Take full advantage of Qt, the powerful, easy-to-use, cross-platform GUI toolkit. Completely updated for Qt Version 3.0, Programming with Qt guides you through the steps of writing your first Qt application. It's also a reference to the what, how, and why of every GUI element in Qt. And it covers advanced topics like 2D transformations, drag-and-drop, and custom image file filters

Contents

Preface

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

   Working with Date and Time Values
   Loading Code Libraries Dynamically
   Spawning Child Processes
   Playing Sounds

Chapter 14. Writing Your Own Widgets

   Implementing a Coordinate Selector
   Implementing a Browse Box

Chapter 15. Focus Handling

Chapter 16. Advanced Event Handling

   Event Filters
   Sending Synthetic Events

Chapter 17. Advanced Signals and Slots

   Signals and Slots Revisited
   Connecting Several Buttons to One Slot
   Actions

Chapter 18. Providing Help

Chapter 19. Accessing Databases

   Installation of the SQL module
   Connecting to a Database
   Simple Data Retrieval
   Data Retrieval with Cursors
   Data Display
   Data Manipulation
   Anything Else?

Chapter 20. Multithreading

   Configuring Qt for Multithreading
   Using Qt's Multithreading Classes
   Multithreading Pitfalls
   Alternatives to Multithreading

Chapter 21. Debugging

Chapter 22. Portability

   Why Portability Is Desirable
   How to Write Portable Programs
   Danger Ahead: When Even Qt Is Not Portable
   Building Projects Portably with qmake

Chapter 23. Qt Network Programming

   Low-Level Socket Access
   Higher-Level Network Access

Chapter 24. Interfacing Qt with Other Languages and\ Libraries

   OpenGL Programming with Qt
   Writing Netscape Plug-ins
   Integrating Xt Widgets
   Interfacing Qt with Perl

Chapter 25. Using the Visual C++ IDE for Qt Programs

   Importing an Existing Makefile
   Creating Your Own Project from Scratch
   Using qmake to Create a Project File
   Using the MS Visual Studio Integration

Chapter 26. Visual Design with Qt Designer

   Why Do You Need A GUI Designer?
   Creating a Simple Application with the Help of Qt Designer
   Adding Functionality to a Dialog Box by Subclassing
   Using Layout Management
   Useful Techniques

Appendix A. Answers to Exercises

Glossary

Index