source: trunk/doc/src/examples-overview.qdoc@ 109

/****************************************************************************
**
** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
** Contact: Qt Software Information ([email protected])
**
** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
**
** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
** Commercial Usage
** Licensees holding valid Qt Commercial licenses may use this file in
** accordance with the Qt Commercial License Agreement provided with the
** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
** a written agreement between you and Nokia.
**
** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser
** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the
** packaging of this file.  Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements
** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html.
**
** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain
** additional rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL
** Exception version 1.0, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this
** package.
**
** GNU General Public License Usage
** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU
** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software
** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the
** packaging of this file.  Please review the following information to
** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be
** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
**
** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please
** contact the sales department at [email protected].
** $QT_END_LICENSE$
**
****************************************************************************/

/*!
  \page examples-overview.html
  \title An Overview of Qt's Examples
  \brief A short guide to the different categories of examples included with Qt.
  \ingroup howto

  Qt is supplied with a variety of examples that cover almost every aspect
  of development. These examples are ordered by functional area, but many
  examples often use features from many parts of Qt to highlight one area
  in particular.

  This document provides a brief overview of each example category and
  provides links to the more formal \l{Qt Examples}{list of examples}.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Widgets}{Widgets}

  \l{Qt Examples#Widgets}{\inlineimage widget-examples.png
  }

  Qt comes with a large range of standard widgets that users of modern
  applications have come to expect.

  You can also develop your own custom widgets and controls, and use them
  alongside standard widgets.

  It is even possible to provide custom styles and themes for widgets that can
  be used to change the appearance of standard widgets and appropriately
  written custom widgets.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Dialogs}{Dialogs}

  \l{Qt Examples#Dialogs}{\inlineimage dialog-examples.png
  }

  Qt includes standard dialogs for many common operations, such as file
  selection, printing, and color selection.

  Custom dialogs can also be created for specialized modal or modeless
  interactions with users.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Main Windows}{Main Windows}

  \l{Qt Examples#Main Windows}{\inlineimage mainwindow-examples.png
  }

  All the standard features of application main windows are provided by Qt.

  Main windows can have pull down menus, tool bars, and dock windows. These
  separate forms of user input are unified in an integrated action system that
  also supports keyboard shortcuts and accelerator keys in menu items.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Layouts}{Layouts}

  \l{Qt Examples#Layouts}{\inlineimage layout-examples.png
  }

  Qt uses a layout-based approach to widget management. Widgets are arranged in
  the optimal positions in windows based on simple layout rules, leading to a
  consistent look and feel.

  Custom layouts can be used to provide more control over the positions and
  sizes of child widgets.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Painting}{Painting}

  \l{Qt Examples#Painting}{\inlineimage painting-examples.png
  }

  Qt's painting system is able to render vector graphics, images, and outline
  font-based text with sub-pixel accuracy accuracy using anti-aliasing to
  improve rendering quality.

  These examples show the most common techniques that are used when painting
  with Qt, from basic concepts such as drawing simple primitives to the use of
  transformations.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Item Views}{Item Views}

  \l{Qt Examples#Item Views}{\inlineimage itemview-examples.png
  }

  Item views are widgets that typically display data sets. Qt 4's model/view
  framework lets you handle large data sets by separating the underlying data
  from the way it is represented to the user, and provides support for
  customized rendering through the use of delegates.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Graphics View}{Graphics View}

  \l{Qt Examples#Graphics View}{\inlineimage graphicsview-examples.png
  }

  Qt is provided with a comprehensive canvas through the GraphicsView
  classes.

  These examples demonstrate the fundamental aspects of canvas programming
  with Qt.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Rich Text}{Rich Text}

  \l{Qt Examples#Rich Text}{\inlineimage richtext-examples.png
  }

  Qt provides powerful document-oriented rich text engine that supports Unicode
  and right-to-left scripts. Documents can be manipulated using a cursor-based
  API, and their contents can be imported and exported as both HTML and in a
  custom XML format.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Tools}{Tools}

  \l{Qt Examples#Tools}{\inlineimage tool-examples.png
  }

  Qt is equipped with a range of capable tool classes, from containers and
  iterators to classes for string handling and manipulation.

  Other classes provide application infrastructure support, handling plugin
  loading and managing configuration files.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Desktop}{Desktop}

  \l{Qt Examples#Desktop}{\inlineimage desktop-examples.png
  }

  Qt provides features to enable applications to integrate with the user's
  preferred desktop environment.

  Features such as system tray icons, access to the desktop widget, and
  support for desktop services can be used to improve the appearance of
  applications and take advantage of underlying desktop facilities.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Drag and Drop}{Drag and Drop}

  \l{Qt Examples#Drag and Drop}{\inlineimage draganddrop-examples.png
  }

  Qt supports native drag and drop on all platforms via an extensible
  MIME-based system that enables applications to send data to each other in the
  most appropriate formats.

