“Qt as a C++ Framework: History, Present State and Future”
summary
26-year evolution of a cross‑platform C++ framework that now serves ~1,000,000 active users and a company with ~250 staff and €32M revenue; claims dual licensing (LGPL/GPL plus commercial), a six‑month release cadence with 5.9 as a three‑year LTS, and full internal use of C++11 while preparing for C++14/17/20. Concrete engineering: a Qt Creator IDE and Qt Quick (QML) UI layer backed by QObject + the meta‑object compiler (moc), implicit‑sharing with atomic refcounts, a platform abstraction for easier ports, and ongoing work on multiple graphics backends (OpenGL, Vulkan, Metal, D3D).
AI-written summary · about
chapters (36)
- 0:00Introduction
- 1:00What is Qt
- 3:25Product overview
- 6:00Qt Creator IDE
- 8:00Qt History
- 10:00Qt Design
- 11:50Qts Early Days
- 14:10Qt 10 Unreleased
- 15:30Qt for Linux
- 17:20KDE for Linux
- 18:20Unicode
- 19:35UI Designer
- 20:30Qt 2001
- 21:50Qt 2005
- 23:10Nokia
- 25:25Burning Platform
- 26:45Qt 5 Development
- 29:50Qt 5 Open Source
- 30:10Qt Company
- 30:35Qt Philosophy
- 30:50Empower Users
- 31:20Freedom
- 32:10Open Source
- 33:05Contributions
- 34:20Embedded Qt
- 35:15Programming vs Engineering
- 36:00Maintenance
- 36:10API
- 38:50API Flexibility
- 42:15Code Lives
- 43:20Platform Changes
- 44:45Implementation Changes
- 52:30Mock
- 54:00Value Classes
- 57:15unicode support
- 58:25creating user interfaces
related talks
33mQt Today and Tomorrow- The Building Blocks and Path to the Future
36mKeynote, Qt Roadmap Open Governance and Qt 5
55mThe role of new languages in the Future of the Qt Ecosystem
27mSet Yourself up for Success — Lessons Learned from Building 100+ Devices with C++/Qt/QML
18mKeynotes, Qt in the Broader Nokia Strategy
29mKeynote Welcome, Possibilities for an Innovative Tomorrow
35mMeet Qt
38mLooking Back: What's Next