[PyQt] Howto use the Qt documentation successfully - Was: Re: Access to lines of text on textEdit.

[Hans-Peter Jansen]

On Wednesday 15 September 2010, 01:25:39 Peter Milliken wrote:
> On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 9:05 AM, Hans-Peter Jansen <hpj at urpla.net> wrote:
> > Come on, Peter, that's not fair. Phil decided to not provide the bulky
> > docs in an otherwise pretty complete package for Windows users: please
> > respect that. He has to pay for your downloads in some ways (and is
> > doing a lot of work for generating those packages beforehand).
>
> It was an attempt at constructive criticism, I have only admiration for
> the job Phil is doing. But perhaps some hints as to what is missing, why
> and where you can go to fill in the blanks would be appropriate? You do
> WANT people to take up PyQt don't you? Please take my comments in the
> vein of making you aware of where improvements may be possible. I do
> after all come from that unique standpoint of being completely new to
> PyQt and Qt :-)

Didn't I mentioned this in the following paragraph that you omitted?

> > You get what you deserve. It's *your* decision after all.
> >
> > Pete
>
> True :-)
>
> After reviewing and reflecting on my experiences with PyQt over the last
> two weeks and also considering the implications of some of your comments
> here which relate to a depth of knowledge that isn't immediately obvious
> to a newbie such as myself, I think I will "abandon" my migration to PyQt
> and Qt for the foreseeable future. I think you all do a sterling job in
> promoting and supporting PyQt but at this point of time I think I
> "deserve" something that requires a little less work :-). 

I'm sorry to hear that. Getting used to of something that big is taking a 
while, and you tackled already some of the advanced aspects that doesn't 
help in this respect either (threads, composites, py2 to py3 transition). 
Unfortunately, you never reached a state, where you solely enjoyed the 
power of it: using tables with a million rows without any noticeable delay 
(even if they originate from some database server), redesigning complex UIs 
within minutes, using self created composites within designer, full unicode 
and i18n support, complete documentation, great books, support, etc...

Then you start to realize, how simple it is to add your own C++ modules, 
that these objects are pure compiled code (ultra thin C/C++ interface 
layer, no python trampolines at all), and even huge class hierarchies load 
instantly (due to delayed lookup). I will stop here..

I've done projects with tkinter, pmw, wxpython and always regretted it at 
some point: painfully slow startup and runtime, convoluted code and 
concepts, missing features, non deterministic behavior changes across 
platforms, to name a few. Ever tried to track problems down to its bones 
through all the layers: I did, and it was a nightmare. Qt on the other hand 
is comprehensible in most aspects as well as sound in most concepts, and it 
is just _one_ layer away from your python code (the thin, mostly boring, 
sip layer code in between).

If there ever will be usable python apps on mobile devices (they will) with 
complex UIs, that not always let the user remember the interpreted python 
penalty, those will be from our camp.

> I have enjoyed 
> my journey and I don't regret the time I have spent bouncing around in
> the PyQt world - perhaps one day I might dust off my books and notes and
> revisit.
>
> Thanks for the efforts

You're still welcome ;-)

Pete