| 1 | /****************************************************************************
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| 2 | **
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| 3 | ** Copyright (C) 2010 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies).
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| 4 | ** All rights reserved.
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| 5 | ** Contact: Nokia Corporation ([email protected])
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| 6 | **
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| 7 | ** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit.
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| 8 | **
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| 9 | ** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$
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| 10 | ** Commercial Usage
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| 11 | ** Licensees holding valid Qt Commercial licenses may use this file in
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| 12 | ** accordance with the Qt Commercial License Agreement provided with the
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| 13 | ** Software or, alternatively, in accordance with the terms contained in
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| 14 | ** a written agreement between you and Nokia.
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| 15 | **
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| 16 | ** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage
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| 17 | ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser
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| 18 | ** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software
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| 19 | ** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the
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| 20 | ** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to
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| 21 | ** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements
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| 22 | ** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html.
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| 23 | **
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| 24 | ** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain additional
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| 25 | ** rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL Exception
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| 26 | ** version 1.1, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this package.
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| 27 | **
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| 28 | ** GNU General Public License Usage
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| 29 | ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU
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| 30 | ** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software
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| 31 | ** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the
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| 32 | ** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to
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| 33 | ** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be
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| 34 | ** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html.
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| 35 | **
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| 36 | ** If you have questions regarding the use of this file, please contact
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| 37 | ** Nokia at [email protected].
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| 38 | ** $QT_END_LICENSE$
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| 39 | **
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| 40 | ****************************************************************************/
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| 41 |
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| 42 | /*!
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| 43 | \page qt4-intro.html
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| 44 | \title What's New in Qt 4
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| 45 |
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| 46 | \startpage index.html Qt Reference Documentation
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| 47 | \nextpage The Tulip Container Classes
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| 48 |
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| 49 | This document covers the most important differences between Qt 3
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| 50 | and Qt 4. Although it is not intended to be a comprehensive
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| 51 | porting guide, it tells you about the most important portability
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| 52 | issues that you may encounter. It also explains how to turn on Qt
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| 53 | 3 compatibility support.
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| 54 |
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| 55 | \tableofcontents
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| 56 |
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| 57 | \section1 New Technologies in Qt 4
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| 58 |
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| 59 | Qt 4 introduces the following core technologies:
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| 60 |
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| 61 | \list
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| 62 | \o \l{The Tulip Container Classes}{Tulip}, a new set of template container classes.
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| 63 |
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| 64 | \o \l{The Interview Framework}{Interview}, a model/view architecture for item views.
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| 65 |
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| 66 | \o \l{The Arthur Paint System}{Arthur}, the Qt 4 painting framework.
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| 67 |
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| 68 | \o \l{The Scribe Classes}{Scribe}, the Unicode text renderer with a public API
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| 69 | for performing low-level text layout.
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| 70 |
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| 71 | \o \l{The Qt 4 Main Window Classes}{Mainwindow}, a modern action-based
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| 72 | mainwindow, toolbar, menu, and docking architecture.
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| 73 |
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| 74 | \o The new \l{The New Qt Designer}{\QD} user interface design tool.
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| 75 | \endlist
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| 76 |
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| 77 | \section1 Recent Additions to Qt 4
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| 78 |
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| 79 | The following features have been added to Qt since the first release of Qt 4:
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| 80 |
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| 81 | In Qt 4.5:
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| 82 | \list
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| 83 | \o The WebKit browser engine included with Qt has been
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| 84 | upgraded to the latest upstream (trunk) version of WebKit,
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| 85 | bringing the latest features and improvements to Qt applications.
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| 86 | \o Qt for Mac OS X has been substantially rewritten to use
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| 87 | Apple's Cocoa API, enabling Qt applications to be deployed on
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| 88 | 64-bit Macintosh hardware.
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| 89 | \o The QtXmlPatterns module has been extended to cover XSLT, a
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| 90 | transformation language for XML documents.
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| 91 | \o Qt Script introduced its debugger,
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| 92 | providing error reporting for scripts, and to let users track down
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| 93 | bugs in their own scripts.
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| 94 | \o Qt 4.5 includes support for writing rich text documents as
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| 95 | OpenDocument files via the newly-introduced QTextDocumentWriter
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| 96 | class.
