Slashdot Mirror


Qt For The Console

lintux writes: "You probably know Qt as the fine toolkit for the less-fine X. Today something cool reached a stable state: Qt for the console. A Qt library port which allows you to port Qt programs to the console! Just imagine a full-featured web browser like Konqueror, on a 386 text-machine! I tried some things, and I never want to use w3m or lynx again, I can tell you that!" Update by HeUnique:While I do approve of the job these guys have done on console QT, I believe they may need to properly relicense their project under the GPL.

48 of 201 comments (clear)

  1. "which is still being developed by Trolltech" by 56ker · · Score: 4, Funny

    What? The Trolls have formed their own company? Oh no! :o)

  2. No more need to port to curses by gregfortune · · Score: 2

    I seriously considered porting a program I developed to curses because sometimes a text interface is just faster, but now it looks like I don't need to. Very cool :)

    1. Re:No more need to port to curses by dodald · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Long live Links! (Not Lynx)

      Seriously if you've never used Links, you don't know how cool (let alone useful) texted based web browsing can be.

      --
      101010b 2Ah 52o
  3. main.cpp by GreenHell · · Score: 5, Informative

    #ifdef HAVE_CONFIG_H
    #include
    #endif

    #include
    #include

    int main(int argc, char *argv[])
    {
    cout "Hello, World! It is April Fools :)" endl;

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
    }

    April Fools! :)

    --
    "I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
    1. Re:main.cpp by jonnythan · · Score: 2

      Download, unzip, and untar it yourself and have a gander at main.cpp in qtconsole.

      Feel kinda dumb now, don't you? ;)

    2. Re:main.cpp by dodald · · Score: 2, Informative

      That was a damn good April Fools joke! *Smacks Forhead*

      [don@myhost qtconsole-1.0.0]$ qtconsole
      Hello, World! It is April Fools :)
      [don@myhost qtconsole-1.0.0]$

      --
      101010b 2Ah 52o
    3. Re:main.cpp by Lemmy+Caution · · Score: 2

      Ah, so it's being released on the LGPL-compatible GYS (GotYaSucka) license.

  4. Holy crap. by redhatbox · · Score: 5, Interesting


    From the QT-Console home page:

    "You might think we are sick or some console perverts. We do admit, we are console perverts, but consider this: why not? :)"

    As an illustration of just how sick these guys really are, I encourage /. readers to examine the following screenshot: Slashdot home page in Konqueror, ASCII mode. Notice the elegant Slashdot logo rendered in text. That, my friends, is a sure sign of a fiendish mind at work :).

    1. Re:Holy crap. by flossie · · Score: 2, Funny

      Notice the elegant Slashdot logo rendered in text. That, my friends, is a sure sign of a fiendish mind at work :). Modern Art!

  5. Similar stuff by Ed+Avis · · Score: 2

    There was a similar thing done for Java's AWT toolkit a while ago (article in Dr Dobbs). And I know that aalib comes with an ASCII X server. I wonder which of these three gives the best results? Probably the Qt-console port because it is the most high-level.

    A version of KDE using text-mode Qt would be very interesting to behold... or how about a 'desktop' using the aalib ASCII X server (for GTK, Motif etc. programs) plus Qt.

    All we have to do now is persuade the Mozilla team to add text-mode display to their bloated 'chrome' rendering system. I'm sure they will be happy to add it as a new feature before 1.0, after all they've thrown in pretty much everything else.

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  6. Re:April Fools isn't until tomorrow by The+slack+boy+KIPPLE · · Score: 3, Interesting

    depends where you are in the world.

    it's 01:20 here in london now...

    --
    #Pubgolf. ##it's not about drinking ###it's not about golf #it's about survival
  7. Performance is great! by mbrubeck · · Score: 5, Funny

    With just a little Makefile hacking I got most of KOffice to compile. Now it runs nice and fast on my older UNIX servers! I'm looking forward to the next version with a compressed protocol that will improve speed on slow terminal devices.

  8. Most Excellent by Quarters · · Score: 2

    This will make my little purple Gamecube console useful until games actually start appearing for it, right?

    Right?

    (sigh)

  9. Recursion by Ed+Avis · · Score: 3, Funny

    They have ported konsole... so the burning question is will Qt-console run correctly inside that? If so there is no longer any need for screen(1) or even window managers - konsole's screen-switching buttons can do the job of changing between windows.

    Or maybe Emacs's M-x term, if anyone ported Emacs to Qt.

