224 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
224 lines
8.7 KiB
Plaintext
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Qt 2.2 introduces new features as well as many improvements over the
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2.1.x series. This file will only give an overview of the main changes
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since version 2.1. A complete list would simply be too large to be
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useful. For more detail see the online documentation which is
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included in this distribution, and also available on
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http://qt.nokia.com/doc/
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The Qt version 2.2 series is binary compatible with the 2.1.x and
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2.0.x series - applications compiled for 2.0 or 2.1 will continue to
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run with 2.2.
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As with previous Qt releases, the API and functionality of Qt is
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completely portable between Microsoft Windows and X11. It is also
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portable between Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000.
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****************************************************************************
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* Overview *
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****************************************************************************
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The greatest new feature in the 2.2 release is the Qt Designer, a
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visual GUI design tool. It makes it possible to cut down on
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development time even further through WYSIWYG dialog design. The
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designer makes use of improved runtime flexibility and a revised
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property system. Please see $QTDIR/doc/html/designer.html for a
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feature overview.
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Qt 2.2 integrates now fully on MS-Windows 2000. This includes fade
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and scroll effects for popup windows and title bar gradients for MDI
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document windows in the MDI module. As with all Qt features, we
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provide the same visual effects on Unix/X11.
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Two new classes QAction and QActionGroup make it much easier to
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create sophisticated main windows for today's applications. A QAction
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abstracts a user interface action that can appear both in menus and
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tool bars. An action group makes it easier to deal with groups of
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actions. It allows to add, remove or activate its children with a
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single call and provides "one of many" semantics for toggle
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actions. Changing an action's properties, for example using
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setEnabled(),setOn() or setText(), immediately shows up in all
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representations.
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Few people consider the original OSF Motif style the most elegant or
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flashy GUI style. Therefore several attempts have been made to come up
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with a slightly improved Motif-ish look and feel. One of them is the
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thinner CDE style, that was supported by Qt since version 2.0. In the
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2.2 release, we now added support for SGI's very own Motif version on
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IRIX workstations. With its more elegant bevelling of 3D elements and
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mouse-under highlight effects, it is quite appealing. For Linux users,
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we added a Motif plus style, that resembles the bevelling used by the
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GIMP toolkit (GTK+). Optionally, this style also does hovering
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highlight on buttons.
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Last but not least we added support for multi-threaded
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applications. The classes involved are QThread to start threads,
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QMutex to serialize them and QCondition to signal the occurrence of
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events between threads ("condition variables").
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Another major change was done regarding distribution. In order to
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address the steady growth of functionality in the Qt library, we
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split the source code into distinct modules that can be compiled
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in (or left out) separately. This also makes it possible for us to
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keep the cost of entry into the commercial Qt world as low as possible.
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The modules available in Qt 2.2 are:
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- Tools: platform-independent Non-GUI API for I/O, encodings, containers,
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strings, time & date, and regular expressions.
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- Kernel: platform-independent GUI API, a complete window-system API.
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- Widgets: portable GUI controls.
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- Dialogs: ready-made common dialogs for selection of colors, files,
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printers, fonts, and basic types, plus a wizard framework, message
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boxes and progress indicator.
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- OpenGL 3D Graphics: integration of OpenGL with Qt, making it very
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easy to use OpenGL rendering in a Qt application.
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- Network: advanced socket and server-socket handling plus
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asynchronous DNS lookup.
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- Canvas: a highly optimized 2D graphic area.
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- Table: a flexible and editable table widget
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- IconView: a powerful visualization widget similar to QListView and
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QListBox. It contains optionally labelled pixmap items that the user
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can select, drag around, rename, delete and more.
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- XML: a well-formed XML parser with SAX interface plus an
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implementation of the DOM Level1
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- Workspace: a workspace window that can contain decorated document
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windows for Multi Document Interfaces (MDI).
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Network, Canvas, Table and XML are entirely new modules.
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Below is a list of the major new features in existing classes as well
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as short descriptions of all new classes.