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| 97 | \o Qt Linguist can load and edit multiple translation
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| 98 | files simultaneously.
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| 99 | \o Support for ARGB top-level widgets (i.e., translucent
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| 100 | windows).
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| 101 | \endlist
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| 102 |
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| 103 | In Qt 4.4:
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| 104 | \list
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| 105 | \o \l{QtWebkit Module}{Qt WebKit integration}, making it possible for developers
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| 106 | to use a fully-featured Web browser to display documents and access online
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| 107 | services.
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| 108 | \o A multimedia API provided by the \l{Phonon Overview}{Phonon Multimedia Framework}.
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| 109 | \o \l{QtXmlPatterns Module}{XQuery and XPath} support, providing facilities for
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| 110 | XML processing beyond that supported by the QtXml module.
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| 111 | \o Support for embedded widgets in \l{Graphics View} scenes.
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| 112 | \o The \l{Thread Support in Qt}{QtConcurrent framework} for
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| 113 | concurrent programming using Qt paradigms and threading features.
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| 114 | \o An \l{QtHelp Module}{improved help system} that can be used in conjunction
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| 115 | with Qt Assistant or as an independent help resource manager.
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| 116 | \o Printing system improvements, including the QPrinterInfo, QPrintPreviewWidget
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| 117 | and QPrintPreviewDialog classes.
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| 118 | \o Support for \l{Windows CE - Introduction to using Qt}{Qt for Windows CE} as
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| 119 | a mainstream Qt platform.
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| 120 | \o Improvements in performance of Qt for Embedded Linux and extended support for
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| 121 | display hardware.
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| 122 | \endlist
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| 123 |
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| 124 | In Qt 4.3:
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| 125 | \list
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| 126 | \o Support for different \l{The Qt 4 Main Window Classes}{main window paradigms and styles},
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| 127 | such as those found in Visual Studio or KDevelop.
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| 128 | \o The \l{QtScript} module, providing support for application scripting with ECMAScript.
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| 129 | \o Improved graphics features, including an experimental Direct3D paint engine
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| 130 | and improved provision for hardware accelerated rendering with OpenGL, and
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| 131 | support for OpenGL ES in Qt for Embedded Linux.
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| 132 | \o \l{QSvgGenerator}{Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) export}, allowing SVG drawings to
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| 133 | be created using the standard QPainter API.
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| 134 | \o Support for arbitrary matrix transformations and set operations on painter paths.
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| 135 | \o Native look and feel on Windows Vista; improved look and feel on Mac OS X.
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| 136 | \o An improved \l{QMdiArea}{Multiple Document Interface (MDI)} implementation.
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| 137 | \o Continuous improvements to \QD, including support for
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| 138 | \l{Qt Designer's Widget Editing Mode#The Property Editor}{dynamic properties}.
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| 139 | \o Support for Secure Socket Layer (SSL) communications via the QSslSocket class.
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| 140 | \o Support for XML Localization Interchange File Format (XLIFF) files in \QL.
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| 141 | \o A new font subsystem for Qt for Embedded Linux.
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| 142 | \endlist
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| 143 |
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| 144 | In Qt 4.2:
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| 145 | \list
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| 146 | \o The \l{Graphics View} framework for producing interactive graphics.
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| 147 | \o \l{Desktop Integration}{Desktop integration} facilities for applications.
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| 148 | \o \l{Qt Style Sheets} enable easy, yet powerful customization of
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| 149 | user interfaces.
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| 150 | \o Support for the \l{intro-to-dbus.html}{D-Bus} Inter-Process Communication (IPC) and Remote Procedure Calling (RPC) mechanism.
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| 151 | \o An \l{Undo Framework}{Undo framework} based on the
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| 152 | \l{Books about GUI Design#Design Patterns}{Command pattern}.
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| 153 | \o Support for model-based \l{QCompleter}{text completion} in standard and
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| 154 | custom widgets.
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| 155 | \o New widgets and GUI features, such as QCalendarWidget and
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| 156 | QGLFramebufferObject.
