[Bug 3198] New: Porting Claws Mail to Qt?

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

Bug ID: 3198
Summary: Porting Claws Mail to Qt?
Classification: Unclassified
Product: Claws Mail
Version: other
Hardware: All
OS: All
Status: NEW
Severity: enhancement
Priority: P3
Component: Other
Assignee: ***@lists.claws-mail.org
Reporter: nw9165-***@yahoo.com

Dear Claws Mail developers,

considering that porting Claws Mail to GTK+ 3 does not seem to be something
you're too fond of (?) according to the comments in the following feature
request:

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=2371

(at least that's what it sounds like?) and considering that quite a few other
developers are thinking of or are already porting their applications to Qt,
instead of GTK+ 3, see for example:

http://blog.lxde.org/?p=1117
http://blog.lxde.org/?p=1000
http://wiki.lxde.org/en/Migrate_from_GTK%2B_to_Qt
https://blog.wireshark.org/2013/10/switching-to-qt/
http://redmine.audacious-media-player.org/boards/1/topics/1100
http://redmine.audacious-media-player.org/boards/1/topics/1135

I am wondering if porting Claws Mail to Qt might be a better decision than
porting it to GTK+ 3?

Regards

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #1 from Colin Leroy <***@colino.net> ---
Andrej has started a QT version of Claws Mail, indeed.

This is a huge work though.

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #2 from nw9165-3201 <nw9165-***@yahoo.com> ---
Hello,

(In reply to comment #1)

Post by n***@thewildbeast.co.uk
Andrej has started a QT version of Claws Mail, indeed.

Cool!

Could you please provide a link to that version?

I don't see it being mentioned over there:

http://www.claws-mail.org/git.php?section=projects

Regards

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

Andrej Kacian <***@kacian.sk> changed:

What |Removed |Added
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Status|NEW |RESOLVED
Resolution|--- |LATER

--- Comment #3 from Andrej Kacian <***@kacian.sk> ---
The code is at <http://git.claws-mail.org/?p=claws-qt.git>, but it is in a very
early phase (and will be for a long time, unless miracles happen). Help is of
course welcome! :)

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #4 from Holger Berndt <***@claws-mail.org> ---
What exactly is the goal of this port? I see this enhancement request, but no
reasoning of why it would be an enhancement in the first place.

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #5 from Michael Rasmussen <***@datanom.net> ---
I second Holger. A lot of work which by the current reasoning seems rather
pointless. Why would Qt be better than GTK? Also using Qt requires C++
knowledge which is more than C with objects. And what about the build system?
Should that be ported to QMake?

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #6 from Salvatore De Paolis <***@claws-mail.org> ---
Agreed with Holger and Michael,
I don't understand the reason of this port actually. Also because it probably
would need a rewrite from scratch of Claws Mail, not just GTK. As far as I know
of, there's no C bindings for QT.
When I saw the message time ago on IRC I thought it was an weird joke :)

2 cents

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #7 from Colin Leroy <***@colino.net> ---
In the very long term, GTK2 is probably dead, and in the short term, it's
Andrej decision to spend his time however he wants, isn't it? :)

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #8 from Michael Rasmussen <***@datanom.net> ---
(In reply to comment #7)

Post by n***@thewildbeast.co.uk
In the very long term, GTK2 is probably dead, and in the short term, it's
Andrej decision to spend his time however he wants, isn't it? :)

Well RHEL 7 ships with GTK2 which means support for GTK2 until 2024, and with
extended life phase you can add another 3 years of support which will bring
support for GTK2 until 2027. In 2027 there might even not be an actual
maintained version of Claws;-)

I agree that Andrej can do what ever he likes with his time but personally I
think the time could be spend more valuable:-)

[n***@thewildbeast.co.uk]

http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3198

--- Comment #9 from Andrej Kacian <***@kacian.sk> ---
Let me explain. I have liked Qt for a long while now, and this "project" is
more or less just my playground where I get to learn Qt programming better, as
well as brush up on my C++ skills (poor as they may be sometimes). So far, I am
rather enjoying the ride, even though ultimately nothing usable may come out of
it.

Also, I have saw mentioned a few times that some team members wouldn't be
against switching to Qt, in some unspecified future. This may or may not
eventually provide a base for that.

Anyone is of course free to help or to completely ignore existence of this
repository. Consider it unofficial. It is not listed on git.claws-mail.org main
page for this reason, but it is not a secret either. I can even take it
elsewhere, if someone considers it a bad idea to have the repo hosted there.

Lastly, I'd like to ask you to move further discussion to one of the mailing
lists. Bugzilla is not an ideal venue for this. :)