[LAD] Looking for an introduction to rt programming with a gui

I've written some small c/c++ programs for my own use that were alsa midi based. I found a very low entry barrier to getting started writing console apps with alsa midi. I'd like to work on something a little larger scale, and include jack midi with a gui to configure options, but have no idea where to start. I'd ideally like to use a loolkit that provides skinable interfaces, and I'm familiar with html/css layout, so something where I can build the gui from a layout file would be nice. If it can handle threading issues for me (rt worker and non rt gui) even better. What choices do I have for tools to use, and what pro's/con's are attached to them. From what i've read so far qt seems like it might be a good choice, aside from the high entry barrier of learning how to do everything the qt way. I'm looking for information on any of the above. Thanks Nathanael