Creating applications for cross-platform compatibility is a modern best practice. It increases deployment flexibility and allows applications to reach a wider audience. However, doing it properly can involve some trial and error. At KDAB, we’ve built many multiplatform desktop applications. Here, we’ve compiled a few insights from that process to help you build better software. […]

CppCon is the annual, week-long face-to-face gathering for the entire C++ community – the biggest C++ event in the world. This year, CppCon takes place in Aurora, Colorado, near the Denver airport. Including multiple diverse tracks, the conference will appeal to anyone from C++ novices to experts. At CppCon, you can expect interesting talks and […]

In the previous posts of this series (if you've missed them: parts 1, 2, 3, and 4), we have learned about relocation and trivial relocation. We have explored what relocation means, what trivial relocation means, and how it can be used to optimize the implementation of certain data structures, such as the reallocation of a […]

It's been around 10 months since the last release, and we're pleased to introduce GammaRay 3.1. GammaRay is a powerful tool for developers using Qt, providing deep inspection capabilities to help you understand and troubleshoot your applications. With this new release, we've made several important updates and improvements to further streamline your development process. What […]

In our earlier blog, The Smarter Way to Rust, we discuss why a blend of C++ and Rust is sometimes the best solution to building robust applications. But when you’re merging these two languages, it’s critical to keep in mind that the transition from C++ to Rust isn’t about syntax, it’s about philosophy. Adapting to […]

Motivation Let’s say we’re working on a QML project that involves a TextEdit. There’s some text in it: here is some text We want to select part of this text and hit ctrl+B to make it bold: here is some text In Qt Widgets, this is trivial, but not so much in QML – we […]

An over-the-air (OTA) update capability is an increasingly critical part of any embedded product to close cybersecurity vulnerabilities, allow just-in-time product rollouts, stomp out bugs, and deliver new features. We’ve talked about some of the key structural elements that go into an embedded OTA architecture before. But what about the back end? Let’s address some […]

Building system images for embedded devices from the ground up is a very complex process, that involves many different kinds of requirements for the build tooling around it. Traditionally, the most popular build systems used in this context are the Yocto project and buildroot. These build systems make it easy to set up toolchains for […]

If you’ve been following our blog, you’re likely aware of Rust’s growing presence in embedded systems. While Rust excels in safety-by-design, it’s also common to find it integrated with C++. This strategic approach leverages the strengths of both languages, including extensive C++ capabilities honed over the years in complex embedded systems. Let’s delve into some […]

You've reached the third and final entry of the Instantiating arbitrary Qt Quick components with JSON series. Part 1 and Part 2 can be found at their respective links. The first part focuses on the software design pattern used to dynamically instantiate components. The second one shows how to layout these dynamic components by incorporating […]

We’ve explained some of the architectural elements of building your own firmware over-the-air (OTA) soution for IoT and embedded systems in a previous blog. But what about the hardware requirements? Or processes? Let’s explore issues that are essential to solve for a robust OTA solution. Maximizing flash longevity Modern devices rely on solid-state drives, which […]

Qt Test is a framework designed for unit testing applications and libraries built with Qt. It provides all the standard features commonly found in unit testing frameworks, making it easier to write unit tests for Qt-based projects. We're happy to introduce the QtTest Runner - a Visual Studio Code extension for running Qt Tests via […]

Since we first announced it last year, our Vulkan wrapper KDGpu has been busy evolving to meet customer needs and our own. Our last post announced the public release of v0.1.0, and version 0.5.0 is available today. It's never been easier to interact with modern graphics technologies, enabling you to focus on the big picture […]

KDDockWidgets has launched its latest version 2.1. This release comes packed with over 500 commits, offering enhanced stability over its predecessor, version 2.0, without introducing any breaking changes. KDDockWidgets is a versatile framework for custom-tailored docking systems in Qt written by KDAB’s Sérgio Martins. For more information about its rich set of features, have a […]

In the last post of this series we learned that: erasing elements from the middle of a vector can be implemented, in general, via a series of move assignments, move constructions, swaps, destructions for types with value semantics, the exact strategy does not really matter for types with write-through reference semantics, the strategy matters, because […]

In the last post of this series we started exploring how to erase an element from the middle of a vector. We discussed that in principle there are several different possible ways to implement erase().For instance, a vector could move-assign over the elements to be erased: Alternatively, a vector could use rotations or some other […]

I was tasked to come up with a simple architecture for remote real time instantiation of arbitrary QML components. I’ve split my findings into 3 blog entries, each one covering a slightly different topic. Part 1 focuses on the software design pattern used to dynamically instantiate components. Part 2 shows how to layout these dynamic […]

In the last post of this series we discussed the usage of trivial relocation in order to optimize move construction followed by the destruction of the source. To quickly recap: objects of certain datatypes ("trivially relocatable" types) can be moved in memory by simply moving bytes; this can be used to optimize certain bulk operations […]

The container classes introduced in Qt 4 (Tulip, for the aficionados) had an interesting optimization: the ability to turn certain operations on the contained objects into byte-level manipulations. Example: vector reallocation Consider the reallocation of a QVector<T>: when the vector is full and we want to insert a new value (of type T), the vector […]

Hotspot is a standalone GUI designed to provide a user-friendly interface for analyzing performance data. It takes a perf.data file, parses and evaluates its contents, and presents the results in a visually appealing and easily understandable manner. Our goal with Hotspot is to offer a modern alternative to perf report, making performance analysis on Linux […]