Nokia has released the first major update to Qt since it acquired Trolltech a year ago, with licensing and features to increase the application and UI framework's appeal.

Qt 4.5 is now available under the Lesser General Public License (GPL) for the first time, in addition to the GPL and two commercial licenses sported by older editions of Qt.

Updates to Qt introduce major changes for web, graphics, and developers building on the Mac. Changes include support for the latest version of WebKit, advanced web UI effects, and "significant" performance enhancements to the graphics system, data handling, and web engine.

Support for Apple's Carbon has been updated to include the Cocoa framework, so you can build applications for 32- and 64-bit for Intel or PowerPC Mac binaries.

A lightweight cross-platform Qt integrated development environment (IDE) is also included for the first time. Codenamed Project Greenhouse during development, Qt Creator features include an advanced C++ editor, visual designer, source-code management, and project and build management tools. Nokia said Qt Creator would help developers who are new to the Qt framework to quickly get up and running. ®

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