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  10. Re:LGPL? by Syberghost · · Score: 2

    Not to start a licensing flame war but... Can you relicense a derivative of an GPL library(QT) into LGPL?

    You can if you own the copyright, or convince the copyright owner to license it to you via different terms.

    This whole thing has been hashed out before, for that last several years. It's part of the reason GNOME exists. Where were you people, under a rock?

  11. umm... MOD THIS *UP* by jonnythan · · Score: 4, Funny

    That's the actual main.cpp from the downloadable file.

    The whole thing is a joke.

    1. Re:umm... MOD THIS *UP* by GileadGreene · · Score: 2, Insightful
      The irony is that some fool will probably be inspired by this, and attempt to implement it for real.

      Who knows - might even be useful...

    2. Re:umm... MOD THIS *UP* by psamuels · · Score: 2
      The irony is that some fool will probably be inspired by this, and attempt to implement it for real.

      Sounds like Pavel Machek's project for running Gtk+ over curses. (Yes, this one is for real.) That's from 1999 - I doubt he's still maintaining it....

      --
      "How can you claim that you are anti-crack, while still writing a window manager?" — Metacity README
  12. Re:Update by HeUnique:the license for this QT is I by wholesomegrits · · Score: 2

    Right on. Bullshit like this commands no respect. Don't bother. Can we get a new slashdot category: Ignorant bitching and moaning about licensing issues which we clearly don't know a fucking thing about. Qt is not fucking GPL.

    --
    No sig is worth reading.
  13. Re:Update by HeUnique:the license for this QT is I by HeUnique · · Score: 2

    Umm, have you looked into the page???

    This is NOT an official QT release, nor any of their employees, so my point stands..

    --
    Hetz (Heunique)
  14. It's a replacement for GNU Screen by yerricde · · Score: 2, Informative

    Konsole? why?

    As Ed Avis mentioned, you can think of it as a replacement for GNU Screen.

    --
    Will I retire or break 10K?
  15. Hmm.. by bwulf · · Score: 2

    You know, that's not such a bad idea..

  16. Output: by jonnythan · · Score: 2

    # make install
    Making install in qtconsole
    Making install in docs
    Making install in en
    /bin/sh ../admin/mkinstalldirs /usr/local/bin
    / bin/sh ../libtool --mode=install /usr/bin/install -c -p qtconsole /usr/local/bin/qtcon
    sole
    /usr/bin/install -c -p qtconsole /usr/local/bin/qtconsole
    # qtconsole
    Hello, World! It is April Fools :)
    #

  17. Re:Update by HeUnique:the license for this QT is I by nagora · · Score: 2
    Qt is not fucking GPL.

    Well, I don't know about its sexual relationship with Wildebeests, but it is GPL. From the Trolltech site:

    The Qt Free Edition (version 2.2 and later) is released under the Open Source license QPL, and GPL. The Qt Free Edition may be freely copied and distributed, put on ftp-sites and CD-ROMs etc. Qt Free Edition is provided with no warranty and no support.

    TWW

    --
    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  18. Re:LGPL? by talonyx · · Score: 2

    Figures that Slashbots would have a licensing debate before actually finding out if the project is real or not.

    Shame on you, don't you know that in some parts of the world it's already April 1?

  19. good but it can be better. by Sarin · · Score: 2

    This looks really nice now, but imagine how wicked this is going to look like in svga-text mode.

  20. Re:LGPL? YES you can by Glorat · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, let me be perfectly clear about this having seen the source to this. Actually, they can license this under LGPL. The reason is the same reason why WINE can be licensed under LGPL and not whatever proprietary licence Microsoft uses

    The reason is, having seen their code, is that they do NOT actually use code from the QT libraries at all but they purport to emulate the interface instead. Any indication to the contrary would be a misccmmunication by the authors

    So basically, since the source code consists of nothing but cout , I am sure their licensing choice is just fine =)

  21. API's by MeowMeow+Jones · · Score: 2

    [Yeah I know it's an April Fools joke]

    If someone is reverse-engineering the API's and writing their own code they can do whatever they want

    Keep in mind that most GNU software and Linux itself are based on re-implementations of proprietary systems and aren't violating any licenses.

    Neither does WINE.

    So if this was real, and they just mimicked the QT library calls, they can license it however they want.

