Qt 5: Architecture and plans

Qt 4.0 was released in June 2005, almost six years ago. A lot has changed in the software industry over these years. Since Qt 4.0 we have released seven minor versions of Qt to stay ahead of development needs, for example by releasing Qt Quick. Now it has come the time to start cleaning up the codebase to make way for a new generation of development.

With Qt 5, we'd like to adopt new technologies, make better use of the capabilities offered by current and future hardware, provide the best and easiest functionality to our users and pave the way for a stable and rich platform. For that, Qt 5 should make use of the best technologies available, like Wayland, QML Scene Graph and Qt Quick Components. Qt 5 aims at making QML and JavaScript first-class citizens and allowing application development to happen entirely in QML. Yet, the power of the Qt C++ classes and native code will still be there, for those who want it and for the needs that warrant it. Those wishes are the same that MeeGo has been aiming for, so Qt 5 should bring it closer to its own goals.

To reach those goals, cooperation is necessary among the many different players, companies and individuals in both the Qt and MeeGo communities. Qt 5 needs to be developed in the open, with open discussions and open collaboration, from Day One.

In this presentation, I'll talk about the vision for Qt 5, the goals to achieve, the challenges we face, as well as the big architectural changes that are expected to happen. I'll also explain how the collaboration should happen
so we can have a beta-quality codebase by the end of this year and a final release in 2012.