Trolltech's Qt Gets Version 4.2

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- New, advanced 2D canvas: The new Graphics View enables construction of high performance interactive applications handling millions of 2D graphics objects. Features such as collision detection, multiple views, zooming and panning, coordinate and individual item transforms, the ability to group items and printing facilities are already built in." title="Trolltechs Qt Gets Version 4.2">Trolltech has issued Qt 4.2, the new version of the company's framework for high performance cross-platform application development. This version significantly expands the scope of the framework, providing the C++ community with more functionality and innovation than ever before. This version includes a number of improvements and performance optimizations, such as:
- New, advanced 2D canvas: The new Graphics View enables construction of high performance interactive applications handling millions of 2D graphics objects. Features such as collision detection, multiple views, zooming and panning, coordinate and individual item transforms, the ability to group items and printing facilities are already built in.

Graphics View supersedes the very popular QCanvas module from Qt 3 and adds significant new functionality and enhancements in the areas of item interaction, optimized level-of-detail rendering, affine item transformations, control over animations and drag-and-drop.

- Enhanced widget styleability: more UI control - The Qt 4.2 widget styling system enables an unrivaled control over application look and feel. CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) is a powerful technology that until now has allowed for effortless customizability of applications for the web. Widget Stylesheets in Qt 4.2 takes an innovative approach to CSS, bringing the same level of low-effort styleability and customizability to the desktop. Using a syntax similar to CSS, both developers, designers and end users can control the style of individual widgets, allowing rapid development and customization of visually compelling user interfaces.

- Qt/Mac look and feel improvements - The Qt 4.2 Macintosh version of Qt incorporates a number of look and feel improvements. Dialogs with OK/Cancel buttons can now be handled on the Mac using the QDialogButtonBox class, and Qt now provides access to the Mac OS X's find clipboard. It is now possible to host Carbon controls in Qt windows and vice versa.

- Tighter integration with the GNOME Desktop Environment - Qt 4.2 allows developers to create Qt plug-ins for use with non-Qt applications. The tighter integration with the GNOME desktop environment is the result of The Portland Project, a working group dedicated to better interoperability between KDE and GNOME in order to establish a greater presence for Linux in the desktop market.

"Qt 4.2 and the Graphics View will appeal to a wide range of development organizations in verticals such as EDA, visualization, oil and gas and medical devices, " said Naren Karattup, Product Director — Development Tools, Trolltech. "The Graphics View framework elegantly solves a general problem, namely how to unite the conflicting demands of efficiency, minimal resource use and feature richness while displaying and manipulating large numbers of 2D objects. Qt 4.2 however also contains a large number of user-suggested improvements, new features and architectural improvements that will help boost the productivity of Qt users everywhere."

Qt is used by thousands of companies worldwide for desktop applications ranging from visualization and complex modeling to mission-critical applications such as air traffic control and space flight simulation modules. Developers who develop cross-platform and rich client applications can draw from over 400 fully object-oriented class libraries including classes for GUI, layout, database, internationalization, networking, XML, and much more.

About Qt

Qt sets the standard for high performance, cross-platform software development.

Some of the world's largest software companies rely on Qt to create innovative, advanced solutions across multiple platforms. Qt benefits from a large open source and commercial development community. A growing ecosystem of partners provides programming skills, technology, consulting, integration and training services.

About Trolltech

Trolltech is the company that makes software faster to build and easier to use. Trolltech's magic inspires software innovation and drives improved usability. The magic is the combination of efficient software development with an innovative, high-quality user experience. Trolltech's software increases the appeal of our customer's desktop applications and devices while reducing their risks and software development costs. Trolltech's technologies accelerate the evolution of software by unleashing the creative power of the developer.

The company's family of products include Qt, which sets the standard for high-performance, cross-platform software development; and Qtopia, the unrivaled application platform for the efficient creation of Linux devices.

Trolltech software is the foundation for thousands of leading products worldwide, many from Global 2000 companies. Trolltech is a second-generation open source company, with a dual licensing business model that supports open source values and methodology in a profitable, sustainable business. For more information about Trolltech, please visit http://www.trolltech.com.

Trolltech, Qt and Qtopia are registered trademarks of Trolltech ASA. All other trademarks are registered trademarks of their respective owners.

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