Oslo, Norway-based Trolltech is using this week’s LinuxWorld trade show and conference to preview version 3.1 of Qt, its “write once, deploy anywhere” multiplatform C++ application framework. The new version sports myriad enhancements, including specific to OS X.
Qt enables developers to write a single source-tree that will run natively on a variety of different operating systems, including Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X and embedded Linux.
While many of Qt 3.1’s enhancements are specific to ActiveX controls used in Windows and X11 functionality for Unix systems, Trolltech said that Qt 3.1 also sports “many improvements to further integrate Qt with the Mac OS X environment.” Qt 3.1 gains integration with the Mac Appearance Manager, support for anti-aliased text, and user settings. OpenGL support has also been greatly improved, with hardware acceleration now in place.
Other changes under the hood include improved GUI design via Qt Designer; enhanced documentation assistance; improved multi-threading resulting in optimized performance; class library assistance; and more.
Trolltech anticipates Qt 3.1 beta 1’s release within the next couple of weeks. The beta will be free of charge to open-source developers. Commercial developers interested in testing Qt 3.1 out are encouraged to e-mail Trolltech for conditions, prices and license terms for commercial use of Qt 3.1 or other Trolltech products.