  Drag and drop can also be implemented for internal use by applications.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Threads}{Threads}

  \l{Qt Examples#Threads}{\inlineimage thread-examples.png
  }

  Qt 4 makes it easier than ever to write multithreaded applications. More
  classes have been made usable from non-GUI threads, and the signals and slots
  mechanism can now be used to communicate between threads.

  Additionally, it is now possible to move objects between threads.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Concurrent Programming}{Concurrent Programming}

  The QtConcurrent namespace includes a collection of classes and functions
  for straightforward concurrent programming.

  These examples show how to apply the basic techniques of concurrent
  programming to simple problems.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Network}{Network}

  \l{Qt Examples#Network}{\inlineimage network-examples.png
  }

  Qt is provided with an extensive set of network classes to support both
  client-based and server side network programming.

  These examples demonstrate the fundamental aspects of network programming
  with Qt.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#XML}{XML}

  \l{Qt Examples#XML}{\inlineimage xml-examples.png
  }

  XML parsing and handling is supported through SAX and DOM compliant APIs.

  Qt's SAX compliant classes allow you to parse XML incrementally; the DOM
  classes enable more complex document-level operations to be performed on
  XML files.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#XQuery, XPath}{XQuery, XPath}

  Qt provides an XQuery/XPath engine, QtXmlPatterns, for querying XML
  files and custom data models, similar to the model/view framework.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#OpenGL}{OpenGL}

  \l{Qt Examples#OpenGL}{\inlineimage opengl-examples.png
  }

  Qt provides support for integration with OpenGL implementations on all
  platforms, giving developers the opportunity to display hardware accelerated
  3D graphics alongside a more conventional user interface.

  These examples demonstrate the basic techniques used to take advantage of
  OpenGL in Qt applications.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#SQL}{SQL}

  \l{Qt Examples#SQL}{\inlineimage sql-examples.png
  }

  Qt provides extensive database interoperability, with support for products
  from both open source and proprietary vendors.

  SQL support is integrated with Qt's model/view architecture, making it easier
  to provide GUI integration for your database applications.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Help System}{Help System}

  \l{Qt Examples#Help System}{\inlineimage assistant-examples.png
  }

  Support for interactive help is provided by the Qt Assistant application.
  Developers can take advantages of the facilities it offers to display
  specially-prepared documentation to users of their applications.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Qt Designer}{Qt Designer}

  \l{Qt Examples#Qt Designer}{\inlineimage designer-examples.png
  }

  Qt Designer is a capable graphical user interface designer that lets you
  create and configure forms without writing code. GUIs created with
  Qt Designer can be compiled into an application or created at run-time.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#UiTools}{UiTools}

  \l{Qt Examples#UiTools}{\inlineimage uitools-examples.png
  }

  Qt is equipped with a range of capable tool classes, from containers and
  iterators to classes for string handling and manipulation.

  Other classes provide application infrastructure support, handling plugin
  loading and managing configuration files.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Qt Linguist}{Qt Linguist}

  \l{Qt Examples#Qt Linguist}{\inlineimage linguist-examples.png
  }

  Internationalization is a core feature of Qt. These examples show how to
  access translation and localization facilities at run-time.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Qt Script}{Qt Script}

  \l{Qt Examples#Qt Script}{\inlineimage qtscript-examples.png
  }

  Qt is provided with a powerful embedded scripting environment through the QtScript
  classes.

  These examples demonstrate the fundamental aspects of scripting applications
  with Qt.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Phonon Multimedia Framework}{Phonon Multimedia Framework}

  \l{Qt Examples#Phonon Multimedia Framework}{\inlineimage phonon-examples.png
  }

  The Phonon Multimedia Framework brings multimedia support to Qt applications.

  The examples and demonstrations provided show how to play music and movies
  using the Phonon API.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#WebKit}{WebKit}

  \l{Qt Examples#WebKit}{\inlineimage webkit-examples.png
  }

  Qt provides an integrated Web browser component based on WebKit, the popular
  open source browser engine.

  These examples and demonstrations show a range of different uses for WebKit,
  from displaying Web pages within a Qt user interface to an implementation of
  a basic function Web browser.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#Qt for Embedded Linux}{Qt for Embedded Linux}

  \l{Qt Examples#Qt for Embedded Linux}{\inlineimage qt-embedded-examples.png
  }

  These examples show how to take advantage of features specifically designed
  for use on systems with limited resources, specialized hardware, and small
  screens.

  \section1 \l{Qt Examples#ActiveQt}{ActiveQt}

  Qt is supplied with a number of example applications and demonstrations that
  have been written to provide developers with examples of the Qt API in use,
  highlight good programming practice, and showcase features found in each of
  Qt's core technologies.

  The example and demo launcher can be used to explore the different categories
  available. It provides an overview of each example, lets you view the
  documentation in Qt Assistant, and is able to launch examples and demos.

  \section1 \l{http://doc.trolltech.com/qq}{Another Source of Examples}

  One more valuable source for examples and explanations of Qt
  features is the archive of the \l {http://doc.trolltech.com/qq} 
  {Qt Quarterly}.

*/