course, you can do anything with C++ given enough time and money.

Python/PyQt is great for 1) Small Audience, 2) Any level (including high) functionality, and 3) Medium to fast development speed.

The benefits of Python/PyQt are that:

• you needn't worry too much about datatypes, header files, and numerous other headaches that slow development, and you get to work in a world-class interpreted environment known for its ability to foster fast and robust development.
• you can pull in massive 3rd party libraries like matplotlib, scipy, sqlalchemy, and configobj that can make complex tasks stupidly easy.

The downsides of Python/PyQt, IMHO, are that:

• it may have slower performance in some applications (who cares? How often does that really matter?)
• it may be substantially harder to deploy. Py2exe requires quite a bit of tweaking to get 3rd party libraries to work, and then you still need to build an installer and get that working. Then, every time someone installs your app you might have 10 to 100MB of unnecessary dependencies built into the thing.

Personally, I work in an engineering R&D environment where fast turnaround and extensive data analysis/visualization is key, and deployment is often to only a few dozen (tech-savvy) people. Python/Pyqt is the clear choice. But, if I were to be developing a simple, widely-deployed application like a bittorrent client or something, I'd go C++ all the way.

Other notes:

• PySide (a free LGPL alternative to PyQt) is rapidly progressing and seems sure to blow PyQt out of the water; I'm planning to switch within the next few months but as of now some 3rd party libraries still aren't set up for it.

• The documentation for Pyside is much better than for PyQt; if you need help on, say, "QListView", just search google for "Pyside QListView".

• I'd recommend only using PyQt where you need to. E.g., don't mess with QtSQL (debugging is a nightmare) when you could just use SqlAlchemy, and don't screw with Qt's configuration system when you can use the awesome library ConfigObj.

• The clear way to install Python/Pyqt/etc is using the distribution Python(x,y) ... it includes, among other things: Python, PyQt, Qt, Eclipse, PyDev, QtDesigner, Spyder, iPython, and many dozens of useful scientific and computing libraries. Compiling and installing this stuff on your own is not fun.