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Comment by brnt | Hacker News Reader

Sute, basics are basics, but why not just install QtCreator? Modern day C++ with modern day tooling, GUI, that in all likelihood runs on the machines the students have.

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I'd agree with you a decade ago, but nowadays Qt is all over the place (I still like it, just not good to start out - two GUI frameworks in the core library, which one do I choose; the docs certainly don't help). Today you fare better with something like Lazarus to start out or Python if you ignore the GUI.

Oh but you dont need to use Qt at all when using QtCreator. Its just the most fully featured free C++ IDE I know.

On top of that, regular old Qt is still one of the most fully featured GUI frameworks, QtQuick is mostly used for mobile and embedded, even though it also works on desktop. Lazarus or Tkinter aren't better choices for starters, I say as someone who used both.

Qt(Widgets) certainly is good if you know how to use it, you just need someone to tell you what parts to ignore when starting out. Here I put on the "teen who interacts first time with the concept of programming" glasses because of the thread, and consistency and constraints benefit that situation. Unguided first contact with programming through the mess that Qt is today is somewhat counterproductive in this respect. Look at the documentation page for Qt, that's certainly no place where an unguided newcomer could find their way around easily.

Granted, documentation isnt that great for Qt (but there's a ton of other resources). But doing anything more than the simplest of GUI is supereasy with Qt, much easier than TKinter, and IMHO even Lazarus.

But, even if you don't like Qt, QtCreator is still a great IDE. No need to keep using a Dosbox with Turbo C++.

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