Qt programming: More productive in Python or C++?
Trying to dive into Qt big time but haven't done a large project with it yet. Currently using Python, but I've been thinking -- which is really the better language to use in terms of programmer productivity?
In most comparisons between the languages, Python is the obvious answer, because you don't have to mess with memory management and all that.
However, with Qt I'm not so sure. It provides enough added features to C++ that (from what I can tell) a line of Python code is roughly equal to a line of C++ code most of the time (excluding some additional things like class definitions and structure components). Qt does nearly all the memory management for you as long as you stick with its classes, and provides equivalents to the nice containers you would find in Python.
I've always preferred statically typed languages, but have gotten on the Python bandwagon for various reasons. If programmer productivity is similar with C++, however, I may jump back that way for its other benefits -- more efficient code and fewer dependencies for users to install.
Thoughts?
Answer
If one or the other, I'd actually suggest Python in spite of being a C++ enthusiast. With Python code you don't have to bother with the MOC, portability, build times, etc. Just compare the work involved in implementing a QT slot in C++ vs. PyQT or PySide, e.g. I find it to be much less of a pain to deal with widgets this way (much greater productivity). You can still invoke C++ code from Python in cases where you need the added performance.
If you do use a combination, consider extending Python rather than embedding it. Python is generally better suited to embed C/C++ code than to be embedded into a C/C++ system. It also tends to make more sense that way as applications are generally composed of far more mundane, non-performance critical code than performance-critical code, so writing your application primarily as a python application with C/C++ functions attached to it fits that kind of system design better.