Qt Brings Cross-Platform Application Development to S60

Qt Software, formerly known as Trolltech, announced it would port its Qt application development framework to the Symbian S60 platform. This comes as no surprise if we take into account Nokia's earlier acquisition of QT Software in June this year.

Qt is a C++ cross-platform application development framework that allows developers to create applications and user interfaces once, and then deploy them across various desktop and embedded operating systems without having to rewrite the source code. To date, Qt includes support for Windows, Mac, Linux, Windows CE and embedded Linux platforms.

"Qt brings an elegant and intuitive C++ development tool to the S60 platform, improving the ability to develop richer user experiences on the platform, and making S60 on Symbian OS even more attractive for developers to target with their applications and services," commented Sebastian Nyström, vice president of Qt Software, Nokia.

The Qt application development framework  has been successfully used in various open-source and commercial solutions, including the KDE desktop environment for Linux, where Qt has been used to develop core applications such as KDE4's Dolphin file manager, KickOff start menu and various desktop effects; the KOffice office suite for KDE, which, thanks to Qt, can run on all major platforms, including Linux (both KDE and Gnome), Maemo, Windows and Mac OS X; the popular VLC media player, where Qt provided a cross-platform GUI library with good Linux and Windows support.

Qt on S60 will work with S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1 and later, the first production release being scheduled for the second quarter of 2009. Until then, an early technical preview is available from Qt Software's website. Besides the technical preview, a small collection of Qt demos are available for download.  And  if you happen to be at the Symbian Smartphone show in London between October 21-22, you can attend a live preview of Qt running on different phones. Also, check out the video below.