Qt 4.5 Just Landed

Nokia announced today the release of version 4.5 of Qt, the company's cross-platform application and User Interface framework. A new lightweight Integrated Development Environment (IDE), called Qt Creator, was also launched. The new Qt SDK, containing the Qt libraries, Qt Creator IDE and Qt tools, will make software creation a quicker and easier process for developers.

“With the performance improvements in Qt, the introduction of Qt Creator, and the release of the Qt SDK, developers looking for a native or a hybrid native/web application framework now have the power and flexibility they need.”, said Benoit Schillings, chief technologist for Qt Software, Nokia, in the official release announcement.

The new Qt 4.5 has greatly increased performance in areas like the graphics system, data handling or web engine, leading to a much improved overall performance in applications built on Qt. The WebKit web rendering engine is now better integrated, allowing developers to include web content along with the native one. This integration brings support for the Netscape Plugin API, allowing Qt applications to display Flash elements and use advanced User Interface effects such as animations, transformations or zooming.

The Qt Creator 1.0 allows developers to project and build management tools and provides an advanced C++ editor, contextual help information, a visual debugger, and source code management.

Another piece of good news for the open source world is the option to get Qt with an LGPL license, thus allowing developers to add proprietary applications on top of the Qt framework without having to acquire a paid license.

About Qt

Qt is best known in the open source world as being the base for software like K Desktop Environment (KDE), KOffice, VLC Media Player, Amarok 2, Marble or Avogadro. In addition to that, more than 15 million Linux devices use Qt as their base.

Download Qt 4.5 right now from Softpedia.