Program: Qt SDK
License: Open Source/GPL & LGPL
Description: The Qt SDK includes the tools you need to build cross-platform applications with Qt in a single install.
Website: http://www.qtsoftware.com
Other: Sorry, I don't have a clean system to do a regshot on. The SDK can be downloaded from the above link at /downloads
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I was looking for something like this. Anyone?
IIRC, Qt showers the system with Registry entries; it would be a huge pain to make it portable. I think there were also problems with registered libraries or something like that... my mind's a little foggy on it as I don't use Qt, but I'm pretty sure this has been discussed before (for apps that use Qt, not Qt itself)
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
Qt is coded to be portable, so I highly doubt that they would make it rely on the registry. At least not as much. As for apps that use Qt-- Abiword & VLC, which are on this site use Qt.
Well, I was in IRC recently and came in on the tail end of a discussion about portabilizing Qt apps. One of the devs said something like "I never want to portabilize a Qt app again because it's so tough to do"...
I don't recall the exact stumbling block, but there was definitely one.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
computerfreaker - is it possible that the guy on irc was joking or being sarcastic ??
"I never want to portabilize a Qt app again because it's so tough to do"
compared to ?
No idea, I don't even recall who was talking... sorry.
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
Here we go, found some relevant-looking comments in the IRC logs...
http://patrickpatience.com/nascent-project/portableapps/irc/logs/?t=2009-12-08
http://patrickpatience.com/nascent-project/portableapps/irc/logs/?t=2009-12-09#T13-10-25
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
If it was me you were quoting, you've got it all wrong... I don't hate Qt, it's just a nuisance until properly dealt with, which is one great benefit of the upcoming PortableApps.com Launcher... it'll be a single line or at most three or four values with it, I think.
Also, I found the
#define QT_NO_PLUGIN_CHECKa few days ago which seems as though it should fix it from my reading of the Qt code. So maybe we won't need great Qt support after all if the developers co-operate with us (but I'm till trying to work out where the code is behind VLC's --no-plugins-cache... I just can't seem find it anywhere; however, it seems to be a different plugin cache to the Qt one :/)I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
I wasn't quoting you specifically, I just ran across your comments first. At that time of night, I was just trying to find one relevant comment...
When I was looking at those comments, I didn't see anyone hating Qt; just some people annoyed by the registry entries it leaves. (And I'm pretty sure somebody mentioned a problem with the plugin cache, too)
Anyway, I'm glad to hear it won't be a problem!
"The question I would like to know, is the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. All we know about it is that the Answer is Forty-two, which is a little aggravating."
The plugin cache is the registry problem. If we can kill the plugin cache, the problem vanishes (still gotta see about the customColors key though).
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Looks like the problem you're talking about was reported here: http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-2522
But the major bug seems to be when it tries to re-cache those entries:
(http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-1736). I imagine they'll have a fix for it soon since it's labeled "major".
But no issues with VLC Portable. It doesn't seem to leave any traces & runs fine:
https://portableapps.com/support/vlc_portable#modifications
"* Plugins Cache Disabled. * Skin settings portable"
How exactly was this done? We can use this so no problem.
We have to find out if Qt Creator / Designer depends on registry... and using the build environment with mingw-portable.
edit: where is the customColors key you're talking about?
I have answers to all your questions but I've got to go now, I hope to post in a couple of days, back in Australia (in the mean time, see my post at the end of this thread).
VLC: -no-plugins-cache, but it's a different plugin cache I believe.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
There's a "--no-plugins-cache" one for debugging plugins. Is that the one you mean?
The question is whether it's Qt plugins or some other type of plugin, and I'm not entirely sure (I don't really have anything to work on). However, searching through the VLC Git repository, I'm pretty sure it's a VLC thing rather than the Qt cache. Also I can't seem to find the source of the --no-plugins-cache command line argument in the VLC or Qt repositories.
I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
You're right. It seems to have something to do with vlc plugin debugging. Nothing to do with QT. I went ahead and ran other QT based apps that use the INI setting, and they don't seem to bother with HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Trolltech\OrganizationDefaults\Qt Plugin Cache... registry entries
There are two main definitions of "portable" in computing: portability between operating systems (so that code can be compiled easily on Windows, Linux, OS X, etc. with the minimum of fuss), and the type of portability we deal in, portability of the program and its settings between computers of the same OS or OS family.
The portability that Qt refers to on their website is operating system portability. Our type of portability is only partially there due to the way QSettings work.
The main troublesome thing about Qt applications is the plugin cache. It can be cleared up fairly easily with a bit of code (the universal launcher will have it in automatically) but I've been searching for some way to disable the plugin cache. It doesn't appear to be possible yet.
Edit: I took yet another look and decided that QT_NO_PLUGIN_CHECK which I discovered last time should actually do it. I'll see if I can find some Qt developer with software which currently leaves it all behind, and ask them to try adding
#define QT_NO_PLUGIN_CHECKto wherever it needs to go... that should fix it. There is alsoQT_NO_SETTINGSwhich should likewise do it but may have side-effects in making programs not work. I'll also try recommending using QSettings::IniFormat for portable versions rather than QSettings::NativeFormat (which uses the registry in Windows). If these two things come off correctly, I think we should have a fairly easy way of making our-type-of-portable Qt applications. We could even make a simple PortableApps.(cpp|h) thing for them to include to simplify it, or provide easy-to-follow instructions for different types of applications to make them more conducive to portability.I am a Christian and a developer and moderator here.
“A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.” – Proverbs 15:1
Sorry, yes, yes, the difference between portable and port-able. I didn't make that clear. computerfreaker made the assumption that qt "showers" the registry with entries, thus depending heavily on it. Of course linux & mac doesn't have that, so I imagined it would have a setting to turn that off like QSettings::IniFormat as you mentioned. I don't know about that plugin cache thing, you know more about it than I do. From the looks of it, Abiword & VLC are portable and port-able, aren't they? I don't think they're heavily dependent on the registry. Why not take a look at their code and see what they do with the plugin cache? Also, how about Qt Creator & Designer, are they registry dependent?
Any news on this? I need some help here sorting the files out. It's 1.4 gigs extracted. Anyone know what 'configure' exactly does?