I hope you had a summer as great as we had in Berlin so far. We had awesome weather most of time with almost constant sunshine. Still we weren’t lazy, and worked on the next Qt Creator release. We are happy to give you a preview of some of the features that will be in 1.3 with a Technology Snapshot release.
Renaming in Action
Technology Snapshot is just our way of saying: This is not a proper fully tested release, it might not work perfectly, it might crash and it’s using Qt 4.6, which just released its Technology Preview. But we spent quite a lot of time on stabilizing and fixing regressions. I would recommend you to actually try it out. Me personally, I’m pretty happy with the release.
Now on to the fun part, the new features. I’ve selected a few things I’d like to highlight, and wow our changelog for 1.3 is already pretty long.
So one important change is that we by default use jom instead of nmake for projects compiled with Microsoft’s Visual Studio Compiler. Jom is not yet completely bug free, so if you have any problems with jom, please send us feedback. You can switch back to using nmake in the Settings under Tools/Options/ProjectExplorer. So why Jom? Jom automatically parallizes your build to use all your cores. It can easily make your build take half the time. See the Jom labs page
Also for our users using the Microsoft tool chain, the debugger support was improved.
Our C++ editor now highlights all uses of the symbol under the cursor,
e.g. allowing you to see with one glance where a variable is used in a function. Also you can rename symbols now with Ctrl+Shift+R. Currently it only works for local symbols, but for 1.3 we hope to have it working for more symbols. But still it’s useful already, and having the renaming inline instead of popping up a dialog feels really nice.
Another small feature worth mentioning in the code editor is completion for #include.
We also spend some effort in making the cmake plugin better. Some of the new features actually require a not yet released cmake version. Thanks to Christian who reviewed and applied a few patches I wrote for cmake.
With cmake cvs you’ll see all cmake files in the project tree and you can on windows use the Microsoft tool chain. We also fixed quite a few bugs and generally it should now be more useable. Though as always feedback on what you are missing most is welcome.
Creator new projects mode
For the Qt project manager, we made the qmake step and make steps optional, so those who want to use a different build tool in conjunction with .pro files, can do so. Also Creator tries to be smarter about when to not run qmake.
You can check out from different source control system from the File/New Wizard. That also includes gitorious. We also have a new project pane, shown on the right.
We made the Ui scale better to lower resolutions, so all Netbook users should download this release.
You can download:
Yet it’s still warm here in Berlin, and we haven’t frozen yet, in fact one feature that we are secretly developing in our public repository is obvious if you either follow our commit log or which new platform is going to be supported by Qt 4.6.
Edit: You should rebuild your debugging helper libraries in Tools/Options/Qt Versions. The ones from 1.2 aren’t compatible with 1.2.90, we are going to add a version check for that.
42 Responses to “Qt Creator 1.2.90 Technology Snapshot”
“it might crash and it’s using Qt 4.6, which just released its Technology Preview.”
The 1.2.90 branch in git builds fine against my 4.5 build though, I think this affects only your packaged builds?
Yes, the source package can be compiled with Qt 4.5 or Qt 4.6. However the 1.3 release (and the current master branch) will only compile with Qt 4.6. And the precompiled binary builds are using Qt 4.6.
Forgot to mention one important thing: This snapshot comes with GCC 4.4 included in the MinGW installation. Enjoy!
I have just one question about code assist.
when i’m on first option, is it possible to get to the last option just by hit UP key ? and also get from the last to the first by press DOWN key ?
i use it in eclipse and it really save my time 
thanks for an answer
I wish I had time to play with Qt again and then have a lot of fun with your outstanding work! I wish you the best.
Chris
Just tried to convert my VS-based solution to Qt Creator.
Here is some feedback on what I disliked:
* No way to recursively add a folder to the project source files,
* No automatic Visual Studio solution/project import step,
* No way to build a project without providing a Qt path (my project doesn’t use Qt yet),
* No equivalent concept to Solution Folders (at least I didn’t find them). This makes organizing big projects *much* easier.
I did like it though. The interface is very neat, fast and smooth. Hope you can add some missing features so I can start using it.
