Portal:Desktop

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Setting up Your Computer for Application Development

Choosing a Suitable Operating System

First of all you need to install a suitable operating system (OS) on your development machine. From now on we'll call that development machine the host machine and the OS it runs we'll call the host platform. The choice for a suitable host platform depends on what we'll call the target platform. The target platform is the OS on which the applications you are going to develop will run on.

In simple words:

  • If you want to write programs that run on Linux then for development you'll need a computer that also runs Linux.
  • If you want to write programs that run on Windows then for development you'll need a computer that also runs Windows.
  • If you want to write programs that run on OS X then for development you'll need a computer that also runs OS X.

Now, let's say your computer already runs operating system A but you want to write programs for operating system B. If you want to stay with A you can. You don't have to wipe your harddrive. You can install B in a virtual machine. So if your computer is a Mac you can install Linux and Windows in virtual machines and you're ready to target all three platforms with a single computer.

Choosing a Suitable Compiler

Qt is a C++ framework and works will all standard compliant C++ compilers. It's up to you which one you want to use. If you don't have any special demands then do this:

  • On Linux, use the GCC compiler that comes with your Linux distribution.
  • On Windows, use Microsoft Visual Studio Compiler 2015 (MSVC 2015).
  • On OS X, use the Clang compiler provided by Apple.

GCC and Clang are free software.

MSVC is not free software. You'll need a developer license to use MSVC. Luckily it is available as a free of charge "community edition". Consult Microsoft for license details.

If you can't or don't want to use MSVC and your host platform is Windows 7 or Windows 8.1, but not Windows 10, then you can instead use the GCC port for Windows, called MinGW.

The actual situation is a bit more complex. Have a look at Supported Platforms.

Deployment

Installing / Building Qt

Widgets

QtQuick

2D

Database

Guidelines

WinRT

Other