Recently, I read over New programming language needed for KDE?, which got me thinking a bit. I personally love the look of Qt apps, but as a very, very beginner, everything discussed is quite daunting. I’ve started with Python and am considering looking into Rust to add to the list. Mind you, I am just starting, and my only prior real experience is with Python 2 and Visual Basic from high school, which I have long forgotten.
Getting to the point, I wonder if it’s possible to have a toolkit, or at least a visual toolkit, for making simple apps like, for instance, a simple calculator or a notepad—nothing crazy. Something with the Qt visual style but written in Rust, Python, or even Swift. I mention this because there are mobile apps and other video documentation that make learning these languages feel a bit less daunting than C++, Ruby, and others. As mentioned earlier, this approach could provide skills that may be applicable in current tech developments.
In conclusion, I’m asking if it’s possible to create some simple tools to build very basic apps with Qt styling, allowing one to build a foundation while learning and possibly contribute to the project in the future.
A side idea would be to have a KDE app that walks you through creating a simple KDE app and perhaps expanding it later to include other frameworks that KDE uses.
The Python + Qt situation is better now that we have PySide and PyQt flatpak baseapps for desktop apps distribution, and it should improve once we have bindings for KDE Frameworks.
Having said that: the first party thing using Qt visual style with a more accessible language is QtQuick + QML.
I think you should feel comfortable programming prior to staring using the whole KDE stack (C++, CMake, Qt, QML, KDE Frameworks, actual code you work on, maybe Python and its KDE-specific bindings). It might be better to look out for some smaller project to get used to programming and how to interact in an open-source project.
If you really want to become part of KDE community, you can start with junior tasks, fixing translation glitches, and other stuff I already wrote about in another place. Start getting KDE software compiled and try to make tiny changes. Over time your knowledge and confidence grows and you can add new features and extends the parts you understand.