Nice Job, no issues, and compile seems much faster!
will on version 1.3 release a Windows version compiled for 64 bits ? More and more users are now using 64bits of Windows Vista and 7.
That would be very nice from Nokia Trolltech.
@Philip: that is thanks to mingw gcc 4.4. It helps a lot.
The windows snapshot build comes with mingw gcc 4.4. Awesome. Does it also support Phonon precompiled then?
@mirec: As you are not the first to ask, I just implemented wrap around. You can find it in about 12 hours as commit 7f54f9d339a195717cdbec7f17b20110f1680175. It should also be part of the upcoming nightly build.
@daniel: thank you so much
>Our C++ editor now highlights all uses of the symbol under the cursor,
Please, this is an horror in some cases. Could you provide an option to disable it?
In Eclipse, this was provided by default, and a lot of users have asked for a simple option to disable it. You can now disable it in eclipse by a simple command. This makes it possible to activate it instantly when you need to do some code refactoring or analyse you your code, but it’s really an annoying option for speed coding.
Regards
Ahmed
@triton
if you are using Qt’s own project management and build system qmake, then you *are* using Qt, and you do need a Qt-path to find this. Qmake does most certainly support nested subprojects, making client-side “Solution Folders” mostly unnecessary. With Creator’s session support and project dependencies we are not aware of important deficiencies wrt handling large project. In fact we consider Creator better suited for large projects than any of the alternatives. It thus would be interesting to hear your input, why you would prefer solution folders over subprojects.
About your other points: naturally this isn’t high on our priority list. Just continue being satisfied with your current IDE, and consider Creator for your next from-scratch Qt project - and they never go back
I think are very necessary in QtCreator a plugin for generation Doc’s (for example doxygen). This function is very important.
what about multiple documents open in tabs like kdevelop?? very crucial..
noir > the document navigation shortcuts (Ctrl+Tab, Ctrl+Shift+Tab, Alt+Left and Alt+Right) are really good, why do you need tabs?
Personally, I like it the way it is, it just needs a little time to be used to the shortcuts.
Another one here voting for 64 bits compiled.
“will on version 1.3 release a Windows version compiled for 64 bits ? More and more users are now using 64bits of Windows Vista and 7.
That would be very nice from Nokia Trolltech.”
How about Creator borrowing the scroll functionality from the Firefox “Grab and Drag” addon (if even only as a preference). It makes navigating through a document so much quicker than the mousewheel / scrollbars. In case you aren’t familiar with it, I’ve prepared a short video (6MB) — http://www.screencast.com/t/uxOp2aqwqk76
Grab and Drag — https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1250
I’m still using QtCreator 1.1 (in Windows) because all the newer versions require administrator privileges. The administrator privileges are first needed during install, which is ok, many applications must be installed that way. But then the debugging helper also needs administrator privileges and thats quite annoying. I could give myself administrator privileges but I don’t want to do that just because of QtCreator. It would be great if this could be fixed or at least explained in the documentation.
Thank you qt devs for thinking also of us, netbook users
Very excited about Qt — although I was complaining bitterly when I first encountered it a few months ago, I’ve been utterly convinced once I figured out the philosophy. So we’re using it full time.
I’ve run into one problem that doesn’t seem to be fixed in this new version and that is related to listing previously opened projects.
Most of our projects live on network mounted drives. However, if a drive is not mounted, QtCreator doesn’t include any projects that are on that drive in its “previous projects” list. It should list them and then just fail to load the project if the drive cannot be found.
Thanks,
David
Another suggestion — I’m a big fan of wanting zero warnings but it appears that there are some warnings that can’t be turned off in the compiler. In particular, the warning
ignoring #pragma align
on a Macintosh.
Seems to me that rather than (or as well as) an option to turn off all warnings, it would be nice if one could provide a list (perhaps just a regular expression mechanism) for controlling what warnings should never be seen.
D
What about add Type Hierarchy features?
