Trolltech Releases Qt 3.1 Beta 1
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
For more information, contact:
Angelique Faul
Evans Partners
(650) 595-8757
angelique@evanspartners.com
TROLLTECH RELEASES Qt 3.1 BETA 1
New Qt upgrade features hundreds of enhancements and features that enable
developers to build high-performance, low-maintenance applications that run
anywhere
OSLO, Norway and SANTA CLARA, Calif. - September 11, 2002 - Trolltech, the
leader in single-source, multiplatform software development, today
announced the release of Qt 3.1 beta 1. This new version is particularly
noteworthy because it gives developers and corporate IT professionals - for
the first time - a way to gradually migrate from the limited world of Motif
and MFC over to the single-source, multiplatform nirvana of Qt.
Qt, the standard C++ application framework for multiplatform development,
lets developers write a single source-tree that will run - natively - on
Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, and embedded Linux.
"Developers have loved Qt for years because it lets them write code once
and deploy it anywhere," said Eirik Aavitsland, Qt's product manager.
"With version 3.1, more developers have the opportunity to fall in love
with Qt, since we now give them a way to migrate code gradually from
single-platform environments to the multiplatform world of Qt."
Greatly simplified creation of ActiveX controls
Among the functions included in Qt 3.1 is Trolltech's new ActiveQt, a
framework that lets developers use Qt to create ActiveX controls (for
example, Internet Explorer plug-ins), and use Qt applications as ActiveX
servers (for example, an Excel spreadsheet window). ActiveQt offers a
clean, simple Qt application programming interface (API) to replace the
notoriously complex native ActiveX and COM APIs. The result is enhanced
productivity, with great reductions in the time necessary to create ActiveX
servers and controls.
Motif integration enables gradual migration
Qt 3.1 for Unix and Linux also includes new facilities for Motif
integration, enabling developers to gradually insert Qt-based code into
existing Motif applications, rather than rewriting the entire code-base at
the same time. This provides a smooth and elegant migration path to Qt by
allowing Qt and Motif components to co-exist in the same application.
Mac OS X integration
The Mac OS X version of Qt 3.1 introduces many improvements to further
integrate Qt with the Mac OS X environment. These include integration with
the Mac Appearance Manager, anti-aliased text drawing, and user settings.
The Qt OpenGL support is also greatly improved, and uses the
hardware-accelerated drivers.
Additional benefits
Other benefits of Qt 3.1 include:
* Easier graphical user interface (GUI) design, with numerous improvements
to Qt Designer, the GUI builder for Qt. These include a property editor
that can operate on multiple widgets simultaneously, greatly enhanced
WYSIWYG support, and a toolbar layout that is more intuitive.
* Enhanced documentation assistance. Qt Assistant, the Qt help
documentation browser, now includes custom documentation supports, making
it easier to use as a help browser for customer applications.
* Improved multi-threading. Qt 3.1 offers more classes available for
multi-threading, thereby optimizing performance.
* Class library assistance. Qt 3.1 will include hundreds of improvements
to its existing class library, inspired by user feedback.
Pricing and Availability
Qt 3.1 beta 1 is free of charge to open-source developers. Contact
sales@trolltech.com for conditions, prices and license terms for commercial
use of Qt 3.1 or any other Trolltech product.
About Trolltech
Trolltech is a software company with two flagship products: Qt and
Qtopia. Qt is a multiplatform C++ application framework developers can use
to write single-source applications that run - natively - on Windows,
Linux, Unix, Mac OS X and embedded Linux. Qt has been used to build
thousands of successful commercial applications worldwide, and is the basis
of the open source KDE desktop environment. Qtopia is the first
comprehensive application environment built for embedded Linux, and is used
in Sharp's new Zaurus SL5500 and SL-A300 PDAs. Trolltech is headquartered
in Oslo, Norway, with offices in Brisbane, Australia, and Santa Clara,
California. More about Trolltech can be found at www.trolltech.com.
###
