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Qt Opens Source Code Repositories

sobral writes "Following the announcement of the LGPL license model, since yesterday the Qt source code repositories are open to the public together with their roadmap. The contribution model is online and will enable developers from the community to submit patches through a single click process, avoiding the previous hassle of sending in signed paperwork. The code is hosted at qt.gitorious.org and an instant benefit of this launch is that Qt Software has been working together with Gitorious maintainers for the last four months to improve Gitorious and all these new features are already submitted upstream."

13 of 230 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Should be a followup, actually by NoStarchPlox · · Score: 5, Informative

    You must be a bit behind the times as Qt no longer emulates a native look-and-feel but uses the native widgets of the platform.

  2. Re:Should be a followup, actually by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative
  3. Re:Should be a followup, actually by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    Yeah sure...

    >> Sales of Linux netbooks collapsed.

    Proof? Sure lots of netbooks are Windows, but that doesn't mean sales of Linux models aren't increasing with the market segment.

    >> Google is providing a standardized UI on top of Linux.

    Incredibly immature project, and isn't even close to a competitor to Qt on anything but embedded.

    >> Symbian is dead.

    Well, there are millions of devices out there still with Symbian, but I agree it probably has little future.

    >> Basically, there is very little need for a specialized UI toolkit like Qt

    Qt is not a specialized UI toolkit. It is a general class library for C++ that happens to include UI classes.

    >> now that there are both fewer platforms for it to run

    Qt runs on more platforms now than ever before. I don't know what you're talking about. Symbian, WinCE, Windows 98 to 7, Linux (normal and embedded), and Mac (with Cocoa even). Name another platform that can do that.

    >> and more mature competitors on the remaining platforms.

    Like what? Each platform has their own thing, but unless you feel like implementing your interface 5 times, that's not really an option.

  4. Re:QT is used on cell phones as well by larry+bagina · · Score: 5, Informative
    Qt was Open Source in that it was GPL, however trolltech was dual licensing it. Being GPL, it was toxic to anything but GPL programs, which meant closed source (or even non-GPL open source) would need to pay for Qt.

    Nokia relicensed Qt as LGPL which makes it usable by non-GPL programs.

    --
    Do you even lift?

    These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

  5. Re:Should be a followup, actually by NormalVisual · · Score: 4, Informative

    Qt offers quite a bit more than just an abstracted UI model. Being able to have a totally common codebase across a number of platforms for a given application (including lower-level network code, threading, non-UI graphics manipulation, file I/O, printing, etc.) is a great help.

    The only thing holding me back from totally adopting Qt was the outrageous licensing cost, not anything lacking in the toolkit itself. With it having gone to LGPL now, that is no longer an issue.

    --
    Please stand clear of the doors, por favor mantenganse alejado de las puertas
  6. Re:Should be a followup, actually by daem0n1x · · Score: 4, Informative

    My company develops cross-platform applications for Windows, MAC and LInux in C++. Qt is one hell of a cross-platform UI toolkit.

  7. Re:Should be a followup, actually by NoStarchPlox · · Score: 3, Informative

    Since when was GTK+ a native graphics api? Oh wait, it's not. Qt uses Xlib on an X Windows System which is the native graphics API.

  8. Re:Should be a followup, actually by Jurily · · Score: 3, Informative

    Qt offers quite a bit more than just an abstracted UI model. Being able to have a totally common codebase across a number of platforms for a given application (including lower-level network code, threading, non-UI graphics manipulation, file I/O, printing, etc.) is a great help.

    Not to mention an XML parser, localisation and Unicode support by default, a great scripting engine, MD5 and SHA1, and awesome documentation, while the whole API is built to encourage best practices.

    About the only thing I'm missing is archive handling with QDir. Including bzip for a fully functional NMDC client is so last year :)

  9. Re:Should be a followup, actually by garvon · · Score: 5, Informative

    qt 4.5 does have a gtk theme that uses gtk to draw the widgets. It allows me to continue using qt applications and have them match my desktop now that i no longer find kde usable as a desktop. The applications are still 1st rate.

  10. Re:QT Looks Like Shit by salimma · · Score: 3, Informative

    Qt 4.5 has an excellent GTK style that makes Qt and KDE applications look just like GTK/GNOME applications, down to button ordering.

    Also, Qt Creator, their new C++ IDE, is a good illustration of what a Qt application can look like. Delicious.

    --
    Michel
    Fedora Project Contribut
  11. Re:pointer by zander · · Score: 3, Informative

    the shared_ptr equivalent in Qt is QSharedPointer (surprise!) not QPointer which is something quite different. I do suggest not using shared_ptr as the Qt version has better cross-platform support and is easier to use and like most Qt things has better readability.

  12. Re:Die to unify by MemoryDragon · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually Qt was relicensed into GPL because of KDE, not because of Gnome. KDE used Qt and came under heavy fire due to using Qt, TrollTech relicensed then Qt due to this criticis, and later on hired some of the KDE developers!

    The relicensing to LGPL now happened after the Nokia buyout, and was also preplanned because Trolltech always said, if it was bought or went bankrupt it would relicense it into LGPL!

  13. Re:Mercurial hosting? by ultrabot · · Score: 4, Informative

    Is there any kind of Mercurial hosting for open source projects you can recommend?

    http://bitbucket.org/

    And soon, google code

    --
    Save your wrists today - switch to Dvorak