Qt Creator 3.1 beta released

We proudly present the Qt Creator 3.1 beta release today. This release introduces new features, as well as a whole bunch of bug fixes and improvements. About 1100 changes went into our repository since the 3.0.1 release, from around 45 authors. Many thanks to all who contributed so far!

Reading the git log is a bit boring (believe me ;) ), so you find a summary in our change log, and I'll highlight a few things here.

I think one of the most important things is that we finally integrated experimental support for a Clang-based C++ model. You might know that Qt Creator has its own code model, which has for example the advantage that it is very fast, but the disadvantage that this is traded for some correctness. You might also know that Clang, the LLVM front-end for C/C++/Objective-C/Objective-C++ provides a library that can be used to integrate it, for example, into IDEs. That has the advantage that it is correct (after all it's the base for a compiler), but the disadvantage that it is not very fast. We have been talking about integrating Clang into Qt Creator for a long time, and also had an experimental branch for it, and now we finally have integrated it as an option into Qt Creator.

So, in Qt Creator 3.1 you have the option to base highlighting and code completion on the Clang code model. The global indexing and navigation features are still based on the internal code model, so we still benefit from its speed and error recovery. To enable this feature, you have to enable the plugin in Help > About Plugins > C++ > ClangCodeModel, and tell Qt Creator to use it in Options > C++ > Code Model. The binary builds that we provide already ship with everything necessary for this to work. If you build Qt Creator from sources, you should have a look at the plugin's README.

Another big change is that we drop support for GDBs that do not support scripting through Python. The most relevant GDB that didn't support it, was the version provided by Apple, and they dropped support for it with Xcode 5 as well. Please use the LLDB integration in Qt Creator on OS X.

On the platform side of things, QNX now supports the pretty printers for debugging, added pages for managing debug tokens and runtime configurations, and many other things. Aside from many fixes in the Android support, installing the necessary parts for Android development became easier, with download buttons for the various parts from the Android toolkit. We also improved the support for the Java-parts a bit, with a minimal, specialized editor for Java files, that at least does some indentation and completion of keywords.

Also notable is the experimental Beautifier plugin, which allows you to apply different external source code formatter on your files. It currently has support for Artistic Style, Clang-format and Uncrustify. Many thanks to Lorenz Haas for contributing this!

Otherwise many issues with the QML Profiler have been fixed, debugging with LLDB got more features working, and there also is a new Load QML Stack context menu item in the stack window, that allows you to load the stack of the QML parts of your application (e.g. in case of a crash), even if you didn't explicitly have QML debugging switched on.

If you want to give Qt Creator 3.1 beta a try, you find the opensource version on the Qt Project download page, and Enterprise Customers find their package in the Qt Enterprise Customer Portal. Please post issues in our bug tracker. You also can find us on IRC on #qt-creator on irc.freenode.net, and on the Qt Creator mailing list.