What Does Qt Mean?
Qt is a cross-platform application and graphical user interface (GUI) framework, a toolkit, that is used for developing software that can be run on different hardware platforms and operating systems. Qt makes it easy to develop software with native-looking (to the OS it is running on) GUIs using standard C++, which is why it is also classified as a widget toolkit.
Techopedia Explains Qt
Qt is essentially a multiplatform GUI toolkit for developing software applications using standard C++. It provides developers with all the essential functionality required to build cross-platform applications with “state-of-the-art” GUIs. Because Qt uses C++, it is fully object oriented and allows for easily extensible and true component programming.
Qt is marketed as a “write once, compile anywhere” framework that saves time for developers because they only need to create and maintain a single code base in whatever platform they decide to develop in and the final software will compile in every other platform.
Qt offers the following benefits:
- Maintaining a single source tree
- Porting an application to multiple platforms through simple recompilation
- Broadening the audience of a product
- Creating an application that runs at native speed and with a native look and feel to the platform it is running on
Platforms supported by Qt:
- Android
- iOS
- Embedded Linux
- OS X
- QNX/Blackberry 10
- Integrity
- Windows/Windows CE
- Wayland
- X11
- VxWorks
