Qt-interest Archive, February 2007
QT and MFC...
Message 1 in thread
Hi
Just want to know if there are people who moved development from
MFC to QT or are using a mix of QT and MFC. We are planning to
move to QT but a lot of infrastructure libraries already exist in MFC
as shared or static libraries and have been built over the last 7-8
years. It is not possible to move all the existing stuff to QT but
all new development we will want to do using QT that will use a good
30-50% from the existing MFC based libraries.
I want to understand if people have gone on this path and if yes whats
been their experience. What have been the pros and cons of QT vs MFC.
How easy has been the migration or integration between the two? How
was the learning curve and anything else that you can share that will
help us know what we are getting into. All our MFC stuff is also
ported to all Unix flavours using Mainsoft? Is there anybody who has
successfully made QT and MFC/Mainsoft work together on Unix ?
Thanks
Pankaj
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Message 2 in thread
Pankaj Chawla spaketh:
> Just want to know if there are people who moved development from
> MFC to QT or are using a mix of QT and MFC. We are planning to
> move to QT but a lot of infrastructure libraries already exist in MFC
> as shared or static libraries and have been built over the last 7-8
> years. It is not possible to move all the existing stuff to QT but
> all new development we will want to do using QT that will use a good
> 30-50% from the existing MFC based libraries.
>
> I want to understand if people have gone on this path and if yes whats
> been their experience. What have been the pros and cons of QT vs MFC.
> How easy has been the migration or integration between the two? How
> was the learning curve and anything else that you can share that will
> help us know what we are getting into. All our MFC stuff is also
> ported to all Unix flavours using Mainsoft? Is there anybody who has
> successfully made QT and MFC/Mainsoft work together on Unix ?
Our environment is similar... MFC, migrating to Qt as we are able, maintaining legacy MFC. We've created new Qt apps, as well as embeded Qt within our MFC apps. This integration was far easier than we feared (we embedded Qt into MFC apps within a couple hours, and were instantly productive).
More than a year after rolling Qt into our production environment (we did some study prior to that), we're maintaining MFC and Qt, but everybody prefers Qt (more productive coding and maintaining, faster execution). There was a little learning curve (signals & slots, etc.), and it will help a lot if you get at least one guy who's an "expert" or at least a Qt authority/advocate to help review design decisions and answer basic (or non-basic) Qt questions.
For cleanliness, it would be nice to go all Qt as you are able (and we're slowly rewriting MFC tools, rather than port them into Qt -- it's faster to rewrite them in Qt than to port, which is also pretty easy! ;-)
In specific response to your questions:
Learning curve: Short if you're good at C++ (I had 8+ years in MFC, but was more productive in Qt after a few weeks).
Migration from MFC to Qt: Easy (from no knowledge to working embedded Qt within MFC apps in a couple hours). Embedding MFC in Qt apps is also do-able (seems simple), but we don't have need for that.
Other thoughts: You really need to know C++, and need to have a good build environment for moc (we maintain in *.pro, and gen VCPROJ through qmake [and don't matain vcproj files], and recently integrated with scons). The Qt docs and books are good, and it helps a lot if you read them. I'd highly recommend starting with Qt4 (Qt4.2.2 is the current latest release).
I'm pretty good at Qt (several years experience), but I'd still like to take some advanced Qt training -- I'm convinced that helps too.
--charley
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Message 3 in thread
Hi Charley,
Thanks for your inputs. I really appreciate them and it will
help us make our mind. I think I am fairly convinced that
QT is the way to go (even though I am a hardcore MFC
guy with almost 11 years of non stop MFC coding) but
there is one big issue that still needsan answer and
I havent heard from anybody till now on that. The issue
is our using Mainsoft to port our MFC applications on
all Unix flavours. We have been doing it for last 10 years
and it has been working seamlessly. So the added dimension
is not only to reuse the existing MFC stuff on Windows along
with QT but also use the same code base on Unix with
MFC/Mainsoft and QT. I am really looking for inputs from
people if somebody has ever ventured into this and if yes
with what success. I am open to try out anything to make
it work. So any inputs, articles, writeups on this are welcome.
Thanks
Pankaj
On 2/23/07, Charley Bay <charleyb123@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pankaj Chawla spaketh:
> > Just want to know if there are people who moved development from
> > MFC to QT or are using a mix of QT and MFC. We are planning to
> > move to QT but a lot of infrastructure libraries already exist in MFC
> > as shared or static libraries and have been built over the last 7-8
> > years. It is not possible to move all the existing stuff to QT but
> > all new development we will want to do using QT that will use a good
> > 30-50% from the existing MFC based libraries.
> >
> > I want to understand if people have gone on this path and if yes whats
> > been their experience. What have been the pros and cons of QT vs MFC.
> > How easy has been the migration or integration between the two? How
> > was the learning curve and anything else that you can share that will
> > help us know what we are getting into. All our MFC stuff is also
> > ported to all Unix flavours using Mainsoft? Is there anybody who has
> > successfully made QT and MFC/Mainsoft work together on Unix ?
>
> Our environment is similar... MFC, migrating to Qt as we are able, maintaining legacy MFC. We've created new Qt apps, as well as embeded Qt within our MFC apps. This integration was far easier than we feared (we embedded Qt into MFC apps within a couple hours, and were instantly productive).
>
> More than a year after rolling Qt into our production environment (we did some study prior to that), we're maintaining MFC and Qt, but everybody prefers Qt (more productive coding and maintaining, faster execution). There was a little learning curve (signals & slots, etc.), and it will help a lot if you get at least one guy who's an "expert" or at least a Qt authority/advocate to help review design decisions and answer basic (or non-basic) Qt questions.
>
> For cleanliness, it would be nice to go all Qt as you are able (and we're slowly rewriting MFC tools, rather than port them into Qt -- it's faster to rewrite them in Qt than to port, which is also pretty easy! ;-)
>
> In specific response to your questions:
>
> Learning curve: Short if you're good at C++ (I had 8+ years in MFC, but was more productive in Qt after a few weeks).
>
> Migration from MFC to Qt: Easy (from no knowledge to working embedded Qt within MFC apps in a couple hours). Embedding MFC in Qt apps is also do-able (seems simple), but we don't have need for that.
>
> Other thoughts: You really need to know C++, and need to have a good build environment for moc (we maintain in *.pro, and gen VCPROJ through qmake [and don't matain vcproj files], and recently integrated with scons). The Qt docs and books are good, and it helps a lot if you read them. I'd highly recommend starting with Qt4 (Qt4.2.2 is the current latest release).
>
> I'm pretty good at Qt (several years experience), but I'd still like to take some advanced Qt training -- I'm convinced that helps too.
>
> --charley
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ____________________________________________________________________________________
> We won't tell. Get more on shows you hate to love
> (and love to hate): Yahoo! TV's Guilty Pleasures list.
> http://tv.yahoo.com/collections/265
>
> --
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>
>
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Message 4 in thread
On 23.02.07 15:52:11, Pankaj Chawla wrote:
> is our using Mainsoft to port our MFC applications on
> all Unix flavours. We have been doing it for last 10 years
> and it has been working seamlessly. So the added dimension
> is not only to reuse the existing MFC stuff on Windows along
> with QT but also use the same code base on Unix with
> MFC/Mainsoft and QT. I am really looking for inputs from
> people if somebody has ever ventured into this and if yes
> with what success.
Check the archive of this mailinglist, Mainsoft/MFS+Qt on Unix has been
a topic this month or last month.
Andreas
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