5 ms·

Qt 6.0 Beta 4 Released

82 points by varbhat 6y ago

jhoechtl 6y ago
What does that mean to KDE? Another five years of transition before we get a new stable KDE?
- CarVac 6y ago
  Qt 6 has no major API changes from Qt 5.
  - ktpsns 6y ago
    So why did they even change the major version in the first place?
    - thijsvandien 6y ago
      Not everybody follows semantic versioning.
      - ahartmetz 6y ago
        Qt does, though - it breaks ABI and API compatibility with major releases, but the last big change was with Qt4. 5 and 6 are / will be easy to port to from earlier versions. Consider that removing any public function / method / class is an API and ABI break. Qt does do these with major releases, but how much can vary considerably from version transition to version transition.
    - kevincox 6y ago
      It says that they did drop some APIs. > Qt 6.0 does drop Qt Script and also removes Qt Multimedia / Qt Bluetooth / Qt Virtual-Keyboard modules until a later Qt6 version. So I guess it is major if you use those APIs.
    - jcelerier 6y ago
      > So why did they even change the major version in the first place? Note that minor versions of Qt are (modulo the occasional bug) API and forward-ABI compatible - an app built against Qt 5.x should still work without being rebuilt when updating dlls to Qt 5.15 This obviously won't work for Qt 6 - there are some API changes, deprecated / removed stuff, in Qt 6 we have `template<typename T> using QVector = QList<T>;`...
    - Karliss 6y ago
      One more major change is that raises c++ compiler requirements to c++17.
  - choward 6y ago
    I'm no Qt expert but on the linked page it says: > Qt 6.0 does drop Qt Script and also removes Qt Multimedia / Qt Bluetooth / Qt Virtual-Keyboard modules until a later Qt6 version.
    - slavik81 6y ago
      Qt Script was basically never adopted by anyone and was effectively a dead module by the time Qt 5 released, even if it was only officially deprecated in 2015 with Qt 5.5. Qt Multimedia is actually pretty important, but I assume they have a good plan in place for that.
  - jlarcombe 6y ago
    Not sure about that, plenty of deprecated things removed, plenty of modules removed, plenty of things moved about, ANGLE no longer supported on Windows...
  - detaro 6y ago
    I guess one can debate what constitutes "major" (a bunch of small stuff also adds up), but it certainly looks like it will be a lot less painful than 4->5 was.
tpmx 6y ago
I'm eyeing Qt (QML/Quick in particular) as a UI toolkit for a smart TV form factor-like embedded app. Primarily keyboard controlled. Small scale project, just myself initially. Qt doesn't really seem to focus much on this form factor, but they do have a big win; LG's webOS. I've found some basic blog posts on the topic but nothing that has really convinced me. Anyone with first-hand experience on how this would work? A lot of upstream swimming?
- CarVac 6y ago
  I haven't dug deep into QML's keyboard focus stuff but it's been a breeze for developing my photo editing desktop app. It makes gui hacking so fun. https://filmulator.org https://filmulator.org
- throwaway9870 6y ago
  I used QML for a similar application because it would allow me to assemble the OpenGL scene nicely. I used libMPV to render video frames and QML could easily overlay controls and text. You could even render Chromium (QtWebEngine) on the same scene with minimal effort. I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to dive deep into the stack of technologies, nonetheless, I got a decent app working with no bugs that customers ever ran into. For my skill level and effort put forth, I don't know what I could have used to would have worked as well.
  - tpmx 6y ago
    Thanks, sounds promising.
  - LeSaucy 6y ago
    QtAV next time :)
- tpmx 6y ago
  To expand on what I'm misssing: Official/built-in support for spatial navigation, like: https://github.com/qt-labs/cursormanagement https://github.com/qt-labs/cursormanagement I'm guessing most Quick widgets aren't immediately usable in this form factor. I'd guess they'd need heavy skinning efforts and custom cursor management to have a chance, and still only the most basic ones would be usable. Is there any other ~open UI toolkit that's good at TV-style/D-pad-focused navigation out there?
njanirudh 6y ago
How is the licensing for QT for personal projects?

