Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition

Writing Portable GUI applications on Unix and Win32

Larger Cover

Writing Portable GUI applications on Unix and Win32

By Matthias Kalle Dalheimer

Publisher: O'Reilly Media

Released: January 2002

Pages: 528

The popular open source KDE desktop environment for Unix was built with Qt, a C++ class library for writing GUI applications that run on Unix, Linux, Windows 95/98, Windows 2000, and Windows NT platforms. Qt emulates the look and feel of Motif, but is much easier to use. Best of all, after you have written an application with Qt, all you have to do is recompile it to have a version that works on Windows. Qt also emulates the look and feel of Windows, so your users get native-looking interfaces.

Platform independence is not the only benefit. Qt is flexible and highly optimized. You'll find that you need to write very little, if any, platform-dependent code because Qt already has what you need. And Qt is free for open source and Linux development.

Although programming with Qt is straightforward and feels natural once you get the hang of it, the learning curve can be steep. Qt comes with excellent reference documentation, but beginners often find the included tutorial is not enough to really get started with Qt. That's whereProgramming with Qt steps in. You'll learn how to program in Qt as the book guides you through the steps of writing a simple paint application. Exercises with fully worked out answers help you deepen your understanding of the topics. The book presents all of the GUI elements in Qt, along with advice about when and how to use them, so you can make full use of the toolkit. For seasoned Qt programmers, there's also lots of information on advanced 2D transformations, drag-and-drop, writing custom image file filters, networking with the new Qt Network Extension, XML processing, Unicode handling, and more.

Programming with Qt helps you get the most out of this powerful, easy-to-use, cross-platform toolkit. It's been completely updated for Qt Version 3.0 and includes entirely new information on rich text, Unicode/double byte characters, internationalization, and network programming.

Chapter 1 Introduction
1. Why GUI Toolkits?
2. Why Portability?
3. Why Qt?
4. Implementing Cross-Platform GUI Libraries
5. Acquiring Qt
6. Compiling and Installing Qt
7. C++ as Used by Qt
8. Getting Help
Chapter 2 First Steps in Qt Programming
1. Hello, world!
2. Using the Qt Reference Documentation
3. Adding an Exit Button
4. Introduction to Signals and Slots
5. Event Handling and Simple Drawings with QPainter
Chapter 3 Learning More About Qt
1. Adding Menus
2. Adding a Scrolled View
3. Adding a Context Menu
4. File I/O
Chapter 4 A Guided Tour Through the Simple Widgets
1. General Widget Parameters
2. Widget Styles
3. Buttons
4. Selection Widgets
5. Widgets for Bounded-Range Input
6. Scrollbars
7. Menu-Related Widgets
8. Arrangers
9. Tab-Related Widgets
10. Text-Entry Fields
11. Labels
12. Widgets for the Office
13. Progress Bars
14. Scrolled Views
15. List Views
16. Icon Views
17. Widgets for Tabular Material
18. Widgets for Displaying Rich Text
Chapter 5 A Guided Tour Through the Qt Dialog Boxes
1. Predefined Dialog Boxes
2. Building Blocks for Your Own Dialog Boxes
Chapter 6 Using Layout Managers
1. Layout Manager Basics
2. Laying Out Widgets in Rows and Columns
3. Nested Layout Managers
4. Grid Layout
5. Implicit Geometry Management
Chapter 7 Some Thoughts on GUI Design
Chapter 8 Container Classes
1. Available Container Classes
2. Choosing a Container Class
3. Working with Reference-Based Container Classes
4. Working with Value-Based Container Classes
Chapter 9 Graphics
1. Animations
2. Printing
3. Managing Colors
4. Basic QPainter: Drawing Figures
5. Advanced QPainter
6. Double-Buffering and Other Nifty Techniques
7. Independently Movable Objects with QCanvas
8. Working with Styles
9. Loading and Saving Custom Image Formats
10. Setting a Cursor
Chapter 10 Text Processing
1. Internationalization and Localization of On-Screen Text
2. Validating User Input
3. Working with Regular Expressions
4. Reading and Writing XML Files
5. Rich Text
Chapter 11 Working with Files and Directories
1. Reading a Text File
2. Traversing a Directory
3. File Information
4. Reading and Writing Configuration Data
Chapter 12 Interapplication Communication
1. Using the Clipboard
2. Drag-and-Drop
Chapter 13 Interfacing with the Operating System
1. Working with Date and Time Values
2. Loading Code Libraries Dynamically
3. Spawning Child Processes
4. Playing Sounds
Chapter 14 Writing Your Own Widgets
1. Implementing a Coordinate Selector
2. Implementing a Browse Box
Chapter 15 Focus Handling
Chapter 16 Advanced Event Handling
1. Event Filters
2. Sending Synthetic Events
Chapter 17 Advanced Signals and Slots
1. Signals and Slots Revisited
2. Connecting Several Buttons to One Slot
3. Actions
Chapter 18 Providing Help
Chapter 19 Accessing Databases
1. Installation of the SQL Module
2. Connecting to a Database
3. Simple Data Retrieval
4. Data Retrieval with Cursors
5. Data Display
6. Data Manipulation
7. Anything Else?
Chapter 20 Multithreading
1. Configuring Qt for Multithreading
2. Using Qt’s Multithreading Classes
3. Multithreading Pitfalls
4. Alternatives to Multithreading
Chapter 21 Debugging
Chapter 22 Portability
1. Why Portability Is Desirable
2. How to Write Portable Programs
3. Danger Ahead: When Even Qt Is Not Portable
4. Building Projects Portably with qmake
Chapter 23 Qt Network Programming
1. Low-Level Socket Access
2. Higher-Level Network Access
Chapter 24 Interfacing Qt with Other Languages and Libraries
1. OpenGL Programming with Qt
2. Writing Netscape Plug-ins
3. Integrating Xt Widgets
4. Interfacing Qt with Perl
Chapter 25 Using the Visual C++ IDE for Qt Programs
1. Importing an Existing Makefile
2. Creating Your Own Project from Scratch
3. Using qmake to Create a Project File
4. Using the MS Visual Studio Integration
Chapter 26 Visual Design with Qt Designer
1. Why Do You Need A GUI Designer?
2. Creating a Simple Application with the Help of Qt Designer
3. Adding Functionality to a Dialog Box by Subclassing
4. Using Layout Management
5. Useful Techniques

