QML vs. FXML

Doug Schaefer dschaefer at qnx.com
Thu Mar 5 15:23:08 UTC 2015


In general, it’s an argument against writing code in XML. XML was really meant to be a machine to machine language, to make things like SceneBuilder easier to write :). People came second.

You really want to use a domain specific language that’s easy to read and write. QML is that. I find XML tags overwhelm the rest of the text making it hard to understand what’s going on, and hard to write unless you have a good XML editor.  QML has less cruft and it’s easier to see what’s happening with a quick glance.

Now, having said that, HTML seems to be pretty popular…

Doug.

From: "ngalarneau at ABINITIO.COM<mailto:ngalarneau at ABINITIO.COM>" <ngalarneau at ABINITIO.COM<mailto:ngalarneau at ABINITIO.COM>>
Date: Thursday, March 5, 2015 at 10:08 AM
To: Doug Schaefer <dschaefer at qnx.com<mailto:dschaefer at qnx.com>>
Cc: "openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net>" <openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net>>
Subject: QML vs. FXML

Doug,

You said: "good declarative UI language, think QML not FXML".

What do you see as the advantages of QML over FXML?


Neil




From:        Doug Schaefer <dschaefer at qnx.com<mailto:dschaefer at qnx.com>>
To:        "openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net>" <openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net<mailto:openjfx-dev at openjdk.java.net>>,
Date:        03/05/2015 10:00 AM
Subject:        Re: 8u40 is released / SB
Sent by:        "openjfx-dev" <openjfx-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net<mailto:openjfx-dev-bounces at openjdk.java.net>>
________________________________



GUI builders are great for prototyping or helping you learn. But when the
application gets complex I keep hearing developers throw them out. They
start getting in the way.

I think if you have a good API and a good declarative UI language, think
QML not FXML, then you may find you don¹t really need a GUI builder. How
may people are using GUI builders to create Web app UI¹s? Now web UIs are
simpler, but maybe that¹s the point.

And why not leave GUI builders to the tools vendors. They¹re hard to make
and get right, especially of you don¹t have a revenue model to support the
army of developers you need.

Doug.

Hmm, I wonder what React Native would look like with JavaFX and NashornŠ

On 2015-03-05, 7:20 AM, "Scott Palmer" <swpalmer at gmail.com<mailto:swpalmer at gmail.com>> wrote:

>I would never consider for a second coding FXML "directly".  I have only
>tweaked it by hand occasionally after creating it with SceneBuilder. SB
>is an important selling point for JavaFX and should be included in the
>JDK, it shouldn't even be a separate download.
>
>Scott
>
>> On Mar 5, 2015, at 3:19 AM, Tom Eugelink <tbee at tbee.org<mailto:tbee at tbee.org>> wrote:
>>
>> My two cents would be that maintaining a UI builder is an awful lot of
>>work, while I expect that a lot of programmers won't be using SB because
>>it always has limitations. Either with complex layouts or custom
>>controls. "Real" programmers probably use FXML directly or even just
>>code it in Java. So the "return on investment" probably is fairly low
>>and thus the resources can be much better spent on the core. IMHO.
>>
>>
>>> On 5-3-2015 02:34, Mike Hearn wrote:
>>> I agree that SB is probably something that can be well maintained by
>>>the
>>> community at this point, especially with commercial backing from Gluon
>>





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