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| 157 | \o Classes to provide higher level application infrastructure, such as
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| 158 | QFileSystemWatcher and QDataWidgetMapper.
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| 159 | \endlist
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| 160 |
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| 161 | In Qt 4.1:
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| 162 | \list
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| 163 | \o Integrated support for rendering
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| 164 | \l{The Arthur Paint System#SVG Rendering Support}{Scalable Vector Graphics}
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| 165 | (SVG) drawings and animations.
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| 166 | \o Support for
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| 167 | \l{QWidget#Transparency and Double Buffering}{child widget transparency}
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| 168 | on all platforms.
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| 169 | \o A Portable Document Format (PDF) backend for Qt's printing system.
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| 170 | \o A \l{QTestLib Manual}{unit testing framework} for Qt applications and
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| 171 | libraries.
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| 172 | \o Modules for \l{QtDesigner}{extending \QD} and
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| 173 | \l{QtUiTools}{dynamic user interface building}.
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| 174 | \o New \l{Proxy Models}{proxy models} to enable view-specific sorting and
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| 175 | filtering of data displayed using item views.
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| 176 | \o Support for \l{Installing Qt on Mac OS X}{universal binaries} on Mac OS X.
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| 177 | \o Additional features for developers using \l{QtOpenGL}{OpenGL}, such as
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| 178 | support for pixel and sample buffers.
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| 179 | \o A flexible \l{QSyntaxHighlighter}{syntax highlighting class} based on the
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| 180 | \l{Scribe} rich text framework.
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| 181 | \o Support for \l{QNetworkProxy}{network proxy} servers using the SOCKS5
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| 182 | protocol.
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| 183 | \o Support for OLE verbs and MIME data handling in \l{ActiveQt}.
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| 184 | \endlist
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| 185 |
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| 186 | For more information about improvements in each Qt release, see
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| 187 | the \l{http://qt.nokia.com/developer/changes/}
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| 188 | {detailed lists of changes}.
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| 189 |
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| 190 | \section1 Significant Improvements
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| 191 |
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| 192 | The following modules have been significantly improved for Qt 4:
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| 193 |
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| 194 | \list
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| 195 | \o A fully cross-platform \l{accessibility}
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| 196 | module, with support for the emerging SP-API Unix standard in
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| 197 | addition to Microsoft and Mac Accessibility.
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| 198 | \o The \l{qt4-sql.html}{SQL module}, which is now based on the
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| 199 | Interview model/view framework.
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| 200 | \o The \l{qt4-network.html}{network module}, with better support
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| 201 | for UDP and synchronous sockets.
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| 202 | \o The \l{qt4-styles.html}{style API}, which is now decoupled from
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| 203 | the widgets, meaning that you can draw any user interface element on
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| 204 | any device (widget, pixmap, etc.).
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| 205 | \o Enhanced \l{qt4-threads.html}{thread support}, with signal-slot
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| 206 | connections across threads and per-thread event loops.
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| 207 | \o A new \l{resource system} for embedding images
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| 208 | and other resource files into the application executable.
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| 209 | \endlist
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| 210 |
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| 211 | \section1 Build System
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| 212 |
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| 213 | Unlike previous Qt releases, Qt 4 is a collection of smaller
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| 214 | libraries:
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| 215 |
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| 216 | \table
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| 217 | \header \o Library \o Description
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| 218 | \row \o \l{QtCore} \o Core non-GUI functionality
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| 219 | \row \o \l{QtGui} \o Core GUI functionality
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| 220 | \row \o \l{QtNetwork} \o Network module
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| 221 | \row \o \l{QtOpenGL} \o OpenGL module
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| 222 | \row \o \l{QtSql} \o SQL module
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| 223 | \row \o \l{QtSvg} \o SVG rendering classes
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| 224 | \row \o \l{QtXml} \o XML module
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| 225 | \row \o \l{Qt3Support} \o Qt 3 support classes
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| 226 | \row \o \l{QAxContainer} \o ActiveQt client extension
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| 227 | \row \o \l{QAxServer} \o ActiveQt server extension
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| 228 | \row \o \l{QtAssistant} \o Classes for launching Qt Assistant
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| 229 | \row \o \l{QtDesigner} \o Classes for extending and embedding Qt Designer
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| 230 | \row \o \l{QtUiTools} \o Classes for dynamic GUI generation
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| 231 | \row \o \l{QtTest} \o Tool classes for unit testing
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| 232 | \endtable
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| 233 |
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| 234 | QtCore contains tool classes like QString, QList, and QFile, as
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| 235 | well as kernel classes like QObject and QTimer. The QApplication
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| 236 | class has been refactored so that it can be used in non-GUI
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| 237 | applications. It is split into QCoreApplication (in \l QtCore)
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| 238 | and QApplication (in \l QtGui).
