[Tmpod]

Qt has some commercial license only components, but the majority is open-source. In fact, the KDE Free Qt Foundation ensures that the framework is always available under GPL+LGPLv3.[0]

Anyway, there are some languages specifically desgined for making UIs. Qt has one of those, QML[1]. It's a "simple" language made precisely for UI development, that can be wired to C++, allowing you to write business logic in a general language, while keeping UI focused.

More interestingly, though, is Slint[2]. The language (and company behind it) was made by ex-QML devs which sought to improve the design, avoiding some pitfalls that QML ended up running into. It's core is written in Rust, but there are bindings for C++, JS and now Python too. They also have a focus on embedded devices, which ends up translating to always having good performance and memory footprint in mind, which is neat.

One of Slint's dev is ogoffart: https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=ogoffart

[0]: https://www.qt.io/faq/tag/qt-open-source-licensing [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QML [2]: https://slint.dev

[danielvaughn]

Wow slint is almost exactly what I was imagining, thanks!