Qt 5.8 on the Pi

Qt 5.8 is not available out of the box on the Pi.

Qt is one of the easiest GUI toolkits to learn for C++. It also includes an IDE that is as good if not better than Visual Studio 2015/2017.

To use the latest Qt you have to download and build it.

Assuming you have managed to download Qt 5.8.

cd extraction_directory
./configure -opensource -confirm-license

Select to either use the commercial licence (30days only) or the 'LGPL v3' licence. I've gone for the LGPL licence.

The default install location will be /usr/local. You can change the installation directory if necessary. At work we tend to install to /opt.

Note: the LGPL runtime exception for Qt is still in force even though the online licence information makes no mention of it any more. Look for the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt. This potentially means that you can use Qt for a commercial product as long as you link to the shared libraries. I say potentially because I am not a Lawyer.

Now you need to wait... for sometime... I really should have swapped out to my Pi 3!

NOTE: This is the simplistic way to build Qt. There is a better way but it is more complex. If I have time I will detail how in a new post.

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