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| 239 |
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| 240 | This split makes it possible to develop server applications using Qt
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| 241 | without linking in any unnecessary GUI-related code and without
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| 242 | requiring GUI-related system libraries to be present on the target
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| 243 | machine (e.g. Xlib on X11, Carbon on Mac OS X).
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| 244 |
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| 245 | If you use qmake to generate your makefiles, qmake will by default
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| 246 | link your application against QtCore and QtGui. To remove the
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| 247 | dependency upon QtGui, add the line
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| 248 |
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| 249 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 0
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| 250 |
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| 251 | to your .pro file. To enable the other libraries, add the line
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| 252 |
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| 253 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 1
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| 254 |
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| 255 | Another change to the build system is that moc now understands
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| 256 | preprocessor directives. qmake automatically passes the defines set
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| 257 | for your project (using "DEFINES +=") on to moc, which has its own
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| 258 | built-in C++ preprocessor.
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| 259 |
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| 260 | To compile code that uses UI files, you will also need this line in
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| 261 | the .pro file:
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| 262 |
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| 263 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 2
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| 264 |
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| 265 | \section1 Include Syntax
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| 266 |
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| 267 | The syntax for including Qt class definitions has become
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| 268 |
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| 269 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 3
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| 270 |
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| 271 | For example:
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| 272 |
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| 273 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 4
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| 274 |
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| 275 | This is guaranteed to work for any public Qt class. The old syntax,
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| 276 |
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| 277 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 5
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| 278 |
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| 279 | still works, but we encourage you to switch to the new syntax.
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| 280 |
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| 281 | If you attempt to include a header file from a library that isn't
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| 282 | linked against the application, this will result in a
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| 283 | compile-time warning (e.g., "QSqlQuery: No such file or
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| 284 | directory"). You can remedy to this problem either by removing
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| 285 | the offending include or by specifying the missing library in the
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| 286 | QT entry of your \c .pro file (see \l{Build System} above).
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| 287 |
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| 288 | To include the definitions for all the classes in a library, simply
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| 289 | specify the name of that library. For example:
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| 290 |
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| 291 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 6
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| 292 |
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| 293 | \section1 Namespaces
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| 294 |
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| 295 | Qt 2 introduced a class called Qt for global-like constants
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| 296 | (e.g., \c{Qt::yellow}). The C++ namespace construct was not used
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| 297 | because not all compilers understood it when it was released.
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| 298 |
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| 299 | With Qt 4, the Qt class has become the Qt namespace. If you want
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| 300 | to access a constant that is part of the Qt namespace, prefix it
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| 301 | with \c Qt:: (e.g., \c{Qt::yellow}), or add the directive
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| 302 |
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| 303 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 7
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| 304 |
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| 305 | at the top of your source files, after your \c #include
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| 306 | directives. If you use the \c{using namespace} syntax you don't
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| 307 | need the prefix (e.g., \c yellow is sufficient).
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| 308 |
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| 309 | When porting Qt 3 applications, you may run into some source
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| 310 | compatibility problems with some of these symbols. For example,
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| 311 | in Qt 3, it was legal to write \c QWidget::yellow instead of \c
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| 312 | Qt::yellow, because QWidget inherited from Qt. This won't work in
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| 313 | Qt 4; you must write \c Qt::yellow or add the "using namespace"
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| 314 | directive and drop the \c Qt:: prefix.
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| 315 |
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| 316 | The \l{qt3to4 - The Qt 3 to 4 Porting Tool}{qt3to4} porting tool
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| 317 | automates this conversion.
