Hello,

I have used both a lot.

When I was using Clutter, (sub 1.0), it was quite low level and simplistic
and quite easy to use. I liked it that way, I had full control
on widgets I created by piling clutter actors together.

QML on the other hand may have more automation than the Clutter. It is also
much faster to write apps using Qt quick components than
to create user interfaces using Clutter Actors. Haven't followed the
Clutter since I was writing N900 startup wizard using it (sometime
2008-2009), but I presume advances on that side have also happened since
then.

If you want low level control on what you do, Clutter is just that. I was
writing a C++ app that instantiated the clutter actors, and it gave me much
better feel of what is going on in the software than the QML that is more
like a scripting language inside a C++ app and then you bind your C++ app
to the objects that are going on the QML side. In Clutter you just pile ten
simple things and you get a complex thing that you know exactly how it
behaves and you can very easily do about anything. You have all callbacks
and everything under your control and you can do exactly what you intend to
do. It is like piling lego bricks and building castles with them. QML on
the other hand has a bit similar ideology than Cocoa on OSX with using
Interface Builder. When I started writing cocoa apps, I felt a bit uneasy
about that I wasn't creating my widgets in software but drawing them and
then connecting some my outlet to my widget by drawing a wire and then some
magic happens and it is in nowhere in the code. Kind of like a black box
that you can just poke with a stick and hope that it works.

I think you can end up with similar results with both Clutter and Qt.
Clutter may be leaner than the massive Qt libraries.
Also there is the language choice, Clutter is C-based and Qt is C++ based
library. Of course Clutter will not exclude you from
C++, I wrote my Clutter app using C++ and made sort of bindings for Clutter
for the C++ so I could instantiate my widgets as C++ objects
and the classes had the magic inside that made creation and destruction,
hiding, showing, animating etc. of Clutter actors.

Maybe the biggest difference other than the aspect of implementation, is
that Qt is a huge library that has about everything in it (except some
exceptions) whereas Clutter is a lean library for one thing only -
manipulating clutter actors on stage and interacting with user via these
basic blocks. Both libraries have their uses and I like both and in no way
neither of these fine pieces of software should be considered "dead"
projects - community is there despite companies come and go and their focus
is shifting on and off. Both are rather awesome.

In Linux the difference is small if your dependency is Qt or glib, but on
wider audience - Qt is better for cross platform development to get the app
running on Linux, Mac and Windows without changes (and without the need to
be using Macports (crappy) and X11 (works crappily in conjunction with OSX
window management) on Mac). Macports is a bit crappy software and if people
need that for getting some app, they rather not get that app. And it is
requiring such file permissions to /opt (for Macports to work) that it
makes one configuration management system I am using on Macs inoperable
(and thus can't merrily run both on the same OSX installation).

Best Regards,
Karoliina






On Thu, Jul 5, 2012 at 4:41 AM, Chen Kefeng (CM/ESW2-CN) <
[email protected]> wrote:

>  Hi Clutterler’s,
>
> Could somebody give me a strong argument for choosing Clutter instead of
> Qt? I prefer Clutter and GObject. But Qt is also not bad.
>
> Best Regards / Mit freundlichen Grüßen
>
> *CHEN Kefeng **陈科峰*
> *CM/ESW2-CN*
>
> Tel. +86 512 6767 7549
> Fax +86 512 6762 1200
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> clutter-app-devel-list mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://lists.clutter-project.org/listinfo/clutter-app-devel-list
>
>
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