Nokia on Dec. 1 released Qt 4.6, "the latest version of the company's
cross-platform application and UI framework" for building applications for
Symbian OS-based smartphones, Nokia's Maemo and other platforms.
In addition to "new platform support," Qt 4.6 features "new
graphical capabilities and support for multitouch and gestures," Nokia
said. The news release continued:
"Qt 4.6 includes support for the
Symbian platform for the first time, and also adds Windows 7, Apple Mac OS 10.6
(Snow Leopard) and the upcoming Maemo 6 to the list of Qt supported platforms.
Also available is community support for real-time operating systems QNX and
VxWorks. Support for Maemo 5 is also currently in development, with the second
technology preview being released today.
Qt support for Symbian and Maemo
creates the first opportunity for developers to target both of these platforms
from the same codebase. Being able to share code across platforms means that
the applications they create will reach the market faster and reach a broader
audience of device users."
"Qt 4.6 marks an exciting time for developers, regardless of their
target form factor or platform," Sebastian Nystrom, Nokia vice president
of Application Services and Frameworks, said in a statement.
"Developers can easily create visually appealing and Web-connected
applications for desktops or devices, including targeting the hundreds of
millions of Symbian and Maemo-based devices," Nystrom said. "The
community will enjoy using Qt's intuitive programming interface to quickly
create powerful, appealing applications."
Meanwhile, Nokia also released a "technology preview of new Qt APIs
from the Qt Mobility project. These cross-platform APIs provide developers with
functionality such as location for navigation-type devices, as well as messaging,
contacts and bearer management," Nokia said.
Qt 4.6 also includes a "new Animation Framework—including
intuitive state machine functionality—plus new advanced
graphics effects like opacity, drop shadows, glow and filtering." And the
new version also supports "new multitouch and gesture-based input methods
such as flicking and kinetic scrolling [to] make Qt 4.6 a powerful framework
for creating dynamic, tactile ways for users to interact with applications and
devices."
The new release features "performance improvements ... in the form of a
highly optimized, rewritten Qt GraphicsView rendering algorithm, a new OpenGL
paint engine, WebKit, 2D vector graphic support using OpenVG and new DirectFB
support," Nokia said.
Also, in conjunction with the release of Qt 4.6, comes "an updated
release of Qt Creator, a cross-platform IDE
[integrated development environment] for Qt development. Qt Creator 1.3 and Qt
4.6 form the Qt SDK [software development kit], which contains everything
developers need to create cross-platform applications.
"To learn more about Qt 4.6, Qt Creator 1.3 and to download the
packages, please visit http://qt.nokia.com/whatsnew."
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