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| 318 |
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| 319 | \section1 QObject/QWidget Constructors
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| 320 |
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| 321 | In Qt 4 we have tried to simplify the constructors of QObject/QWidget
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| 322 | subclasses. This makes subclassing easier, at the same time as it
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| 323 | helps make the Qt library more efficient.
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| 324 |
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| 325 | Constructors no longer take a "const char *name" parameter. If
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| 326 | you want to specify a name for a QObject, you must call
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| 327 | QObject::setObjectName() after construction. The object name is
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| 328 | now a QString. The reasons for this change are:
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| 329 |
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| 330 | \list
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| 331 | \o Code that used it looked confusing, for example:
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| 332 |
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| 333 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 8
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| 334 |
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| 335 | \c label1 is a QLabel that displays the text "Hello"; \c
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| 336 | label2 is a QLabel with no text, with the object name
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| 337 | "Hello".
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| 338 |
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| 339 | \o From surveys we did, most users didn't use the name, although
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| 340 | they blindly followed Qt's convention and provided a "const
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| 341 | char *name" in their subclasses's constructors. For example:
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| 342 |
|
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| 343 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 9
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| 344 |
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| 345 | \o The name parameter was in Qt since version 1, and it always
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| 346 | was documented as: "It is not very useful in the current
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| 347 | version of Qt, but it will become increasingly important in
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| 348 | the future." Ten years later, it still hasn't fulfilled its
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| 349 | promise.
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| 350 | \endlist
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| 351 |
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| 352 | QWidget's \c WFlags data type has been split in two:
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| 353 | Qt::WindowFlags specifies low-level window flags (the type of
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| 354 | window and the frame style), whereas Qt::WidgetAttribute
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| 355 | specifies various higher-level attributes about the widget (e.g.,
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| 356 | WA_StaticContents). Widget attributes can be set at any time
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| 357 | using QWidget::setAttribute(); low-level window flags can be
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| 358 | passed to the QWidget constructor or set later using
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| 359 | QWidget::setParent(). As a consequence, the constructors of most
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| 360 | QWidget subclasses don't need to provide a \c WFlags parameter.
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| 361 |
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| 362 | The \e parent parameter of all QObject classes in Qt defaults to
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| 363 | a 0 pointer, as it used to do in Qt 1. This enables a style of
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| 364 | programming where widgets are created without parents and then
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| 365 | inserted in a layout, at which point the layout automatically
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| 366 | reparents them.
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| 367 |
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| 368 | \section1 Dynamic Casts
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| 369 |
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| 370 | Qt 4 provides a qobject_cast<>() function that performs a dynamic cast
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| 371 | based on the meta-information generated by moc for QObject
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| 372 | subclasses. Unlike the standard C++ dynamic_cast<>() construct,
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| 373 | qobject_cast<>() works even when RTTI is disabled, and it works correctly
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| 374 | across DLL boundaries.
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| 375 |
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| 376 | Here's the Qt 3 idiom to cast a type to a subtype:
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| 377 |
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| 378 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 10
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| 379 |
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| 380 | The Qt 4 idiom is both cleaner and safer, because typos will always
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| 381 | result in compiler errors:
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| 382 |
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| 383 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 11
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| 384 |
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| 385 | \section1 QPointer<T>
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| 386 |
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| 387 | The QPointer<T> class provides a pointer to type T (where T inherits
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| 388 | from QObject) that is automatically set to 0 when the referenced
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| 389 | object is destroyed. Guarded pointers are useful whenever you want to
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| 390 | store a pointer to an object you do not own.
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| 391 |
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| 392 | Example:
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| 393 |
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| 394 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 12
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| 395 |
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| 396 | QPointer<T> is more or less the same as the old QGuardedPtr<T> class,
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| 397 | except that it is now implemented in a much more lightweight manner
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| 398 | than before. The cost of one QPointer<T> object is now approximately
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| 399 | the same as that of a signal--slot connection.
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| 400 |
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| 401 | \section1 Paint Events
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| 402 |
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| 403 | Qt 4 supports double buffering transparently on all platforms. This
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| 404 | feature can be turned off on a per-widget basis by calling
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| 405 | QWidget::setAttribute(Qt::WA_PaintOnScreen).
