Jesper K. Pedersen

CLion almost has a “Go to Next Error” key binding — but it doesn’t work like Qt Creator, where F6 jumps to the next compilation error. In this video, we’ll look at how it works and how to configure it to behave the same way as Qt Creator.

CLion (with Qt Creator shortcuts) are missing a simple way to move up and down the stack in a debugging session. This episode will help you resolve that problem.

In this second of three conversations with Nicolai Josuttis, Jesper and Nicolai dive into the controversial design of Filter View in C++20, C++23, and the upcoming C++26.

In Nicolai's view, safety and usability are seriously challenged by flaws in Filter View that could have been avoided.

In this episode of The Curious Developer, Jesper Pedersen (KDAB) sits down with bestselling C++ author and long‑time standards committee member Nicolai Josuttis to talk about how C++ standards actually evolve, why C++23 is so hard to cover, and how years of teaching shape his “complete guide” books for both beginners and experts.

Wouldn't it be cool if you could easily navigate around the Qt sources, when you are doing your own development? Well, you can.

In this episode Jesper reveals two tricks for setting up your Qt Creator locator to help you.

F1 does not get you to the help for a given Qt class in CLion as it does in Qt Creator, so how do you get there?

This episode will tell you how to configure keybindings and how to tell what function is on a given key.

Should helper functions go in C++ files rather than as private member functions? Peppe provides a thorough answer beyond yes/no, explaining why you should use anonymous namespaces and static keywords for such functions. He also demonstrates an interesting bug that occurs when classes declared in cpp files aren't placed in anonymous namespaces, illustrating the practical importance of proper scoping.

With the release of Qt 6.11, Jesper Pedersen meets with Qt Group's Maycon Stamboroski to talk, among other things, about improvements including QCanvasPainter in Qt Quick, QRangeModelAdapter in QRangeModel and the benefits of the new TaskTree. What we can expect in Qt 6:12 is also discussed.

CLion comes with its own code formatter: Should you use that or clang-format?

And if you chose clang-format, how do you set that up?

Disclaimer:

This reflects CLion at the time of recording. New versions might be different.

For Qt Creator users accustomed to kits, CLion's toolchains and CMake profiles can feel opaque. Jesper Pedersen explains how CLion discovers Qt via qmake in PATH, how to define separate toolchains loading environment settings from setup files for each Qt version, and how to create CMake profiles like "Debug-6.9" to switch Qt versions like Qt Creator kits - including disabling unused profiles to avoid constant rebuilds.

Qt Designer integration in CLion is nowhere near as smooth as in Qt Creator, but you can still make working with .ui files reasonably convenient.

In this episode, Jesper Pedersen shows how to configure an External Tool for Qt Designer that always opens the matching .ui file next to your current .cpp, and then bind it to the familiar Shift+F4 shortcut so you can jump from code into the form editor with a single keystroke – plus a quick bonus on re‑binding “Open tab in new window” to Ctrl+E,4 to better mimic Qt Creator’s window handling.

In this short episode, Jesper Pedersen shows Qt Creator users how to feel at home in CLion by re‑creating their beloved Ctrl+K locator workflow. You’ll learn how CLion’s “Search Everywhere” (Shift+Shift) works, how to quickly jump between symbols, files, actions and text, and how to bind it to Ctrl+K so you stop accidentally typing into the current editor instead of switching files.

Switching IDEs is challenging - muscle memory and familiar workflows are hard to overcome. Jesper Pedersen explores JetBrains' CLion after a decade with Qt Creator, demonstrating what works well for Qt/CMake projects and what feels rough for Qt Creator users. This intro covers trying CLion safely, switching to Qt Creator keymaps, configuring existing projects, creating Qt Widgets projects, and exploring debugging and Git integration.

QRangeModel was introduced in Qt 6.10. Finally, we do no longer need to subclass to be able to provide data to a view - or do we? In this episode, Jesper show how to work with this new class, and discusses when it is a good idea to use, and when it is less so.

This 2025 conversation with Meeting C++ organizer Jens Weller reflects on highlights from the Meeting C++ 2025 conference and the evolving C++ landscape.

Topics include standout keynotes, major announcements like Toyota’s move to open source parts of its real-time work, and the strong interest in upcoming standards such as C++20 and C++26.

Talk submissions on practical real-world use of established technologies and libraries are also encouraged.

What happens if you lose power while in the middle of overriding an important setting file? Or how about if the hard disk runs full? Watch this episode to find out!

Is C++ really unsafe, or is the problem how we use it? Jesper Pedersen interviews Klaus Iglberger, author of "C++ Software Design Patterns," about modern C++ challenges and misconceptions. Klaus argues C++ can be safe with the right techniques, discussing why the community fears pointers, the importance of standard algorithms, modernizing legacy codebases, AI-assisted refactoring, and why keeping code simple reduces bugs and improves maintainability.

Join Jesper Pedersen at NDC Techtown 2025 for a conversation with Anders Schau Knatten—C++ expert, creator of cppquiz.org, and author of "C++ Brain Teasers." Anders discusses his journey from pub trivia to publishing, why low-level programming concepts matter, learning "just enough assembly," the importance of undefined behavior in C++, his favorite developer tools, and running live quizzes that stump even experts.

Struggling with CMake and build systems? This interview with Nicole Patricia Mazzuca, build expert at Remarkable and former Microsoft vcpkg contributor, explores C++ build tooling challenges. Nicole discusses developer opinions on CMake and introduces Rho - a new CMake library making builds simpler and more maintainable. Topics include vcpkg's dependency management and community-driven approaches to evolving C++ tools.