Install qtdeclarative with Homebrew, apt

Project links

• Homepage
• Package manager page

Commands and aliases

• qml
• qmlcontextpropertydump
• qmldom
• qmleasing
• qmlformat
• qmllint
• qmlls
• qmlplugindump
• qmlpreview
• qmlprofiler
• qmlscene
• qmltc
• qmltestrunner
• qmltime
• svgtoqml

Project history

Qt 4.7 introduced Qt Quick as a UI creation kit combining the QML language, the QtDeclarative C++ engine, and Qt Creator integration. It targeted fluid, animated interfaces while preserving integration with Qt's C++ object system.

In the Qt 5 and Qt 6 architecture, Qt QML provides the language and engine infrastructure while Qt Quick supplies the visual canvas, input, models, views, and animation types. Qt Quick 2 uses a retained scene graph capable of rendering through OpenGL, Vulkan, Metal, or Direct3D.

Adoption history

Qt Quick became a cornerstone of Qt's application architecture. Distribution packaging commonly exposes the underlying qtdeclarative repository separately even though developers encounter its public modules as Qt QML, Qt Quick, Qt Quick Controls, layouts, testing tools, and related QML tooling.

How it is used

Developers write object trees, bindings, states, transitions, animations, and JavaScript logic in QML, then connect them to C++ through properties, models, methods, and registered QML types. The package also supplies tools such as qmllint, qmlformat, qmlls, qmlscene, and qmlprofiler.

Why package nerds care

The repository-to-module naming mismatch is notable to package maintainers: qtdeclarative is the source package behind a broad collection of QML libraries and command-line tools. It is a foundational dependency for many Qt add-ons rather than merely a single library.

Timeline

• 2010: Qt 4.7 introduced Qt Quick, QML, and the QtDeclarative module.
• 2012: Qt 5 established Qt QML and Qt Quick 2 as core parts of the framework.
• 2020: Qt 6 moved the Qt Quick rendering stack onto the cross-platform Rendering Hardware Interface.

Related projects

• Qt Quick 3D extends the Qt Quick scene graph with spatial content.
• Qt Lottie Animation renders or converts Lottie assets for use in Qt Quick.
• Qt Quick Effect Maker generates shader effects for Qt Quick applications.

Sources

• https://code.qt.io/cgit/qt/qtdeclarative.git/
• https://doc.qt.io/Archives/qt-4.7/qt4-7-intro.html
• https://doc.qt.io/Archives/qt-4.7/qtquick.html
• https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtqml-index.html
• https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquick-index.html
• https://doc.qt.io/qt-6/qtquick-visualcanvas-scenegraph.html