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****************************************************************************
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* New major features in existing classes *
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****************************************************************************
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QApplication: - "global strut", an adjustable minimum size for interactable
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control elements like the entries in a listbox, useful for
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touch-screens. Popup window effects ( setEffectEnabled() )
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and more threading support ( guiThreadTaken(), lock(),
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unlock(), locked() ).
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QCheckBox: - "tristate" is now a property.
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QClipboard: - text() supports subtypes.
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QComboBox: - "editable" is now a property that is changeable at runtime
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QDialog: - support for extensible dialogs ("More...") with
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setExtension() and setOrientation(). Optional size grip.
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QFont: - new functions styleStrategy() and setStyleHint()
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QIconSet: - new constructor that takes both a small and a large pixmap
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QKeyEvent: - numeric keypad keys now set a Keypad flag
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QLabel: - support for scaled pixmap contents, "pixmap" as property
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QLayout: - improved flexibility with setEnabled(), access to the
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laid out menu bar with menuBar().
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QListView: - "showSortIndicator" as property. New function
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QListViewItem::moveItem() to simplify drag and drop.
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QMovie: - new functions pushSpace(), pushData(), frameImage()
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QMultiLineEdit: - new functions pasteSubType() and copyAvailable()
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QObject: - new function normalizeSignalSlot(), tr() now supports a comment.
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QPicture: - streaming to and from QDataStream
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QPopupMenu: - new signal aboutToHide()
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QRegExp: - new functions setPattern() and find()
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QRegion: - new function setRects()
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QScrollView: - new property "staticBackground" to define a pixmap
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background that does not scroll with the contents.
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QStatusBar: - "sizeGripEnabled" as property
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QStyle: - themable menu bars with drawMenuBarItem(). New functions
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buttonMargin(), toolBarHandleExtent(), sliderThickness()
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QTabWidget: - new functions currentPageIndex(), setCurrentPage(), new
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signal currentChanged(). Similar extensions to QTabBar
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and QTabDialog
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QTranslator: - new algorithmen for faster lookup. No more risk of
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"hash collisions" when many translators are loaded.
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QVariant: - new subtype QSizePolicy. Necessary for QWidget's
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new sizePolicy property.
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QWidget: - new properties "sizePolicy", "ownPalette", "ownFont",
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"ownCursor" and "hidden". The size policy is now adjustable
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at runtime with setSizePolicy(). Added convenience slot
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setDisabled(). Fast geometry mapping functions mapTo() and
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mapFrom(). On X11, support for a new background mode
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X11ParentRelative.
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QWizard: - runtime changable titles with setTitle(), new signal
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selected()
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QWorkspace: - support for more widget flags like WType_Tool. Titlebar
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blending effects on MS-Windows 98/2000.
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****************************************************************************
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* New classes *
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****************************************************************************
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QAction - Abstracts a user interface action that can appear both in
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menus and tool bars. Changing an action's properties, for
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example using setEnabled(),setOn() or setText(),
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immediately shows up in all representations.
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QActionGroup - Combines actions to a group. An action group makes it easier
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to deal with groups of actions. It allows to add, remove or
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activate its children with a single call and provides
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"one of many" semantics for toggle actions.
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QDial - A rounded rangecontrol (like a speedometer or
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potentiometer). Both API- and UI-wise the dial is very
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similar to a QSlider.
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QDom - [XML Module] DOM Level 1 Tree
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QMotifPlusStyle - This class implements a Motif-ish look and feel with more
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sophisticated bevelling as used by the GIMP toolkit (GTK+)
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for Unix/X11.
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QMutex: - Provides access serialization between threads.
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QSemaphore: - A robust integer semaphore. Another way of thread
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serialization.
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QThread - Baseclass for platform-independent threads.
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QWaitCondition - Provides signalling of the occurrence of events between
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threads ("condition variables")
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QCanvas - [Canvas Module] a highly optimized 2D graphic area.
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QTable - [Table Module] a flexible and editable table widget
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QXML - [XML Module] XML parser with SAX interface
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