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TrollTech Releases Qt 3.0

Posted by Hemos on from the comin'-at-you dept.

Dr. Sp0ng writes: "TrollTech released Qt 3.0 today. Among the new features are platform- and database-independent data-access features, data-aware GUI widgets, a much-updated Qt Designer, and much better internationalization and font handling features. It breaks binary compatibility but keeps almost complete source compatibility with Qt 2.x. The KDE team has already begun work on KDE 3.0, which will use the new toolkit."

3 of 285 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Binary compatibility by Dr.+Sp0ng · · Score: 5, Informative

    While having open-source code makes source compatibility easier to handle than binary compatibility, I've been wondering if there has been any work towards improving binary compatibility between versions of major libraries.

    This is an issue with C++... since most of KDE's widgets are subclasses of Qt widgets, they are very dependant on the signature of the Qt class. When the class signature changes (for example, when a function is added or removed, or a data member is added), the derived class needs to be recompiled or the linking will be all screwed up. This isn't an issue between minor revisions of the library as the API is stabilized, but with a major jump (2.3.1 -> 3.0), the API or implementation changes and things must be recompiled.

    It's impressive that TrollTech (which is a great company, btw) managed to keep source compatibility so well. I'm a professional developer and we're using Qt for our app (which is currently ~20,000 lines), and exactly *1* line of code needed to be changed when we moved from 2.3.1 to the 3.0 betas.

  2. Re:was wondering... by ryants · · Score: 5, Informative
    where does Trolltech get its revenues from? Support, selling some other product?

    You may write commercial/proprietary/non-free software only if you have purchased the Professional or Enterprise Edition. Qt for Windows is only available as Professional or Enterprise Editions.

    So, basically, you can (have to) pay to get away from the GPL/QPL/whatever their license is called these days.

    They also sell training.

    See http://www.trolltech.com/developer/faqs/general.ht ml?cr=1

    --

    Ryan T. Sammartino
    "Ancora imparo"

  3. Re:QT Pricing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Hi!

    We will be releasing Qt/Windows 3.0 non-commercial and Qt/Mac 3.0 non-commercial within 1-2 weeks (current release date: 20/10/2001)

    Michael
    TrollTech A.S.