Request to Paul

[Joerg B.]

Hello Paul

Is everything okay with you?
I haven't seen you on the forum for a while.

[Paul Squires]

Hi Joerg!

Thanks for the post. Yes, everything is good with me. I retired the first of December and have been doing C++ programming almost non-stop since then. I really wanted to get a better understanding of the language and try to become somewhat proficient in it. As you can see, my FreeBasic / WinFBE work has fallen off a bit because of that.

Hope all is well with you also!

Thanks,
Paul

[Joerg B.]

Hello Paul

I'm glad to hear that you are doing well!
Now that you are retired, you have plenty of time to deepen your knowledge and understanding of C++ :-)

I don't officially retire until 01.12.2026.
Unfortunately, I can't say the same for myself.
God willing, I'll get well again.

[Paul Squires]

Yes, health is everything. I've had a couple of big health scares over the past 3 years. Makes you appreciate life and those close to you.

Fingers crossed that your health improves by retirement also!

[Paul Squires]

I have been programming in C++ pretty much exclusively for the past 6 months. I feel pretty good about my C++ skills at this point. I am now switching to learn Rust. I think that once I learn Rust, that I will have enough languages in my toolkit to serve me long term (although I wouldn't mind trying Go also).

[Joerg B.]

Hallo Paul

Do you think that Rust, which is based on C, is easier to learn than C?
I admit that I didn't know Rust as a programming language before.

[Paul Squires]

Hi Joerg,

My opinion is that you need to know a low level language like C or C++ before engaging with Rust. Rust is harder to learn than C.

Rust is a low level systems programming language and as such takes it for granted that you know things like heap and stack memory management, and pointers/references, etc. I am finding that coming from C++ to Rust is not that bad of a transition (so far) although there are a few things that are new to me like the borrow checker (by far the biggest new feature to learn) and the way that methods can be chained together all in one call (kind of like functional programming ala Haskell). C++ has started doing that kind of programming syntax as well so I need to adapt to it.

I can see why there is so much hype around Rust. The compiler basically enforces everything at compile time so you can not make memory corruption mistakes. There is no such thing as Null pointers. It seems like constructing a program takes more time, effort, and thought upfront but the payoff is a more secure and performant result.

Hopefully I will get good at Rust because I want to use it to help write cross platform applications with either Tauri or Slint.

[Paul Squires]

I just noticed that Slint (slint.dev) has a C+ api so if I fail at being proficient with Rust then at least I can fallback to C++ for the Slint option. I guess I could use an older toolkit like wxWidgets or Qt but that would be a last resort.

[Paul Squires]

I am not 100% sure that I will continue with my Rust journey at this time. I need a specific interface to my stock trading platform and all of the Rust implementations of it are not exactly what I need. I may just stick with C++ in order to make my project cross platform.

[Joerg B.]

Hello Paul

.... that sounds like "where there's light, there's shadow".
Just as you described Rust, there is an advantage to cross-platform programming.
If you get stuck in your work, it often helps to take a break to get back on track.

[Paul Squires]

.... that sounds like "where there's light, there's shadow".

Great quote!

I know enough of Rust and Svelte to be able to build my cross platform application using Tauri. However, I am stuck with the problem that Rust does not seem to have any extensive libraries to interface to my Interactive Brokers account. My interface is in C++ and my current application is 100% written in C++ (https://tradetracker.planetsquires.com). I guess I could try to integrate my C++ code to call Rust via the FFI layer but that is an experiment for another day and introduces yet another layer of indirection.

I am going to look at this github project (https://github.com/webview/webview) that uses C++ to interface with Webview2 on Windows and WebKit on Mac/Linux. It uses C++ and according to the github page "It supports two-way JavaScript bindings (to call JavaScript from C/C++ and to call C/C++ from JavaScript)."  This could be exactly what I need and it seems somewhat similar to Tauri but uses C++ instead of Rust. I expect though that maybe there is a lot of missing "magic" that may be needed.

If that option does not work out then I think that I will simply stick with the tried and test qt framework development using C++ and qml. Although, I really wanted to build the front end of the application using web technologies this time.

If nothing else, at least I am learning a few new things and keeping my programming brain engaged   

[Petrus Vorster]

You are truly blessed with a sharp mind.

I have read an interview with the creator of C++ and I think I need to resolve to using an abbacus.
C++ may be powerfull, but the bit i have tried is truly unpleasant and overhelming for hobbyists and us "drag and drop" programmers making work tools.

You have my admiration for being able to jump so easily between these languages and modern high-end tools.

- Peter

[Paul Squires]

    

Lucky for me, when it comes to programming, I have a very inquisitive mind and it gives me immense enjoyment learning new tools.

My one regret is not learning COM programming deep enough. I remember whenever Jose would talk about it and show examples that I would be simply lost and I always felt like I should have taken a deeper dive into COM. But, as you know, there are only so many hours in the day and having a full time job at the time limits the ability to give 100% focus to programming. I wish I could have direct wired my brain to Jose's and absorbed all his programming knowledge - he knows everything about everything. 

[Joerg B.]

Hallo Paul and Petrus

But, as you know, there are only so many hours in the day and having a full time job at the time limits the ability to give 100% focus to programming.

We can read, understand and implement many things.
But learning or studying computer science means learning the basics.
But as you said, as a "non-professional" who also has to earn money for the family etc., our time window for learning is very limited.

I wish I could have direct wired my brain to Jose's and absorbed all his programming knowledge - he knows everything about everything.

On the day when this should be possible, I would also like to have a slot, too. 

[Paul Squires]

After (much) deliberation, I have finally settled on my cross platform tools for my project. I am going to use qt https://www.qt.io/

Specifically, QtQuick/Qml.  I wrote a Qt Widgets app on Linux about 3 years ago so a lot of this should be familiar.

Also, because my project is open source, I can use the Qt open source version rather than the paid commercial product. https://www.qt.io/download-open-source