    --

    Trolls throughout history:
    Jonathan Swift

  22. April 1 by fm6 · · Score: 2

    Posting the story just as the Slashdot clock passes midnight is a nice touch. Except that it kind of spoils the effect for those of us who live west of Greenwich Observatory and thus see a post time of March 31.

  23. Although this is entirely fake... by GoRK · · Score: 4, Informative

    Although this is a big april fools hoax, a real example of a GUI that works on the console can be found over at PicoGUI. (as featured formerly on /. and elsewhere)

    The display framework of PicoGUI is so extensible that it will work on everything from a text-only 2 line LCD display (or smaller) up to a fully realized 3d environment courtesy of OpenGL (needs someone to code it but the OpenGL "display" driver is already in there).

    Some examples:

    X-Chat/PicoGUI running using PicoGUI's ncurses driver on the console:
    http://www.picogui.org/sshotdetail.php?index=47

    A couple of PicoGUI apps running on a 4 line Text LCD:
    http://www.picogui.org/sshotdetail.php?index=64

    PicoGUI running on OpenGL:
    http://www.picogui.org/sshotdetail.php?index=60

    This is mostly possible because of PicoGUI's strict distinction between content and presentation (Remember the design goal of the original HTML? - Bingo.) Anyway, it's a neat project to check out; the support for this is in and working now; it runs on everything under the sun; and development continues to progress at an extremely rapid pace.

    ~GoRK

  24. In other news... by jensend · · Score: 2

    For those who expect to find stuff that matters at ./, try this: The founder of theKompany said in an interview with linuxandmain that theKompany will no longer use the GPL for any further projects. This might also mean that future versions of their current projects will be relicensed.

  25. Actually gtk has supported this for some time by Alan+Cox · · Score: 2

    Pavel Machek's "cursed-gtk" is a text mode gtk theme and some small patches to gtk where gtk pokes at X11 itself rather than going via gdk. It's far from perfect because of some of the current interactions but does work.

  26. Nutty daylight savings. by bwulf · · Score: 2
    In your timezone, maybe..

    Posted by timothy on 0:59 Monday 01 April 2002

    1. Re:Nutty daylight savings. by bwulf · · Score: 2

      You do of course realize there's an option to set your timezone? As for Slashdot running in GMT; the default seems to be EST.

  27. Re:Slashdot Spreads Misinformation on a massive sc by J.+J.+Ramsey · · Score: 2

    "So most people who see this will assume it's real"

    Until they actually compile Qt for the console, at which point they'll figure out the joke and probably get a kick out of it.

  28. Qt-Console is a joke, but... by dskoll · · Score: 3, Informative

    this is not. It's a port of Tk (the Tcl graphical toolkit) to curses, and it is truly excellent.

    1. Re:Qt-Console is a joke, but... by KidSock · · Score: 2

      this [ch-werner.de] is not. It's a port of Tk (the Tcl graphical toolkit) to curses, and it is truly excellent.

      Well this looks interesting. Is there a screen shot of something reasonably sophisticated around? I ran your basic hello world two buttons and a field example and it worked ok but it's hard to get a feel for how navigation is handled. Are there some good example apps to try? I tried to get the make xconfig tk gui for configuring the kernel but it bails right away without any informative sorts of messages.

  29. Damn, they got me :) by redhatbox · · Score: 2


    Everybody, please see this comment: It's an April Fool's joke.

    I must say, they got me good on this one. And here I was ready to start madly uninstalling X from every workstation in sight ;).

  30. Re:qt by GigsVT · · Score: 4, Funny

    Qt is Quicktime. Qt is being devloped by Apple as a fully functional toolkit for creating GUI applications in X. Many Linux applications were written in Quicktime, in fact most of KDE is Quicktime. The licensing arguments are about the sorensen license, that Apple chose for Qt. It may or may not be compatible with the GPL.

    (Remember the date, moderators.)

    --
    I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
  31. Gosh, what sloppy coding! by willybur · · Score: 3, Funny

    You might find you'll need to hand-edit the sources provided a bit to get the results advertised in the screenshots.

    --

    --
    "Everybody wants a rock to wind a piece of string around." - They Might Be Giants, "We Want a Rock"
  32. I don't get it by mmusn · · Score: 2

    Why do people always put down X11? X11 with FLTK is smaller than Qt/Embedded, for example. X11 is a lot more efficient and considerably smaller than Quartz, the Macintosh graphics system, while offering similar functionality (including hardware acceleration, antialiasing, and transparency). And X11 also does as well or better than Microsoft's GDI. And on top of all that, X11 gives you the ability to use whatever toolkit you like and to mix applications running on different hosts on the same screen. If X11 didn't exist (and hadn't been widly successful already for the past 20 years), it would have to be invented.

