Phew - it’s been a number of months since my last article. I have been extremely busy with all manner of different projects, including a new Firefox add-on named REST Easy. I apologize for not writing sooner, but you would be surprised at how easy it is to get neck-deep in code for weeks on end. (Then again, you might not be surprised.)
Qt is an excellent framework for developing cross-platform console and GUI applications. I have used the toolkit for developing a number of applications which are listed here on my website. I recently found myself faced with the task of developing a TCP server application which communicated with a set of clients in a secure fashion. Rather than reinventing the wheel, I decided to make use of Qt’s own SSL classes (QSslSocket for instance).
One of the exciting new features scheduled to be included in Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) is the introduction of Web Apps. These consist of a UserScript that bridges the gap between the JavaScript code on the page and the user’s desktop. For example, a script written for Gmail might display a desktop notification when a new message arrives in the user’s inbox. Or perhaps a script written for MySpace would make use of the desktop media player interface to display Title / Artist / Track information for currently playing music.