Qt Creator 4.9 has been released, extending support for the language server protocol and improving diagnostics for C++ developers.

The language server protocol was added in version 4.8 but can now work with document outlines, find usages and – using code actions – lets the language server suggest fixes or refactoring actions at a specific place in a piece of code. The custom highlighting file parser, meanwhile, has been replaced with KSyntaxHighlighting – the library also used in KDE.

Another slew of changes improve C++ support, with – amongst other things – an option to format code instead of only indenting it, a tooltip button for copying and ignoring diagnostics, and an option to synchronise ‘Include Hierarchy’ with the current document.

Improved error handling in Qt Quick Application project templates facilitates use of QML, Qt 5.13 is now an option in the wizards, and the updated parser adds support for ECMAScript 7.

Fixes and enhancements to the version-control support should make the development experience more seamless, and include a Push action in the Git Branches view as well as tracking for detached HEADs. On top of that, the messages following a failing submit editor validation in Git have been improved, the handling of commit errors for Subversion is supposed to work better, and there is a side-by-side diff viewer for Mercurial in place.

To get first-timers an easier way in, version 4.9 comes with a high-level introduction to Qt Creator’s UI and improved context help for code errors and diagnostics available.

While there haven’t been any platform-specific changes for regular Linux, the new Creator comes with support for the macOS Touch Bar, Microsoft Visual C++ 2019, and “ssh-askpass”, X11 forwarding, run in terminal, and the ability to open a remote terminal from device settings for remote Linux targets. The QmakeAndroidSupport plugin has been removed with functionalities merged into other plugins.

Qt Creator is a cross-platform IDE, which is mainly meant for C++, JavaScript and QML development with the Qt framework. Its source code can be found on GitHub, where it is licensed under GPLv3 with added exceptions.