Qt Creator: FAQ
- What is Qt Creator?
- What is the design philosophy behind Qt Creator?
- Under which license will you release Qt Creator?
- When will Qt Creator be available?
- On which operating systems does Qt Creator run?
- What programming languages does Qt Creator support?
- Is Qt Creator a replacement for Eclipse? Why didn't you rather improve Eclipse/CDT?
- Is Qt Creator a replacement for Visual Studio?
- Does Qt Creator support embedded/mobile software development?
- What build systems does Qt Creator support?
- What compilers and debuggers does it support?
- Where can I provide feedback on Qt Creator?
- Who created Qt Creator?
What is Qt Creator?
Qt Creator (previously known as Project Greenhouse) is a new, lightweight, cross-platform integrated development environment (IDE) designed to make development with the Qt application framework even faster and easier.
What is the design philosophy behind Qt Creator?
1. Tailor an IDE specifically to the needs of Qt developers creating cross-platform applications
- Qt Creator focuses on boosting the productivity of developers using Qt with C++
- Qt Creator should be the first choice for Qt beginners who want to get up and running quickly
2. Focus on features that boost developer productivity, without getting in their way
- Choose between modes to hide the functionality you don’t need all the time
- Don’t go full screen; Qt Creator can be used as one of may open windows on your desktop
- Navigate quickly between files/methods/classes with quick keyboard shortcuts
3. Remain open and transparent; integrate familiar tools and file formats
- Qt Creator uses the same tools and file formats that you’re used to on the command line
- Qt Creator’s plug-in architecture makes it open to adding new tools and file formats
Under which license will you release Qt Creator?
Pre-release versions of Qt Creator will be available under a special Technology Preview license, and from the beta onwards, the source code will also be available under the GPL.
When will Qt Creator be available?
The final version will be released after Qt 4.5, during the first half of 2009.
On which operating systems does Qt Creator run?
Due to the nature of Qt, Qt Creator should eventually run on every platform supported by Qt. However, since we rely on external tools (most notably make & gdb), we currently limit the officially supported platforms for the first release of Qt Creator to Windows XP and Vista, Linux (2.6.x) and MacOS X 10.4 and later.
What programming languages does Qt Creator support?
Right now Qt Creator only supports C++ and the subset of C89 that it contains. We plan to fully support C99 in the near future.
Is Qt Creator a replacement for Eclipse? Why didn't you rather improve Eclipse/CDT?
Qt Creator is not an Eclipse replacement, but instead a lightweight IDE designed specifically for cross-platform Qt development. We developed Qt Creator to provide our users with options. If a developer is comfortable with Eclipse, we highly encourage them to continue using it. We will certainly continue to develop and improve our Eclipse integration
It is also worth noting that Eclipse is actually not an IDE, but a full extensible rich client application framework, even though that framework is also used to create several IDEs. We want to focus on responsiveness, footprint and usability, while still providing the extensibility needed for an IDE. There are also technical reasons which make it hard for us to extend Eclipse/CDT in an efficient way: Eclipse is written in Java/SWT, most of our components (that are shared between several Qt tools) are written in C++/Qt.
Is Qt Creator a replacement for Visual Studio?
Qt Creator is not a Visual Studio replacement, but instead a lightweight IDE designed specifically for cross-platform Qt development. We developed Qt Creator to provide our users with options. If a developer is comfortable with Visual Studio, we highly encourage them to continue using it. We will certainly continue to develop and improve our Visual Studio integration.
Does Qt Creator support embedded/mobile software development?
Currently, Qt Creator only supports desktop development. However, following the Qt Everywhere strategy, we plan to provide the functionality necessary for embedded/mobile software development. This functionality includes remote compilation and debugging tools as well as device deployment solutions.
We do not yet have timelines on when this will be made available.
What build systems does Qt Creator support?
Currently, Qt Creator only supports qmake. However, we plan to introduce at least a generic Makefile project, meaning Qt Creator will virtually support all project and build systems using make. In general, Qt Creator is designed in a way that the project and build system is quite independent from the rest of the IDE. This means developers can even call their own build scripts from within Qt Creator.
What compilers and debuggers does it support?
Right now, Qt Creator fully supports the GNU compiler (gcc) and debugger (gdb). It is also possible to use the Microsoft Visual Studio compiler to build projects. However, it is not possible to debug binaries created with the Microsoft Visual Studio compiler in Qt Creator, but it is on our feature list for future versions.
Where can I provide feedback on Qt Creator?
A special mailing list has been set up for news, questions and discussion on Qt Creator: qt-creator at trolltech.com. To subscribe, send a message containing just the word subscribe to qt-creator-request at trolltech.com. For more information on all Qt mailing lists, and to view archived discussions, please visit http://lists.trolltech.com/.
Who created Qt Creator?
A bunch of Qt Software engineers contributed to it, most of which you can see in the picture below. Coming from vim, emacs, Visual Studio, Eclipse, or XCode, they have all seen the light now. Hopefully we will have more converts soon.