Appendix Answers to Exercises
1. Answers to Exercises in Chapter 2
2. Answers to Exercises in Chapter 3
Colophon

Title:

Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition

By:

Matthias Kalle Dalheimer

Publisher:

O'Reilly Media

Formats:

Print
Ebook
Safari Books Online

Print:

January 2002

Ebook:

March 2010

Pages:

528

Print ISBN:

978-0-596-00064-6

| ISBN 10:

0-596-00064-2

Ebook ISBN:

978-1-4493-8676-4

| ISBN 10:

1-4493-8676-8

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects. The bird featured on the cover of Programming with Qt is a toucan. Thirty-eight species of toucans are found in tropical America from southern Mexico to Bolivia and northern Argentina. The most obvious feature of the toucan is its bill. The biggest bill is that of the male toco toucan, reaching a size of nearly 10 inches, which is more than the body without the tail. In spite of its immense size, the bill is surprisingly light in weight. A think horny sheath of hard keratin encloses a hollow that is crisscrossed by many thin supporting rods. However, the bill is so out-of-proportion that the bird seems to be handicapped during flight, leading to a quite awkward flight pattern with bursts of flapping followed by a glide. It is still unkonwn why toucans have such an exaggerated bill. It may be useful to reach berries or seeds from twigs too thin to bear the bird's weight, but a thinner and less vividly coloured bill would serve the same purpose. A funtion as a signal during courtship seems to be more likely. Hornbills, which can be found in Africa and Asia, have similar-looking bills, but they are not related to toucans. Toucans are related to woodpeckers, having a characteristic feature in common: Their feet are arranged in a pattern with two toes forward and two toes back. Toucans are primarily fruit eaters, but they also take insects, frogs, lizards, and eggs and nestlings of smaller birds. They are social birds and can often be seen in flocks of six or more individuals, making croaking noises similar to frogs.They live in rainforests and more open woodlands, where they nest in natural tree holes, often old woodpecker holes. Clutches are of two to four egges which are incubated by both parents. The eggs hatch after two weeks. The young are quite ugly and very helpless. They have no feathers, and even in the age of more than three weeks, when they open their eyes for the first time, they show a lot of naked skin. Toucans have a lifespan of approximately 10 years. In captivity, they sometimes become quite tame. Native Indians used to keep toucans in their villages, but they also appreciated their feathers as ornaments. Elke Hansel was the editor and production editor for Programming with Qt, and Claire Cloutier LeBlanc organized the copyediting with Mitzi and Debby. Margrit Müller was the production manager. Kalle Dalheimer wrote the index.

Edie Freedman designed the cover of this book, using the original illustration by Lorrie LeJeune. The cover layout was produced with QuarkXPress 3.32 using ITC Garamond font.

The inside layout was designed by Margrit Müller and Nancy Priest, and implemented in FrameMaker 5.5 by Stefan Goebel. The text and heading fonts are ITC Garamond Light and Garamond Book. This colophon was written by Joachim Kurtz.

