Qt Contributors' Summit 2019 wrap-up

November 19-21 we had the Qt Contributor Summit 2019 in Berlin. These were intense three days of presentations and (mostly) technical discussions, in a very friendly and familiar atmosphere.

For those who never participated in a Qt Contributor Summit: It is the yearly gathering for the people who develop and contribute to Qt - be it from inside or outside of the company. It is a free event, mostly run as an Unconference. This year we had the event in Berlin, and for the first time in Adlershof, which allowed us to run some sessions inside The Qt Company's office.

A total of 110 people registered - and about 100 of them also showed up!

Some more hard facts from the registration data:

  • 36 Qt Project Maintainers registered, 33 Qt Project Approvers, and 29 Contributors, and finally 12 other project contributors, sponsors ...
  • 67 of the registered participants were from The Qt Company, followed by 7 people from KDAB, and 4 people having registered under the KDE label

So you see that mostly full-time developers were joining, reflecting also how the actual Qt is developed. Anyhow, I've seen also new faces, people that have just started contributing, or are planning to do so. To these people: It was great to have you there!

First Day

Sometimes it's hard to see the big picture in such a diverse project as Qt, which is why we tried a new format this year: The first day was reserved for presentations that should establish a common understanding of the big themes that are currently going on in Qt.

We started with a presentation by Lars Knoll, titled "Towards Qt 6". The following presentations by Ulf Hermann "QML Version 3" and Alexandru Croitor "CMake Port" further explored important topics for Qt 6. In the afternoon Volker Hilsheimer pitched the idea to move to a cherry-pick based development model in his "Branch Policy of Qt 6" session, followed by Tino Pysyssallo introducing the "Qt Marketplace".

The talk by David Edmundson of KDE fame on the topic of "KDE experience in attracting and nurturing contributors" was inspiring, and was fueling some further discussion on the topic of how to attract more contributors the second day. The last sessions of the day were technical again with a "Qt 6 Graphics Overview" by Laszlo Agocs, and Cristián Maureira-Fredes being the Qt for Python evangelist in his "Qt for Python in Qt 6" talk.

We finished the 'work day' off by refining the agenda for next two days, organized by Volker Hilsheimer and his ability to count hands in a microsecond ;)

But that was not it: In the evening we met in a Korean restaurant / bar to further discuss things, on-topic and off-topic.

 

qtcs-lars-presentation

Second and Third Day

The next two days were reserved for informal working meetings and discussions. It's too much to list all the sessions here: Check out the agenda page to get an impression. We asked that someone in every session should take notes; these got either posted to the wiki, or sent to the development@qt-project.org mailing list, where some of the notes created follow-on discussions. It was also Wednesday evening were KDAB donated freshly tapped beer for all participants!

Summary

Overall I think the Qt Contributor Summit 2019 was a success - we had lots of good discussions, and also new ideas being brought up. Besides the technical details, it is always good to have the contributors come together and see each other, it helps to feel as part a community.

A big thanks goes to all the people that were participating, the people helping organizing the event, and last but not least to our sponsors: Froglogic, ICS, The Qt Company, KDAB, Siili Solutions, and The Qt Company.


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