Cute Qt for embedded systems

Today we are going to talk about cross-platform toolkits for embedded systems and our expertise in using the Qt framework.

Cross-platform frameworks are great solutions as they allow designers to create software that runs on multiple operating systems.

Qt logo image

Based on C++, Qt is a well-known GUI framework for desktop, mobile, and embedded application development. The toolkit supports the WOCA principle (write once, compile anywhere), which means that software can be compiled on different platforms without modifying its source code.

Qt can be used under commercial and open-source licenses. You can use Qt under an open-source license for projects with an open-source distribution or without an external distribution.

C++ is a very efficient language used in lots of embedded systems.?

The following are the benefits of using Qt for the development of embedded systems:

• Qt has everything you need for UI and non-UI application development.
• The framework contains a lot of different modules that allow designers to quickly and easily create and deploy GUI applications of various levels of complexity. Qt can be adjusted to each project’s requirements.
• Qt supports a wide range of operating systems.
• The software can be created very fast with the QtCreator, an integrated development environment.?
• Qt runs on different processors and uses memory efficiently.?
• There are bindings for various languages.
• The Qt community is very large and active.?
• Detailed documentation with examples is always available.

There are some disadvantages:

• C++ is hard to learn. Beginners or developers without C++ knowledge can have some difficulties while working with Qt.
• Cross-platform apps may run slightly slower than native apps.
• Compilation may require additional developer actions.

A developer always has a choice of cross-platform frameworks based on his preferences, knowledge of a particular programming language, and the tasks facing him. So he can choose solutions such as those listed below.

• .NET is a Microsoft-owned open-source cross-platform solution. It supports C#, F#, and Visual Basic and has an active and helpful community.
• Xamarin is an open-source C# solution for mobile application development. Xamarin is a part of .Net, but can also be used on its own.
• Flutter is a Google-owned UI framework with Dart language support.?
• Frameworks based on Java are lightweight, extensible, and provide easy and quick application engineering. Java is one of the most popular languages currently.
• GTK+ is an open-source GUI cross-platform based on the C language with bindings for other languages.?
• The Simple DirectMedia Layer (SDL) is an open-source cross-platform library popular among game developers. The library is written in C/C++ and Objective-C. SDL is well-known for its language translation capabilities.?

Cross-platform toolkits are used for embedded software development.

Developers familiar with C++ also have a large selection of C++ GUI packages for building cross-platform applications:

• FLTK is a fast and simple multi-platform framework with 3D graphics support.
• wxWidgets is a mature, fast, free GUI toolkit. It provides bindings for several languages.?
• JUCE is a lightweight cross-platform framework well-known for its ability to create audio applications.
• Ultimate ++ is an easy-to-use framework that can create large applications. It has a good documentary base and a large community of developers.

This is not a complete list of cross-platform frameworks for creating different applications. All of them are deservedly popular among developers and are used to solve various tasks. Designers give preference to one or another solution, focusing on the direction of the project, its complexity, and timing, taking into account their knowledge and experience.

Despite an extensive range of cross-platform solutions, including C++ toolkits, Integra Sources chooses Qt as a far more suitable and handy framework for embedded systems. Our team has been successfully using Qt in projects for a long time and has accumulated sufficient expertise.

One of our projects involved developing a device to measure the distance from an object to an obstacle, as well as writing an application to interact with such devices. The client part was supposed to be in Python, and Qt was supposed to be used to create an Android application. In the course of work, due to performance and compatibility problems, it was decided to replace the microcontroller and create the client part using Qt. As a result, this framework allowed us to create an efficient embedded multi-threaded application very quickly.

Read the article on our blog to find out more about the projects related to the use of Qt.