Details
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Suggestion
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Resolution: Won't Do
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Not Evaluated
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None
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6.x
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None
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Windows
Description
While Qt6 does not support Windows 7 (which is itself past EOL), the Qt5 and earlier toolchains can still be used with no issue. However, on Windows 7 machines, the latest online installer presents a difficulty where QtCreator 6 installation is forced even though it can't run (for example). Also, the installation succeeds with no indication that there will be a compatibility issue, even though it is known that QtCreator 6 is incompatible.
The current easiest installation workflow, then, is to use the online installer for the Qt5 toolchain components, and then install QtCreator 5 separately (which must be installed to a different location, and takes a bit of hunting and URL hacking to find on the website). Also it leaves the non-functional QtCreator 6 installed, which leads to a bunch of minor but unnecessary annoyances with things like start menu shortcut names, paths, etc.
To that end, I'd like to see the latest online installer be made aware of Windows 7. I propose the following:
When the online installer detects Windows 7 (or more generally, an incompatible platform):
- Offer the latest compatible version of QtCreator in the components list
- Make QtCreator 6 an optional component
- If QtCreator 6 or any of the Qt6 toolchains are selected, warn that Windows 7 is not supported
Alternatively, if there's some philosophical resistance to Windows 7, the following platform-agnostic approach would also solve the issue. So instead of the above, for all platforms:
- Make QtCreator (whatever version) an optional component
- Make older versions of QtCreator available in the Archive repositories
- Warn if any selected tools can't be run on the current platform
Even though Windows 7 is EOL, it seems to me like support can still remain in the online installer essentially with an "easy" (I think?) change of restoring older versions of creator to the available component repositories and changing some required components to optional.
In any case, the online installer shouldn't install applications that can't run on the current machine.
Thanks!