Qt Labs has just announced the release of Qt 4.8.0 featuring Qt Platform Abstraction, threaded OpenGL support, multithreaded HTTP and optimized file system access.
Here are some of the new key features in Qt 4.8.0:
- Qt Platform Abstraction (QPA)
QPA restructures the GUI stack to enable easier porting of Qt to different windowing systems and devices. Previously called Lighthouse.
- Threaded OpenGL supportEnables developers to render
OpenGL from more than one thread concurrently. See Threaded OpenGL in 4.8 for more details.
- Multithreaded HTTP
HTTP requests are now handled in a separate thread by default. This should make application guis smoother, as networking will no longer use the main event loop.
- Optimized file system access
The file system stack received some heavy lifting under the hood. The result is better I/O performance, achieved by reducing the number of system calls performed for I/O and by better use of cached data, when available. The improvements in performance can be seen across all platforms.
- Symbian Improvements
Native Symbian networking, IPv6 and OpenGL Graphics, Symbian resource management.
- New APIs
- Localization API: Improvements to QLocale and more support for different language code formats
- IP multicast API.
Qt 4.8 ships with QtWebKit 2.2.1 and Qt Quick 1.1. Qt Quick has the following improvements.
- Right-To-Left support
- Improved image caching
- Text input improvements – Support for split-screen virtual keyboard
- Pinch Area to provide a declarative API for handling touch input.
- New properties for QML Elements.
For more details, visit the page “What’s New in Qt 4.8“.
The source and binary packages for Qt 4.8.0 can be downloaded from the Qt Download Page. The source code can also be found in the public repository, where the “v4.8.0″ tag matches the released packages. The documentation is available on Qt Developer network.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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