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| 406 |
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| 407 | A consequence of this is that all painting must now be done from the
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| 408 | paintEvent() function. This is also required by the HIView API on Mac
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|---|
| 409 | OS X. In practice, this is seldom a problem, since you can call
|
|---|
| 410 | update() from anywhere in your code to create a paint event, with the
|
|---|
| 411 | region to update as the argument.
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|---|
| 412 |
|
|---|
| 413 | To help porting, QWidget supports a Qt::WA_PaintOutsidePaintEvent
|
|---|
| 414 | attribute that can be set to make it possible to paint outside
|
|---|
| 415 | \l{QWidget::paintEvent()}{paintEvent()} on Windows and X11.
|
|---|
| 416 |
|
|---|
| 417 | \section1 Qt 3 Support Layer
|
|---|
| 418 |
|
|---|
| 419 | Qt 4 provides an extension library that applications based on Qt 3,
|
|---|
| 420 | called Qt3Support, that Qt applications can link against. This allows
|
|---|
| 421 | for more compatibility than ever before, without bloating Qt.
|
|---|
| 422 |
|
|---|
| 423 | \list
|
|---|
| 424 | \o Classes that have been replaced by a different class with the
|
|---|
| 425 | same name, such as QListView, and classes that no longer exist in Qt 4
|
|---|
| 426 | are available with a \c 3 in their name (e.g., Q3ListView, Q3Accel).
|
|---|
| 427 |
|
|---|
| 428 | \o Other classes provide compatibility functions. Most of these are
|
|---|
| 429 | implemented inline, so that they don't bloat the Qt libraries.
|
|---|
| 430 | \endlist
|
|---|
| 431 |
|
|---|
| 432 | To enable the Qt 3 support classes and functions, add the line
|
|---|
| 433 |
|
|---|
| 434 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 13
|
|---|
| 435 |
|
|---|
| 436 | to your \c .pro file.
|
|---|
| 437 |
|
|---|
| 438 | On Visual C++ 7 and GCC 3.2+, using compatibility functions often results
|
|---|
| 439 | in a compiler warning (e.g., "'find' is deprecated"). If you want to turn
|
|---|
| 440 | off that warning, add the line
|
|---|
| 441 |
|
|---|
| 442 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 14
|
|---|
| 443 |
|
|---|
| 444 | to your \c .pro file.
|
|---|
| 445 |
|
|---|
| 446 | If you want to use compatibility functions but don't want to link
|
|---|
| 447 | against the Qt3Support library, add the line
|
|---|
| 448 |
|
|---|
| 449 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 15
|
|---|
| 450 |
|
|---|
| 451 | or
|
|---|
| 452 |
|
|---|
| 453 | \snippet doc/src/snippets/code/doc_src_qt4-intro.qdoc 16
|
|---|
| 454 |
|
|---|
| 455 | to your \c .pro file, depending on whether you want compatibility
|
|---|
| 456 | function calls to generate compiler warnings or not.
|
|---|
| 457 | */
|
|---|
| 458 |
|
|---|
| 459 | /*!
|
|---|
| 460 | \page qt4-6-intro.html
|
|---|
| 461 | \title What's New in Qt 4.6
|
|---|
| 462 |
|
|---|
| 463 | Qt 4.6 provides many improvements and enhancements over the
|
|---|
| 464 | previous releases in the Qt 4 series. This document covers the
|
|---|
| 465 | most important features in this release, separated by category.
|
|---|
| 466 |
|
|---|
| 467 | \omit
|
|---|
| 468 | A comprehensive list of changes between Qt 4.5 and Qt 4.6 is
|
|---|
| 469 | included in the \c changes-4.6.0 file
|
|---|
| 470 | \l{http://qt.nokia.com/developer/changes/changes-4.6.0}{available
|
|---|
| 471 | online}. A \l{Known Issues in 4.6.2}{list of known issues}
|
|---|
| 472 | for this release is also available.
|
|---|
| 473 |
|
|---|
| 474 | Changes between this release and the previous release are provided
|
|---|
| 475 | in the \c{changes-4.6.2} file (also
|
|---|
| 476 | \l{http://qt.nokia.com/developer/changes/changes-4.6.2}{available online}).
