Qt is a cross-platform application framework that is widely used for developing application software with a graphical user interface (in which cases Qt is classified as a widget toolkit), and also used for developing non-GUI programs such as command-line tools and consoles for servers. Qt is most notably used in Autodesk Maya, Google Earth, KDE, Adobe Photoshop Elements, OPIE, Skype, VLC media player,VirtualBox, and Mathematica and by the European Space Agency, Siemens, Volvo, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Samsung, Philips, and Panasonic.
It is currently produced by Nokia's Qt Development Frameworks division, which came into being after Nokia's acquisition of the Norwegian company Trolltech, the original producer of Qt.
Qt uses standard C++ but makes extensive use of a special code generator (called the Meta Object Compiler, or moc) together with several macros to enrich the language. Qt can also be used in several other programming languages via language bindings. It runs on the major desktop platforms and some of the mobile platforms. It has extensive internationalization support. Non-GUI features include SQL database access, XML parsing, thread management, network support, and a unified cross-platform API for file handling.
Distributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License (among others), Qt is free and open source software. All editions support a wide range of compilers, including the GCC C++ compiler and the Visual Studio suite.
