Navico, the world’s largest marine electronics company, chose Qt after researching a number of cross-platform windowing systems, one of which it intended to employ in its wide range of embedded multi-function devices. Qt was selected because it provided not only a mature cross-platform GUI API, but also cross-platform support for multi-threading, a number of valuable operating system-related features (such as file I/O) and OpenGL support.
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Commenting on his company’s experience with Qt, Matthew Hunt, senior software design engineer, Navico, said: “For our products, cross-platform support is extremely important and Qt provides this for all its components. This allows us to share code and development resources among many platforms simultaneously. Code reusability avoids unnecessary duplication and has definitely reduced our overall development time. Because of this, it has also reduced costs in terms of man hours.”
Qt is an established cross-platform application and user interface framework used in the automotive, medical, aerospace and industrial automation industries, among many others. Digia is responsible for all Qt activities including product development and commercial and open source licensing.
The Navico Lowrance HDS (High Definition System) is a multi-function device used in recreational marine vessels. Typical units include built-in sonar, GPS and detailed mapping of inland and coastal marine areas. Their applications include locating fish and identifying underwater structures; creation and marking of waypoints, routes and trails for fishing and navigational awareness and safety; and a variety of other tasks associated with monitoring and control of boats. The HDS range includes products with user interface displays of between five and ten inches (12.7-25.4cm).