Like in Eclipse http://ftp.daum.net/eclipse/tools/cdt/docs/specs/Feature_Specs/CDT_Hierarchy_View/CDTHierarchyView.html
I tried building my Qt GUI app using the MinGW 4.4 toolset but it fails to link. Console-mode Qt apps (such as a unit test project) are fine. FWIW the link errors are:
C:/iwmake/build_mingw_opensource/src/winmain/qtmain_win.cpp:91: undefined reference to `__gxx_personality_sj0′
C:/iwmake/build_mingw_opensource/src/winmain/qtmain_win.cpp:91: undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Register’
C:/iwmake/build_mingw_opensource/src/winmain/qtmain_win.cpp:140: undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Resume’
C:/iwmake/build_mingw_opensource/src/winmain/qtmain_win.cpp:140: undefined reference to `_Unwind_SjLj_Unregister’
Maybe I just missed it. But, how can I custom file types, i.e. *.txx, *.cu (cuda sources), etc.?
Nice release!
Here are some issues I’ve found:
- autocomplete doesn’t work in QObject::connect SIGNAL/SLOT if the parameters are not pointers. e.g: connect(&obj, SIGNAL(
Nice work the qt creator.
What about following features, it would be very nice if they are in this/the next version.
Folders in menu tree, to organize projects.
File templates to have e.g. gpl info text in every file.
Thank you.
So far my only complaint comes from using fakevim:
Typing “:%s/term1/term2/gc” in command mode seems to lock up qtcreator. Not sure if it is supported but it should halt to whole program.
Thanks for the update!
Seems/feels nice so far. Include-completion is great (but auto-include would be even more great 
But two things so far:
First: One change really annoys me: the new “Projects”-view. Putting the
headlines (”Build Settings”, “Run Settings”, …) in tabs brings a better abridgement.
Second: Using the “Follow Symbol under Cursor”-tool navigates me sometimes only to forward-declarations.
I know it cab be hard to distinguish where to find the right declaration - but it would be although nice for getting
a better working solution.
Nice release
Another suggestion: It would be nice if we could set several preference profiles.
For example, When working on different projects with differents coding styles, it is tedious to have to change preferences each time we switch project.
What do you think?
I hope the next stable release (for windows) will be compiled with MinGW to let custom plug-in usable (without Visual Studio).
Thank you.
Nice, but the C++ source code navigation still is not very intuitive. Suppose I have some code that calls a certain method. So I do ctrl-click on the method name and get presented with the method definition. How do I easily switch to the implementation of this method? In eclipse for instance, ctrl-click switches automatically (if you’re at the definition it will switch to implementation)…
So far the only navigation I could find takes me back to the original calling function.
@Benjamin: First, read the documentation that comes with Qt Creator. If you did, you’d know that clicking on a function name, then hitting F2 jumps to the respective declaration or implementation.
Jom is working great. Reducing my build time a lot. But is it possible to use the “NMake Makefiles” generator for cmake projects?
What I would like is preferences for auto completion. I want Visual Studio IDE code completion style ( you just type another letter that doesn’t appear in the list and the word is completed for you, no extra typing enter to select the word). An option for choosing the style would be nice.
@bastibense: Ther is a bug: this does not work for Destructors it jumps to the Constructor!
Will be realized when the cursor move beyond the end of line in editor, as in visual studio 7+ ?
I didn’t want to mean “Solution Folders”, which I don’t even use anyway (VS Express does not provide them). What I mean is virtual folders, or what is called a “Filter” in VS. I use it to organize the projects with a hierarchy of folders so it makes finding things easy.
Great great job !! I love it. The only thing that is really needed for me to reach the 100% of productivity is to have virtual subfolders in the project. It DON’T mean sub-project. As soon as have more than 30 files, and 4 guis + theirs associated .cpp and .h it’s a gigantic mess ! It’s really a must !
I found a little problem in qtCreator. I’ve done a Singleton class which is a template. The auto-completion is not working for it. Should be the template that is difficult to “follow”. Since i’m using loads of template, it’s bit annoying . Tera-Thanks to add it to features
To answer my own question: using a cvs snapshot of CMake allows the use of Jom with cmake