82 points by varbhat 6y ago

jhoechtl 6y ago

What does that mean to KDE? Another five years of transition before we get a new stable KDE?

CarVac 6y ago
Qt 6 has no major API changes from Qt 5.
- ktpsns 6y ago
  So why did they even change the major version in the first place?
  - thijsvandien 6y ago
    Not everybody follows semantic versioning.
    - ahartmetz 6y ago
      Qt does, though - it breaks ABI and API compatibility with major releases, but the last big change was with Qt4. 5 and 6 are / will be easy to port to from earlier versions. Consider that removing any public function / method / class is an API and ABI break. Qt does do these with major releases, but how much can vary considerably from version transition to version transition.
  - kevincox 6y ago
    It says that they did drop some APIs. > Qt 6.0 does drop Qt Script and also removes Qt Multimedia / Qt Bluetooth / Qt Virtual-Keyboard modules until a later Qt6 version. So I guess it is major if you use those APIs.
  - jcelerier 6y ago
    > So why did they even change the major version in the first place? Note that minor versions of Qt are (modulo the occasional bug) API and forward-ABI compatible - an app built against Qt 5.x should still work without being rebuilt when updating dlls to Qt 5.15 This obviously won't work for Qt 6 - there are some API changes, deprecated / removed stuff, in Qt 6 we have `template<typename T> using QVector = QList<T>;`...
  - Karliss 6y ago
    One more major change is that raises c++ compiler requirements to c++17.
- choward 6y ago
  I'm no Qt expert but on the linked page it says: > Qt 6.0 does drop Qt Script and also removes Qt Multimedia / Qt Bluetooth / Qt Virtual-Keyboard modules until a later Qt6 version.
  - slavik81 6y ago
    Qt Script was basically never adopted by anyone and was effectively a dead module by the time Qt 5 released, even if it was only officially deprecated in 2015 with Qt 5.5. Qt Multimedia is actually pretty important, but I assume they have a good plan in place for that.
- jlarcombe 6y ago
  Not sure about that, plenty of deprecated things removed, plenty of modules removed, plenty of things moved about, ANGLE no longer supported on Windows...
- detaro 6y ago
  I guess one can debate what constitutes "major" (a bunch of small stuff also adds up), but it certainly looks like it will be a lot less painful than 4->5 was.

tpmx 6y ago

I'm eyeing Qt (QML/Quick in particular) as a UI toolkit for a smart TV form factor-like embedded app. Primarily keyboard controlled. Small scale project, just myself initially. Qt doesn't really seem to focus much on this form factor, but they do have a big win; LG's webOS. I've found some basic blog posts on the topic but nothing that has really convinced me. Anyone with first-hand experience on how this would work? A lot of upstream swimming?

CarVac 6y ago
I haven't dug deep into QML's keyboard focus stuff but it's been a breeze for developing my photo editing desktop app. It makes gui hacking so fun. https://filmulator.org https://filmulator.org
throwaway9870 6y ago
I used QML for a similar application because it would allow me to assemble the OpenGL scene nicely. I used libMPV to render video frames and QML could easily overlay controls and text. You could even render Chromium (QtWebEngine) on the same scene with minimal effort. I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to dive deep into the stack of technologies, nonetheless, I got a decent app working with no bugs that customers ever ran into. For my skill level and effort put forth, I don't know what I could have used to would have worked as well.
- tpmx 6y ago
  Thanks, sounds promising.
- LeSaucy 6y ago
  QtAV next time :)
tpmx 6y ago
To expand on what I'm misssing: Official/built-in support for spatial navigation, like: https://github.com/qt-labs/cursormanagement https://github.com/qt-labs/cursormanagement I'm guessing most Quick widgets aren't immediately usable in this form factor. I'd guess they'd need heavy skinning efforts and custom cursor management to have a chance, and still only the most basic ones would be usable. Is there any other ~open UI toolkit that's good at TV-style/D-pad-focused navigation out there?

njanirudh 6y ago

How is the licensing for QT for personal projects?