We are happy to announce the release of Qt Creator 4.8.0!

Programming Language Support

We have added experimental support for the Language Server Protocol (LSP), which adds basic support for various programming languages to Qt Creator.

The Language Server Protocol is a standardized bridge between an editor or an IDE and a programming language. This makes it easy for a programming language to be supported by editors and IDEs: If it provides a server application that speaks this protocol, every editor that implements a language protocol client gains support for code completion, code navigation and code diagnostics for the programming language. And of course the other way round: An editor that implements a language protocol client automatically gains basic support for a various range of programming languages. There are language server implementations for many programming languages already. You can find lists of implementations and their state for example on the official LSP website and on a community driven site.

To set up a language server in Qt Creator, you first need to enable the LanguageClient plugin in Help > About Plugins (Qt Creator > About Plugins on macOS). Then open the language client options, add a language server executable, and specify the MIME type or glob patterns to open with that language server, and any arguments that the server needs to be passed on the command line.

Qt Creator currently supports code completion, highlighting of the symbol under cursor, and jumping to the symbol definition, and integrates diagnostics from the language server. Code highlighting is done through the generic highlighter, since the Language Server Protocol does not provide it.

C++ Support

We updated the Clang code model to LLVM 7.0. We also implemented Follow Symbol for the auto keyword, and completion tooltips now show the available overloads for the selected function. You can export the information that the code model has about your project as a compilation database with the new Build > Generate Compilation Database.

There are several new experimental plugins as well:

Compilation Database Projects

After enabling the CompilationDatabaseProjectManager plugin, you can open compilation databases as projects in Qt Creator. A compilation database is basically a list of files and the compiler flags that are used to compile them. Some build systems and tools are able to generate such databases for use in other tools. This can be an alternative to using a Generic Project, since it feeds better information about compiler flags and include paths to the code model.

Clang Format Based Indentation

Does auto-indentation via LibFormat which is the backend used by Clang Format. Enable the plugin ClangFormat to try it.

Cppcheck Diagnostics

Integrates diagnostics generated by the tool Cppcheck into the editor. Enable the plugin Cppcheck to try it.

Debugging

Qt Creator 4.8 supports simultaneously running multiple debuggers. The debugger tool bar in the Debug mode has an additional pop up menu where you can switch between running debugger instances and the "preset" view which allows to start new debuggers. Each running debugger instance also maintains its own set of views (Locals, Watches, Stack, etc) and their layout.

Get Qt Creator 4.8.0

The opensource version is available on the Qt download page, and you find commercially licensed packages on the Qt Account Portal. Qt Creator 4.8.0 is also available through an update in the online installer. Please post issues in our bug tracker. You can also find us on IRC on #qt-creator on chat.freenode.net, and on the Qt Creator mailing list.