[ros-users] [Discourse.ros.org] [Next Generation ROS] RQT in ROS2

[Mike Lautman]

Hello ROS community!

We are excited to announce that [PickNik](https://picknik.ai/) is working with [Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/) to port the plugin-based graphical user interface [RQT](http://wiki.ros.org/rqt) to ROS2 for the December Crystal release. The RQT packages provide an easier entry-point for a broader user base than command line usage. RQT is built using the open source cross-platform framework [QT](https://www.qt.io/).

Our primary approach to this effort will be:
* Target only the RQT-common plugins and dependencies
* Add support of Python3 and ament build system
* Support OSX and Windows
* Rework ROS middleware plugins to work with DDS
* Support the other core ROS libraries that are currently being developed by being first adopters of their new APIs, such as rosbag, roslaunch, and actionlib. 

We invite the community to provide feedback and suggestions on RQT by replying to this thread. While this is an ideal time to break API, given time and resource constraints, enhancements will be secondary to porting existing functionality. However, this thread will also act as a rough roadmap to guide future enhancements.

We believe this is an excellent opportunity to contribute to the ROS2 development effort and a first step in preparing PickNik to migrate [MoveIt!](http://moveit.ros.org/) to ROS2. We are grateful to the community and corporate partners like Amazon that help drive improvements for ROS.

Thanks,
The PickNik Team





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