Qt’s Volker Hilsheimer…

Your latest release, Qt 4.7 is at the beta stage at the time of writing and is likely to have been released by the time this interview is published. In this release you are including Qt Quick, a new development that you describe as a “high-level UI technology that enables developers and designers to work together”. How does this product work in practice and why do you think designers need to use tools that traditionally remain the sole preserve of the developer?

As powerful and comprehensive as Qt is, it requires C++ skills. We are aiming very high with Qt, and Qt Quick came from a desire to open the framework up to even more developers than what is possible now. To do that we needed to build something within Qt that allows developers or UI designers with diverse skill sets outside of C++ – like JavaScript or Flash for example – to use Qt to build nice, rich, touch-enabled UIs .

Qt Quick works by combining an enhanced Qt Creator IDE, a new easy-to-learn declarative language that will be instantly familiar to many developers (QML) and a new module in the Qt library called QtDeclarative.

On your final point, UI designers absolutely should be empowered to be involved in the realisation of their UI designs as long as possible during the product development cycle. Qt Quick lets them not only maximise the chances of the finished result matching their intended design, but it also shows them some of the technical limitations or problems of a design. It really should help facilitate efficiency within the development process.

What has been the effect of Nokia acquiring the Qt brand and how has this helped you in terms of total development of the framework?

Qt was already an established framework prior to Nokia – it had been alive and growing for around 14 years when Nokia acquired it. Having said that, the Nokia acquisition has created huge opportunity and benefit for Qt. Some great things have happened in the 18 months since acquisition, like:

1. Diversifying our licensing to include an LGPL option.

2. Qt being unconditionally prioritised as the framework for the world’s biggest smartphone platform (Symbian).

3. Qt becoming the framework for Nokia’s newest and most exciting venture (with Intel), MeeGo.

Having the market size, infrastructure and brand of Nokia behind us is a wonderful thing for Qt, and we are very happy to be continuing along our path as part of Nokia, but also being able to retain our independence and our culture as we go.

Your technology has special relevance for the mobile space. What usage patterns do you envision significantly affecting the way user interface development has to continue to reinvent itself in the next five years?

The convergence of services, features and functionalities into the mobile device is not going to slow down. Looking into the future, your question presents a challenging time frame – five years is a long time in mobile! It’s clear that users of all devices, even lower-end handsets, will expect UIs that intuitively and smoothly (60 frames per second) do the things that currently only the higher-end devices do, like multi-touch and gesture-based input.

I think it’s entirely possible that phone UIs will become even more tactile (areas other than the main screen serving some sort of touch-based purpose), and by depth I mean an interface that appears to have more than two dimensions – we see already today that 3D displays and 7.1 surround systems are entering the consumer market.

And what’s more important, users will expect that the content and applications they create and purchase are available to them on more than just one device. With Qt we have an open, ubiquitous computing platform that drives not just your mobile handset and your desktop, but also your car entertainment system, your digital photo frames, your set-top box and whatever other screens you will surround yourself with in five years. Qt will allow you to enjoy and access all that matters to you, wherever you are, using whatever UI innovations we are going to see come and go during the next five years. It’s our job to make sure Qt can fulfil every UI feature and use case developers can dream up, and we are working very hard to make sure that is the case.

Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter or get your first digital copy of the magazine for iPhone and iPad free – just search for ‘Linux User’ on the app store now!

Click here to see what else featured in issue 88 of Linux User & Developer magazine…