// Copyright (C) 2022 The Qt Company Ltd.
// SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only

/*!
\page topics-app-development.html
\title Development Tools
    \brief Qt tools for application development.
    \ingroup explanations-tools

    Qt is designed for developing applications and user interfaces once and
    deploying them across several desktop and mobile operating systems.

    The easiest way to start application development with Qt is to \l{Downloads}
    {download} and install Qt. Qt installations contain Qt libraries, examples,
    documentation, and the necessary development tools, such as the
    \l{Qt Creator Manual}{Qt Creator} integrated development environment (IDE).
    For more information, visit the \l{Getting Started with Qt} page.

    \section1 Qt Creator

    \l{Qt Creator Manual}{Qt Creator} provides you with tools for accomplishing
    your tasks throughout the whole application development life-cycle, from
    creating a project to deploying the application on the target platforms. Qt
    Creator automates some tasks, such as creating projects, by providing
    wizards that guide you step-by-step through the project creation process,
    create the necessary files, and specify settings depending on the choices
    you make. Also, it speeds up some tasks, such as writing code, by offering
    semantic highlighting, checking code syntax, code completion, refactoring
    actions, and other useful features.

    \image qtcreator/qtcreator-qt-quick-editors.png


    \section1 Design Tools

    \b{Qt Designer} is a tool within Qt Creator for designing and building
    graphical user interfaces (GUIs) for Qt Widgets. You can compose and
    customize your widgets or dialogs in a visual editor, and test them using
    different styles and resolutions. \QD is also available as a
    standalone tool. Both versions of \QD only differ in some
    functionalities such as the use of resource files and how to switch in the
    design and edit mode. For more information, visit the
    \l{Qt Designer Manual}{Qt Designer} manual.


    \section2 Collaboration with Designers

    Qt lets designers import assets from imaging and design tools, such as Adobe
    Photoshop, Sketch, Figma, Blender, or Maya, create layouts and flows, and
    generate code for developers. \l{Qt Design Studio Manual}{Qt Design Studio}
    is a tool that provides rich and fluid components,
    a code editor, timeline-based animations, visual effects, layouts, and
    a live-preview for prototyping. Qt Design Studio generates code for
    developers to use in Qt Creator. For more information about the tools for
    designers, visit the \l{Qt Design Studio Manual}{Qt Design Studio} manual.


    \section1 Build Tools

    Qt Creator creates project templates for different build systems. You can
    create \e kits for different combinations of target platforms and build
    environments. Qt Creator supports CMake, qmake, Qbs, Autotools, Nimble,
    Meson, and IncrediBuild projects.

    For more information about project templates and building in Qt Creator,
    see:
    \list
    \li \l{Qt Creator: Build Systems}
    \li \l{Qt Creator: Building for Multiple Platforms}
    \endlist


    \section2 Configuring and Building Qt

    You can configure and build Qt from source using \b CMake or \b qmake.
    Custom configurations are for developers of Qt and for porting Qt to
    different targets. The \l{Qt Platform Abstraction} is an abstraction
    layer to facilitate Qt ports onto different platforms and targets.

    For more information about building Qt, see:
    \list
    \li \l{Build with CMake}
    \li \l{qmake Manual}
    \li \l{Qt Platform Abstraction}
    \li \l{Supported Platforms}
    \endlist


    \section1 Internationalization and Help Tools

    You can localize your application to different languages. Use the Qt
    \l{Internationalization with Qt}{internationalization} framework
    for handling different writing systems, translating interfaces, and for
    displaying numbers, dates, and currency in different formats.
    \l{Qt Linguist Manual}{Qt Linguist} is a tool for translators for
    translating applications. Together with release managers and developers,
    they produce, store, and deploy translated text in the UI.

    For more information about internationalization and localization, see:
    \list
    \li \l{Internationalization with Qt}
    \li \l{Qt Linguist Manual}{Qt Linguist}
    \li \l{Writing Source Code for Translation}
    \endlist

    You can use the \l{The Qt Help Framework}{Qt Help} framework to create and
    package help files for complex applications. The help framework involves
    XML-based formats and tools to create content, set the order and filters
    for application manuals.

    \list
    \li \l{The Qt Help Framework}
    \li \l{Qt Help} C++ module
    \endlist

*/