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Displaying reviews 1-5

4/22/2008

(3 of 4 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Programming with QT - a must have.

By Robert J. Liguori

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Programming with Qt, Second Edition:

This book provides an excellent top down view of Qt's class library. Most of the chapters touch on the fundamentals of different classes. The book provides plenty of information that one can become comfortable with the facilities Qt has to offer. After revisiting this book, I firmly believe that it provides excellent material for new Qt developers as well as seasoned ones.

With Qt's risen popularity and importance as a rich cross-platform application development framework, this book is a must have!

3/11/2003

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

2.0

Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition Review

By Robert J. Liguori

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Programming with Qt, Second Edition:

This book provided an excellent top down view of Qt's class library. Most of the chapters touch on the fundamentals of different classes. It would have been nice to see more details or expansion on each area. The book provides enough information, that one can become comfortable with the facilities Qt has to offer. However, it stops there. You enter this book as a beginner and leave it the same way.

9/12/2002

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition Review

By Brian R. Bondy

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Programming with Qt, Second Edition:

'Programming with Qt' is the best book on the market relating to Qt. I read this book from cover to cover and it gave me all the information I needed to get up and running in no time. Since reading this book, I'm nearing completion of an MSN Messenger clone which will run on all popular platforms. I also keep a copy of this book by my desk at work and use it on a daily basis.

2/5/2002

(1 of 1 customers found this review helpful)

5.0

Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition Review

By Jim Hill

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Programming with Qt, Second Edition:

I bought the first edition of this book the day I saw it in the bookstore. I found it to be lucid and sensibly organized. Replete with useful examples, it quickly became one of the most thumbed-through books in my frighteningly-large ORA collection.

The second edition is a worthy successor. All the things I liked about the first edition remain in the second; the meat of the changes merely update the content for the events in Qt's life over the last 3 years. Kalle and all the folks behind the scenes did an outstanding job with the update.

(Shame about the white spine, but that's the new O'Reilly way...sigh.)

12/21/2001

(0 of 2 customers found this review helpful)

3.0

Programming with Qt, 2nd Edition Review

By john

from Undisclosed

Comments about oreilly Programming with Qt, Second Edition:

ive read oreilly's perl and php and a c book from another author. im surprised they didnt go for gtk+ or something instead. great book(as all oreilly books), but i'd prefer a gtk+ book so i can write gnome apps. i hope o reilly comes out with one and if so i cant wait. good gtk+ books are rare.

Displaying reviews 1-5

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Chapter 1 Introduction

Why GUI Toolkits?

Why Portability?

Why Qt?

Implementing Cross-Platform GUI Libraries

Acquiring Qt

Compiling and Installing Qt

C++ as Used by Qt

Getting Help

Chapter 2 First Steps in Qt Programming

Hello, world!

Using the Qt Reference Documentation

Adding an Exit Button

Introduction to Signals and Slots

Event Handling and Simple Drawings with QPainter

Chapter 3 Learning More About Qt

Adding Menus

Adding a Scrolled View

Adding a Context Menu

File I/O

Chapter 4 A Guided Tour Through the Simple Widgets

General Widget Parameters

Widget Styles

Buttons

Selection Widgets

Widgets for Bounded-Range Input

Scrollbars

Menu-Related Widgets

Arrangers

Tab-Related Widgets

Text-Entry Fields

Labels

Widgets for the Office

Progress Bars

Scrolled Views

List Views

Icon Views

Widgets for Tabular Material

Widgets for Displaying Rich Text

Chapter 5 A Guided Tour Through the Qt Dialog Boxes

Predefined Dialog Boxes

Building Blocks for Your Own Dialog Boxes

Chapter 6 Using Layout Managers

Layout Manager Basics

Laying Out Widgets in Rows and Columns

Nested Layout Managers

Grid Layout

Implicit Geometry Management

Chapter 7 Some Thoughts on GUI Design

Chapter 8 Container Classes

Available Container Classes

Choosing a Container Class

Working with Reference-Based Container Classes

Working with Value-Based Container Classes

Chapter 9 Graphics

Animations

Printing

Managing Colors

Basic QPainter: Drawing Figures

Advanced QPainter

Double-Buffering and Other Nifty Techniques

Independently Movable Objects with QCanvas

Working with Styles

Loading and Saving Custom Image Formats

Setting a Cursor

Chapter 10 Text Processing

Internationalization and Localization of On-Screen Text

Validating User Input

Working with Regular Expressions

Reading and Writing XML Files

Rich Text

Chapter 11 Working with Files and Directories

Reading a Text File

Traversing a Directory

File Information

Reading and Writing Configuration Data

Chapter 12 Interapplication Communication

Using the Clipboard

Drag-and-Drop

Chapter 13 Interfacing with the Operating System