Description
-----------

A lightweight ECL based QML-only binding to Qt5/Qt6.

This small project aims to simplify all the steps needed for building
cross-platform apps. The same sources can be used to build executables for both
desktop (Linux/macOS/Windows) and mobile (android/iOS/SailfishOS).


QML auto reload
---------------

A new feature is auto reloading of QML files after saving any changes. This
works both on the desktop and on mobile.

As a concrete example, you may have running your app on the desktop, and have
both an android mobile device plus an iOS mobile device pointing to the IP of
the desktop. Now you will see any change to QML on all 3 screens
simultaneously.

This even works (with some limitations, and only in this
[advanced example](examples/advanced-qml-auto-reload/)) at QML file level,
which means: only the QML file currently edited is reloaded, preserving the
state of all other QML files, and -- more importantly -- the current view in
case of nested page structures.


License
-------

Both ECL and Qt5/Qt6 are **LGPL** (being Qt6 a special case to consider).

LQML is **BSD** 0 clause.


Tested
------

The examples are tested with both **Qt5.15** and **Qt6**. For differences
in Qt6 (mostly in QML) see [examples/Qt6/](examples/Qt6/). It's recommended
to use the new Qt online installer (see [readme-qt](readme-qt.md)), where
you can choose to install different Qt versions side by side, sharing the same
Qt Creator.


TODO
----

* port to CMake (?)


macOS note
----------

Qt works (obviously) perfectly well on Linux.

On macOS instead, I found this a little annoying bug: after a QML property
change in Slime, the QQuickView is not updating. So, for a visual update you
need to (sometimes) click on the view to actually see the property changes.


Windows note
------------

The Windows version is only meant to run on the desktop, using the (free) MSVC
compiler. Please see [readme-windows](readme-windows.md) for details.


SailfishOS note
---------------

On Sailfish it runs using **Qt5.15** and **qt-runner**, so it's not really
'native' (in a pure sense) and doesn't have native look and feel, but that's
the only feasible way to run it on that platform, see
[readme-sailfish](readme-sailfish.md).

*(Needless to say, this is - by far - the nicest experience you can have
developing for mobile.)*


Known issues
------------

* to make Qt5.15.2 work with **Xcode 15**, see patch
  [here](platforms/macos/patch/howto-toolchain.prf.txt)

* on **iOS**, functions `read-sequence`, `read-char` etc. don't update
  `file-position` (ECL bug?); for a workaround see hack
  [here](examples/cl-repl/lisp/upload-download.lisp)


Support
-------

See [reddit/lqml_user](https://www.reddit.com/r/lqml_user/).