  33. Re:Nope - The QPL says you can't. by ComputerSlicer23 · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Okay here you go:
    • Big whoop the QPL says that. I can pick the GPL version of the license.
    • Besides which, I can do it anyways as the copyright holder.
    • Trolltech is the only company that can come after me for violation of the GPL/QPL, they probably won't if I just got done writing them a check now will they?
    1. Did you know I can make local modifications to any GPL'ed program I want, and link in all kinds of proprietary pieces. It isn't until you distribute binaries of it that you are inviolation of the GPL. If the QPL has that extra term in it, and I have to license it under both, I am pretty sure that is an extra term and it isn't allowable under the GPL.

    Besides which, most of the dual licenses are an either or case, not a both case. Otherwise the Perl's GPL/Artistic license doesn't make anysense, the GPL is the only license because the Artistic license has a superset of the GPL's rights.

    2. I am the original copyright holder of the code. I can re-release any code I wrote under any license I want. With GPL'ed code, I would have to not link to anybody else GPL'ed stuff or I am in violation of their GPL. However, if I wrote all of the original code, I to say lesszilla, my incredibly small 500 line web browser and I link it with Qt using the GPL license. If I try and release lesszilla under a new proprietary license and link with Qt I am in violation if they take me to court. I am still the copyright holder of the original lesszilla code. I can convert the lesszilla code to SPL (Soul-eating public license) which in essense says you owe me your soul if you have one, but you don't owe me any money and I don't owe you the source code. I just can't link the the Qt via the GPL version with the SPL. I could go buy a Qt license and link with that and release it. I am the copyright holder, I can change the license I want to use. I can't force the older GPL'ed version to be non-GPL'ed (I am in violation of the somebody else GPL if I link with GPL'ed code they have the copyright for). I do have to own the copyright for all changes however. So I have to becareful I have all of the documentation to prove I am the copyright holder.

    3. Trolltech isn't stupid enough not to take my money. Depending on how the licensing works for them, they will more then likely charge me the current charges, or get me get me to pay for the license for the time during which I was developing it. They aren't stupid, they want my money, and I want to pay it to them, all that is left is deciding on the amount.

  34. Lynx? Why use something like Lynx? by Jagasian · · Score: 3, Informative

    Lynx is second rate compared to the Links command-line web browser, which I use regularly under Linux... and I am using right now. It supports SSL, tables, and many other common web technologies. Oh, and did I mention that it uses less than 1MB of RAM? Its uber fast, and perfect for reading sites like slashdot. Navigation is a breeze... no mouse needed here. Also, since Links doesn't download the overboard graphics that many websites use, sites load far quicker than in other browsers because of the smaller download. Sure there is less eye-and-ear-candy, but the net is still full of content... and Links gives you access to that content.

    I love what Hotmail says, when I log in with Links. It says that my browser won't let me use Hotmails advanced features or something... whatever...

  35. Re:Lynx? Why use something like Lynx? by Cy+Guy · · Score: 3, Informative

    Another alternative to lynx is the ARACHNE Browser for DOS and Linux. It's a fully graphical console based Internet suite (browser, email, multimedia player), and it doesn' rely on the Qt library just svgalib. It will run on a 486 with a mere 8 meg of RAM.

    A full list of features and requirements can be found from the Linux Installation page of the Arachne website.

  36. It could have been real by sunhou · · Score: 2

    After all, there is a textmode quake, always one of my favorites.

  37. Tough noogies by sulli · · Score: 2

    It's still funny, in a highly obscure kind of way.

    --

    sulli
    RTFJ.
  38. Mod this up?! by Shiny+Metal+S. · · Score: 2
    "Hello, World! It is April Fools :)"
    That's the actual main.cpp from the downloadable file. The whole thing is a joke.

    Mod up for totally wasting a great April Fools joke? Would you also shout to mod someone up as informative, if he told everyone how some great new book or movie ends?

    --

    ~shiny
    WILL HACK FOR $$$

  39. Lynx? by SkewlD00d · · Score: 2
    Lynx? Hell, I've been using:
    $ telnet slashdot.org 80
    GET / HTTP/1.0[enter][enter]
    --
    The biggest trick the devil pulled was letting lawyers become politicians so they can write the laws.