Which bit about Qt were you hoping was part of the STL? I think the design goals of the STL was to make it portable, something Qt is not, despite being multi-platform. We mustn't forget that C++ is used on very low level devices.
If Qt is anything like wxWidgets, wxWidgets reuses the STL for its container types, basically providing a thin wrapper over the STL (or it can do with a build switch).
I myself find the STL very useful, so I am genuinely interested in which bits of the STL you wish were more Qt-like? Do you mean the GUI bits of it or something?
How do you define portable? If you mean the same code compiling and running out-of-the-box on Windows, Mac and Linux then actually my experience with Qt has been very positive in that regard. Those are the only platforms I develop for right now, so I can't ocmment about portability to e.g. iOS or Android (although I believe Qt ports are available for them).
Qt doesn't reuse the STL container types, it provides its own - which I find much more pleasant to work with than their STL counterparts. The STL puts a lot of effort into providing types of flexibility that are irrelevant or useless to me (e.g. allocators) and doesn't provide lots of simple things that I need every day (e.g. an indexOf method for std::vector, a contains method for std::set, or a toUpper/toLower method for std::string).
Ah I see what you mean. I should dig out Qt again really - I haven't used it for years. I have managed to make do with wxWidgets.
Regarding iOS and Android, the attempts at getting C++ on them (particularly Android) are brave but I think for normal apps (not OpenGL or games), developers are probably better using Java.
Like you, I too am writing for the Big 3 normal desktop OSes, with sporadic Android development and iOS tinkerings, necessitating learning new languages.
"Portable" for C++ means I can run it, for example, on the computer that controls a car's anti-lock brakes. And, in fact, I can use C++ and the STL on such a computer, even if it has no OS.
If Qt is anything like wxWidgets, wxWidgets reuses the STL for its container types, basically providing a thin wrapper over the STL (or it can do with a build switch).
I myself find the STL very useful, so I am genuinely interested in which bits of the STL you wish were more Qt-like? Do you mean the GUI bits of it or something?