|
|---|
| 477 | \endomit
|
|---|
| 478 |
|
|---|
| 479 | A list of other Qt 4 features can be found on the \bold{\l{What's
|
|---|
| 480 | New in Qt 4}} page.
|
|---|
| 481 |
|
|---|
| 482 | \bold{Highlights}
|
|---|
| 483 |
|
|---|
| 484 | \tableofcontents
|
|---|
| 485 |
|
|---|
| 486 | \section1 Support for Symbian
|
|---|
| 487 |
|
|---|
| 488 | Qt 4.6 is the first release to include support for the Symbian
|
|---|
| 489 | platform, with integration into the S60 framework. The port to
|
|---|
| 490 | Symbian and S60 provides all functionality required to develop
|
|---|
| 491 | rich end-user applications for devices running S60 3.1 and
|
|---|
| 492 | later.
|
|---|
| 493 |
|
|---|
| 494 | See the \l{The Symbian platform - Introduction to Qt} for more information.
|
|---|
| 495 |
|
|---|
| 496 | \section1 Animation Framework
|
|---|
| 497 |
|
|---|
| 498 | The animation framework helps build highly animated,
|
|---|
| 499 | high-performance GUIs without the hassle of managing complex
|
|---|
| 500 | structures, timers, and easing curves, not to mention the large
|
|---|
| 501 | state graphs that all animated GUIs tend to be full of.
|
|---|
| 502 |
|
|---|
| 503 | The framework makes it easy to animate \l{QObject}s, including
|
|---|
| 504 | QWidgets, by allowing Qt properties to be animated. It also allows
|
|---|
| 505 | creating custom animations and interpolation functions. Graphics
|
|---|
| 506 | views are not left out; one can animate \l{QGraphicsWidget}s and
|
|---|
| 507 | new \l{QGraphicsObject}s which inherit from QGraphicsItem
|
|---|
| 508 | (and thereby enable properties).
|
|---|
| 509 |
|
|---|
| 510 | Animations are controlled using easing curves and can be grouped
|
|---|
| 511 | together. This enables animations of arbitrary complexity.
|
|---|
| 512 |
|
|---|
| 513 | The API is easy to grasp with functions such as start(), stop(),
|
|---|
| 514 | pause(), and currentTime(). Here is an image from one of the
|
|---|
| 515 | examples that come with the framework:
|
|---|
| 516 |
|
|---|
| 517 | \image whatsnewanimatedtiles.png
|
|---|
| 518 |
|
|---|
| 519 | The animation framework also plugs into the new Qt Statemachine by
|
|---|
| 520 | allowing an animation to be played when transitions are triggered.
|
|---|
| 521 | The state machine framework is introduced in 4.6 and is described
|
|---|
| 522 | below.
|
|---|
| 523 |
|
|---|
| 524 | See \l{The Animation Framework} documentation for more information.
|
|---|
| 525 |
|
|---|
| 526 | \section1 State Machine Framework
|
|---|
| 527 |
|
|---|
| 528 | The state machine framework provides a robust state chart
|
|---|
| 529 | implementation based on Harel statecharts and SCXML. Qt's API lets
|
|---|
| 530 | you construct such state graphs and execute them. The key benefits
|
|---|
| 531 | of a state machine are:
|
|---|
| 532 |
|
|---|
| 533 | \list
|
|---|
| 534 | \o Simplify complex application semantics.
|
|---|
| 535 | \o Use of states to reduce code bloat.
|
|---|
| 536 | \o Use states to improve maintainability.
|
|---|
| 537 | \o Makes event-driven programming robust and more
|
|---|
| 538 | reusable.
|
|---|
| 539 | \endlist
|
|---|
| 540 |
|
|---|
| 541 | It is especially the last item here that makes using a state
|
|---|
| 542 | machine worthwhile. A key characteristic of event-driven systems
|
|---|
| 543 | (such as Qt applications) is that behavior often depends not only
|
|---|
| 544 | on the last or current event, but also the events that preceded
|
|---|
|
|---|