LSB-Futures Tracker - Qt
Current status of Qt in the LSB Futures process
Disclaimer
Abstract
Version $Revision: 1.15 $
Generated $Date: 2005/09/28 00:08:27 $
Phase 1 - Identification
Status Blocked
Group Desktop
Number #008
Assigned 2002-04-15
Demand Yes
Qt is included in all major Linux desktop distributions.
We've had quite a few requests from developers for it.
It was identified as heavily used in our candidate identification process.
License No
Qt is licensed under the QPL. While the QPL meets the Open Source Definition it contains clauses that would prevent use in commercial software which violates our license criteria. Please also see the FAQ on this.
Bestpractice Yes
Gtk and Qt solve the same problem, and both are very popular. It is obvious that none of them will become a clear "winner" in the forseeable future, and so the futures and the desktop working groups have taken the position that they should both be considered "best practise". Both for Qt and for Gtk it is disputed whether they fulfil this criterion alone or only as a pair.
Stable Yes
Releases of Qt are binary compatible within major versions. Different major versions can be installed in parallel
Depends Maybe
In a build of Qt where most required services are implemented within Qt instead of using system libraries.
    libc
    libdl
    libgcc_s
    libm
    libstdc++
    libX11
    libXext
All of those libraries are already in the LSB.
In a sample distro build the following additional libraries were needed,
    libaudio
    libexpat
    libfontconfig
    libfreetype
    libGL (LSB)
    libICE
    libpng12
    libpthread
    libSM
    libXcursor
    libXft
    libXmu
    libXrandr
    libXrender
    libXt (LSB)
    libz (LSB)
Some of these are already in the LSB, some are in plan, and some could be reasonably expected to be abstracted away from the user and not required to be added to the LSB.
Phase 2 - Investigation
Rationale Yes
Qt is a modern cross-platform toolkit used by a large number of Linux desktop applications. Qt is the base for the KDE desktop, which most major distributions include as their default desktop (e.g. SUSE, Mandriva, Slackware, Xandros, Linspire, Knoppix, Turbolinux, Kubuntu), or as an equal choice at install time (e.g. Novell Desktop Linux, Gentoo, Debian), or as an additional option (e.g. Red Hat, JDS, Ubuntu). Qt is used for many existing applications, both Free and Proprietary.
Upstream Yes
Trolltech, as the maintainer of the canonical implementation, has a proven successful record of keeping Qt stable and backwards compatible, and is committed to supporting Qt becoming part of the LSB.
Distros Unknown
There are no known problems between package maintainers and upstream providers. Need to contact them and get their approval for participating in the standards effort and document here.
Versions Unknown
Trolltech's Qt implementation is the only current implementation. We need to determine the versions that upstream, distributions, and developers are using and document them here.
Patches Unknown
Distributors are pretty good about merging their patches upstream via the KDE repository, but we need to gather and review their outstanding patch sets and look for any potential problems or improvements to ensure that they keep to the same ABI.
I18n Yes
Qt include a translation and localisation framework
Resources Yes
Trolltech has offered to provide all needed specifications, testcases and documentation
Phase 3 - Implementation
Db
Spec
Test
Devel
Sample
Appbat
Notes
Return to main candidate tracker page
Last generated on Wed Sep 28 00:12:39 2005 GMT.