49

Which is the better language to use in terms of programmer productivity?

In most language comparisons, Python is the obvious answer, because you don't have to mess with memory management and all that.

With Qt I'm not sure. It provides enough added features to C++ that a line of Python code seems 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. If programmer productivity is similar with C++, however, I may jump back that way for other benefits -- more efficient code and fewer dependencies for users to install.

Improve this question
2
  • 5
    Python is an obvious winner in terms of programmer productivity. Commented Jul 1, 2010 at 3:26
  • 1
    True, you can write even a complex Qt application much faster in Python then in Qt and my Python skills are far behind the C++ ones. Alone the new signal-slot system is an incredible addition, which makes it much more clear how the whole thing works in Qt. Python also requires less writing in my experience. Also many C/C++ libraries nowadays offer (or have one in development) APIs in Python. Commented Jul 30, 2015 at 17:35

5 Answers 5

Reset to default
36

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.

Improve this answer
Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

Comments

31

My Opinion (having tried out C++ and Python in general and specifically in Qt case): Python always wins in terms of 'programmer productivity' and 'peace of mind'. PyQt represent Qt very well and hence question doesn't remain of "Qt with Python" or "Qt with C++", in general python is more productive unless off-course you need speed or something which isn't available in python.

Best way for you to arrive at the answer would be to write a simple project first in C++ and then same project in python and compare, but that could be biased towards python as after coding the project once you may find it easy in Python, so try another project too and first do it in Python and then in C++.

Improve this answer

Comments

12

definitely Python.

Yes, people will say that Python is more productive without a reason. Some of the answers mention that you do not have to recompile. I will give you some more details

  1. Python is one layer of abstraction over C++, so you can think and express your designs with less code. Your program might not run as fast, but sure you express faster in code what you want.

  2. The most common case is when you launch your application, load some files, setup the environment and open a dialog. There you notice that a button is not working or where it should be. Now that is the point where most people close the application, bind one slot here, one signal there... and start the application, load the files, setup... with python you just write the code and fire up the dialog again, not the whole application. I do not know about you, but that type of task is what I do most of the time with Qt

  3. Python gives you something that C++ does not have: introspection. You can explore a running program and pull out information about its components on runtime. Qt gives you partially this. You have that MOC layer where meta properties and meta information can be attached to Qt objects. All parts of a Python program can be introspected. Many people debugging Python code, or trying to understand how it works, are addicted to this for a good reason

Improve this answer

1 Comment

About 2.) you just reload the code while running the app - Which IDE/editor do you use here? How is that "online"-reloading supported in Pyhton?
8

With Python you don't have to build your project. That's enough of a time saver I guess. And Pyqt bindings are awesome. I'm definitely more efficient with pyqt than with qt/C++.

Improve this answer

Comments

4

Whether you use python or C++ depends more on the application you are building and not so much on Qt. If you are building an application which is resource heavy and needs lots of resources like CPU and memory, C++ would be a better bet. On the other hand, if you application is more UI driven, python provides lot of other benefits in terms of rapid development and rich libraries.

Improve this answer

Comments

Start asking to get answers

Find the answer to your question by asking.

Ask question

Explore related questions

See similar questions with these tags.