Oslo, Norway — (press release excerpt) — Trolltech is releasing the newest version of Qt, version 3.0, the multi-platform C++ Graphical User Interface Development framework. Qt provides users a software development environment they can use to create a single source tree that runs natively on Windows, Linux, Unix, Embedded Linux, and, for the first time, Mac OS X.

Qt 3.0 introduces a large number of new and powerful features:

• The ability to build platform- and database independent database applications,
  
• Greatly improved internationalisation and font handling,
  
• Rich text engine that also supports richtext input/editing in addition to rendering,
  
• Qt Designer, a full-fledged GUI builder that now supports main window development, and includes an integrated C++ editor,
  
• Qt Linguist provides easy translation of Qt GUIs to different languages,
  
• Qt Assistant eases browsing and finding information in the Qt Documentation

In addition there are numerous other improvements such as Multiple Monitor Support, HTTP network protocol support, Support for latest evolutions in GUIs, Accessibility support and 64-bit Safety. Qt 3.0 also features a new and powerful Regular Expression Engine, which greatly simplifies complex text-manipulation operations. The syntax is compatible to, and as powerful as, Perl regular expressions, while at the same time including full support for Unicode.

Qt 3.0 will maintain its source compatibility with the Qt 2.x series. So all applications based on earlier versions of Qt can be ported to Qt 3.0 in little time and with little effort. Included in the Qt 3.0 reference documentation is a detailed guide to porting to Qt 3.0.

Qt 3.0 is released under the following licences:

• The Qt Professional and Enterprise Editions. Available for the development of proprietary/commercial software on Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS X
  
• The Qt Free Edition. Free for run-time use and for development of free/Open Source software on Linux and Unix/X11.
  
• The Qt Educational Program. Educational institutions can get a site license for 100 users of Qt/Windows to use in relevant courses.

 
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