As subsurface evolved from a Gtk Application to a Qt one, cutting a quarter of the codebase while still gaining new functionalities, a new development proposal was done: "How do we get this desktop based application and run it on mobile, on a unified codebase?"
How do we get a kernel developer application writed in kernel-style code for the desktop and make it universal, running in any operating system, mobile and desktop?
On this talk I'll present you piece-by-piece history on what we had when Subsurface started, the chalenges that kernel hackers faced when creating a desktop application and why the choice was made to port away from Gtk into Qt - even tougth the main developer of subsurface back then loathed C++.
After the initial port to Desktop a new era began, the era of Mobile Applications, and Qt had launched it's new Qml language that promissed good integration on mobile and even desktop with minimal effort. We wanted to give it a try. At the same time the KDE hackers launched a new idea "Kirigami", a library build on Qml to simplify development of Qml based software, and since we where already on the bleeding edge of things, why not give it a try?
This is the tale of Subsurface, From Gtk to Qt to Mobile, from one of it's main hackers.
