Qt for Windows Runtime Is Prepared with These Trends in Mind
Case Study: Porting Qt to Windows Runtime Andrew Knight University of Tampere School of Information Sciences Interactive Technology: User Interface Software Development M.Sc. thesis Supervisor: Roope Raisamo June 2014 University of Tampere School of Information Sciences Interactive Technology: User Interface Software Development Andrew Knight: Case Study: Porting Qt to Windows Runtime M.Sc. thesis, 49 pages, 18 index and appendix pages June 2014 With the abundance of operating system choices available to end-users, particularly for mobile devices, application developers look for ways to cut development time while increasing the portability and maintainability of their source code. One solution to this challenge can be found through use of cross-platform frameworks. Cross-platform frameworks function by abstracting the system-specific details of incompatible platforms into a common programming interface which developers can use to target many different devices and operating systems. This thesis studies the abstraction architecture of Qt, a leading cross-platform C++ graphical user interface framework, with the goal of bringing a new platform, Windows Runtime, to the framework's set of supported targets. Windows Runtime is a collective programming interface for the Microsoft Windows 8 family of operating systems, including Windows 8, Windows Phone 8, and Windows RT. While Qt already supports a range of desktop and mobile operating systems ‒ including Windows, Mac OSX, Linux/X11, Android, iOS, BlackBerry, and Sailfish ‒ support for Windows Runtime is a new feature of the framework brought forth by this case study. Current trends in cross-platform frameworks, particularly declarative user interface frameworks with a mobile emphasis, are assessed and compared to Qt's offering, and the implementation of Qt for Windows Runtime is prepared with these trends in mind.
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