What a load of uninformed bollocks. I've been using Qt since late 1.x versions, and things got much improved with every major release since then (2.x, 3.x, 4.x, 5.x). What have the macros got to do with maintaining ABI? What macros are you exactly taking about? The macros that substitute empty strings and are only used by moc (signals, slots, Q_SIGNAL, Q_SLOT, Q_INVOKABLE)? Qt provided an introspection data extractor (mod) since the first release. The functionality provided by moc was never available in C++, and it's not yet possible to implement this using merely a C++ compiler. Even functionally equivalent stuff is unlikely to make it into C++, given that AFAIK there's no strong, maintained proposal in WG21.

The "hoops" that Qt has jumped through to maintain ABI are the hoops any C++-based library that cares about BC will have to jump through. Qt is not special in this respect. You might be confused since many other Qt-unrelated C++ libraries don't give rat's ass about maintaining BC.

Demonstrate using some code examples, please, and elaborate what is the travesty you speak of.

Writing a gtk-to-Qt translator say re-using the LLVM frontend would be a very nice Ph.D. project :) Whether the developers realize it or not, GIMP, Inkscape and Gnumeric will end up as Qt applications or they'll become irrelevant. I mean fucking come on, only a year ago did Gimp manage to wrestle GTK to work on OS X. That's stuff that was mostly said and done in - wait for it - 2001. Yes, Qt 3.0 had OS X support, albeit only for commercial users.

I've worked on manually porting Inkscape to Qt and it was pretty much a menial job once you figured out common patterns of code transformations that were to be applied. I've lost interest in it after about a month's worth of work, but there's nothing fundamentally hard about it.

What about it? All you need to provide is a static library (.a/.lib) with the objects for the rest of your project. As long as anyone can statically relink the thing with their copy of Qt, you're good.

Using an SQL database as means of interprocess communication, wow.

Wordstar is pretty much a text file. All you need to do is mask out the upper bit. You'll have some control characters left, but those are easy to remove. That's what I remember from 2.5 decades ago...

Other formats are usually readable by a device with fairly closed firmware that is designed to spec. Nobody gives you a CD-ROM drive with access to head positioning servo loop and access to the raw bitstream after clock recovery. Yet this is almost what you has on Apple ][ - that's why the floppy controller hardware was so simple (a couple stock TTL chips, maybe a PAL or two). The magic was in the software (firmware). Same goes for a modern CD-ROM drive, but the firmware is not really easily amenable to hacking, and you can't really replace it as a matter of normal operation of the equipment. On Apple ][ it was trivial, since the firmware ran on the main CPU. On a CD-ROM, or really any other media access device, there's a dedicated CPU - these days it's most often a proprietary SoC with documentation available under an NDA only if you commit to a certain purchase volume. Never mind that the amount of code is orders of magnitude beyond what was routine in Apple ][ days.

That's the problem. One doesn't need any lights if there are actually no humans there to see them. And no, if the only humans are burglars, it still doesn't help. The non-burglar humans still aren't there. There is this crazy belief that just because one shines a light on a burglar, there'll suddenly appear concerned citizen's eyes that can make use of this visual input. Of course this is a load of bollocks. Lights are a mild deterrent, because many burglars are otherwise as silly as the rest of the citizenry and they themselves believe this stupid shit. Apart from that, it's a humongous waste of money. My bet is that electricity savings could pay for necessary insurance policies for those who can't afford them, especially that a decent group rate could be negotiated.

I used to comment my code in my native language up to maybe early high school. I did it subsequently on a project or two that were meant to be maintained by people who mostly didn't speak English. I can't comprehend anyone commenting code in anything but English.

Because not everyone wants to paint their driveway black, you know.

The fuck?

You never heard of a headband mounted flashlight?!

Hear, hear. Especially that there are niche markets that may turn out not so niche once the market gets to speak and the "analyses" of the marketeers are refuted.

We don't have respect for the work because they don't have respect for themselves. Myself I'd like to see copyright law that forces one's hand: either you license it on reasonable terms, or it's public domain. Media hoarding should come to an end. A publisher of a book out of print doesn't care for a reprint or a digital edition? Boom, public domain. A video available in U.K. has been unavailable in the U.S. for a year? Boom, public domain. And so on. That way there would be no more human creativity that's basically locked up by a system of law that promotes indifference and laziness - the very anathema of promoting the progress of useful arts.

Exactly. Google has a payment processing business. Couldn't they collect micro payments, like $0.10 per video just to enable such things without the "unavailable" bullshit? Especially that the content for crying out loud is available . It's sitting right there on the server, they had to add extra logic to disable the content ! It's just that some idiots who pretend they are poor but really don't care for our money. Too lazy to make the content available, they'd rather whine about poor abused media.

Heck, it's like my three year old. When he's hungry and you try to feed him, he's throwing a tantrum because, well he's hungry so he won't have no food nor anything else. Only after you force a couple bites into his mouth does he get the idea that well, food is good, and he should rather be eating than screaming. That's how the media cartels are. Exactly how.