Closed:Stop to make GUI with Java .... Use Qt 5 !!

Question

[sacha]

Hi,

There are many free software for bioinformatics people, and many of them use Java as the GUI programming language. All of them have very good features, and we all probably use one of them. But Java make the GUI ugly, unresponsive, it is very slow, it depends of java and you have a non zero probably to crash it cause of the memory usage! I don't say anything about the language, but you probably understand why!

So, I suggest you all to switch to the Qt5 framework !

Qt (Cute) is a C++ framework that works everywhere : Linux, Mac , windows and also mobile, tablet or embedded devices. It uses LGPL license (there is also a commercial license).

If you are afraid of C++, don't worry! Qt has a very high level language, and it's very easy to understand! It also provides a Really good IDE (Qt creator)! And it's far away from the worst IDE of all the time (Eclipse). There is also a new declarative Language called "QML" which help you to design the graphics interface! You keep C++ for the logic! It's awesome, my grand mother would be able to design a nice interface ! :D

For example, you will be able to:

1. Communicate with REST API using QtNetwork! And even play with WebSocket
2. Create a web client in few lines
3. Use the power of OpenGL 3 easily, and from any OS! Shaders are so fun!
4. Use the Model & View class to display really really big dataset as list, table or tree!
5. Create nice and fast interface using C++ or the new awesome declarative language: QML
6. On supported devices: Bluetooth, GPS, Map, Accelerometer, camera etc.
7. Use QMatrix, QTransform, QQuaternion and enjoy mathematics!
8. Draw using QPainter or QGraphicsScene or openGL
9. Play with Mysql, sqlite, Postgre and even more!

If you want to have a taste, here are software made or has switch to Qt:

1. Alamut visual: Commercial human genome browser ! Really Really nice!
2. robomongo: if you want to play with mongodb
3. VirtualBox: The virtualisation tool
4. KDE: the graphic desktop environement
5. ubuntu touch: the mobile phone
6. vlc: the video player
7. Speedcrunch: a lovely calculator
8. Spotify: commercial music player
9. Wireshark: has switched recently
10. QCustomPlot [ LIBRARY ]: if you love charts!
11. pyQt: Qt with Python
12. Qml-Material [ LIBRARY ]: make an android application with the native look & feel
13. ZodiakGraph[ LIBRARY ]: if you like play with graphs!
14. ZeGrapher: graphics calculator
15. BioQt [ LIBRARY ]: he starts the project
16. Github : Every library which start with a Q!

Some videos to watch:

1. QtQuick .. amazing
2. QtQuick + instant shaders programming: Completely awesome
3. Qml material: google design rule

So, start now by downloading Qt [http://www.qt.io/] and try your first tutorial: http://doc.qt.io/qt-5/gettingstartedqt.html

Have fun! And say "Goodbye java"!