Technology Preview for Qt SDK 1.1

Nokia has announced the release of a technology preview of Qt SDK 1.1, the next edition of the software development kit for the Qt user interface framework. The 1.1 version of the SDK will deliver on promises made at last year's Qt Dev Days to provide tooling for the declarative Qt Quick/QML; this allows user interfaces to be defined in structured, reusable text. Among the tools is Qt Quick Designer, a component of the IDE, Qt Creator 2.1 RC, which offers a WYSIWYG editor for QML based interfaces which include animations and transitions. This, in turn, also allows for rapid prototyping and testing.

Other components of the SDK include Qt 4.7.1, installable for Symbian^1 and Symbian^3 devices, Qt Mobility 1.1, an N900 target which allows Maemo development with Qt 4.7, and a Qt Simulator which supports Qt 4.7.1 and Mobility 1.1. The SDK will allow developers on Windows, 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu Linux, and Mac OS X to develop Qt applications for the desktop or Maemo 5. However, Linux and Mac OS X users targeting Symbian will need to use a remote compiler.

The Technology Preview is not designed for production use and applications developed with it will not be accepted into the Ovi Store, but they can be loaded onto development devices. Nokia and the Qt developers are looking for feedback and bug reports for the preview which can be downloaded from the Forum.Nokia site. The components of the Qt SDK 1.1 Technology Preview are licensed under a number of open source licences, including the LGPL, and under Nokia's own proprietary licences.

(djwm)