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C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4

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Product Author Bios

Jasmin Blanchette, Trolltech's documentation manager and a senior developer, has worked at Trolltech since 2001. He is editor of Qt Quarterly, Trolltech's technical newsletter, and coauthored C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3.

Mark Summerfield works as an independent trainer and consultant specializing in C++, Qt, and Python. He was Trolltech's documentation manager for almost three years and coauthored C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3.



The Only Official Best-Practice Guide to Qt 4.1 Programming

Using Trolltech's Qt you can build industrial-strength C++ applications that run natively on Windows, Linux/Unix, Mac OS X, and embedded Linux--without making source code changes. With this book Trolltech insiders have written a start-to-finish guide to getting great results with the most powerful version of Qt ever created: Qt 4.1.

Using C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 you'll discover the most effective Qt 4 programming patterns and techniques as you master key technologies ranging from Qt's model/view architecture to Qt's powerful new 2D paint engine. The authors provide readers with unparalleled insight into Qt's event model and layout system. Then, using realistic examples, they introduce superior techniques for everything from basic GUI development to advanced database and XML integration.

  • Includes new chapters on Qt 4's model/view architecture and Qt's new plugin support, along with a brief introduction to Qtopia embedded programming
  • Covers all Qt fundamentals, from dialogs and windows to implementing application functionality
  • Introduces best practices for layout management and event processing
  • Shows how to make the most of Qt 4's new APIs, including the powerful new 2D paint engine and the new easy-to-use container classes
  • Contains completely updated material in every chapter
  • Presents advanced Qt 4 techniques covered in no other book, from creating both Qt and application plugins to interfacing with native APIs
  • Contains an in-depth appendix on C++/Qt programming for experienced Java developers

The accompanying CD-ROM includes the open source edition of Qt 4.1.1 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and many Unixes, as well as MinGW, a set of freely available development tools that can be used to build Qt applications on Windows, and also the source code for the book's examples.



Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing real-world reference, March 12, 2007
By 
Rolf Ernst (Frisco, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (Paperback)
This book is one of the best reference materials I have read. The author is clearly not regurgitating Trolltech's documentation but elegantly cranks out a series of real life applications.

I read this quite differently than other 'introductions to'. In fact, I initially ignored it. But when it came time to build my own code, I kept running into questions as to how a particular programming problem was approached 'the right way'. A reference manual only shows you what you can do and there is an abundance of literature out there which will show you all the minutiae of endless variations of function calls - theory.

This book showed me how to properly put together FTP sessions, build a graphical directory tree of my own and much else. I am less interested in 'what does the framework offer?' but 'how do I best accomplish this task?'. This only an author with real-world programming experience can answer. This book's teaching by example will get you started quicker in Qt... Read more
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars If you want to learn QT4, this is your book!, March 9, 2007
This review is from: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (Paperback)
I think that is a good book to learn QT4 for different reasons. One of those is that is a book plenty of examples. You can learn to program with QT4, without previously experience in QT.

Touch all the main aspects of QT (from beginning to advanced programming) in a good way.

The sequence of the chapters are adequate.

The examples in the book are clear and the code is self-explained, and It helps a lot to understand the main concepts explained in the book.

Definitively, It's a learner's book, not a reference's book.

A recommended book to learn QT programming.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Qt book really helps get you started., September 22, 2007
By 
Mark Bales (Livermore, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 (Paperback)
I've recently started GUI programming again after about 12 years doing other things, and I've never used Qt. I needed a book to get me started, and this one really worked well. It provides many examples and pieces of template code that help bootstrap whatever it is that you need to do. The major pieces of functionality are all covered, and the explanations are precise and understandable.

My one complaint for this book is that it doesn't cover everything in Qt. For more esoteric things you'll have to switch over to the Qt on-line documentation available at trolltech.com. I've read other reviewers' complaints that the information in this book is all available at the Qt web site. That may be true, but if you're just learning, this book presents things in a logical and subsetted way. Also, since it has an index, it's easier to look up a specific area of interest.

Overall, I highly recommend this book if you're just starting out with Qt and/or GUI programming... Read more
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Index

Download the Index file from this title.

Foreword

Download the Foreword from this book.

Table of Contents

Foreword ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

A Brief History of Qt xv

Part I: Basic Qt

1. Getting Started 3

Hello Qt 3

Making Connections 5

Laying Out Widgets 6

Using the Reference Documentation 9

2. Creating Dialogs 13

Subclassing QDialog 13

Signals and Slots in Depth 20

Rapid Dialog Design 23

Shape-Changing Dialogs 29

Dynamic Dialogs 36

Built-in Widget and Dialog Classes 37

3. Creating Main Windows 43

Subclassing QMainWindow 44

Creating Menus and Toolbars 48

Setting Up the Status Bar 52

Implementing the File Menu 54

Using Dialogs 61

Storing Settings 67

Multiple Documents 68

Splash Screens 71

4. Implementing Application Functionality 73

The Central Widget 73

Subclassing QTableWidget 74

Loading and Saving 80

Implementing the Edit Menu 83

Implementing the Other Menus 87

Subclassing QTableWidgetItem 91

5. Creating Custom Widgets 101

Customizing Qt Widgets 101

Subclassing QWidget 103

Integrating Custom Widgets with Qt Designer 113

Double Buffering 116

Part II: Intermediate Qt 6. Layout Management 137

Laying Out Widgets on a Form 137

Stacked Layouts 143

Splitters 145

Scrolling Areas 148

Dock Widgets and Toolbars 150

Multiple Document Interface 152

7. Event Processing 163

Reimplementing Event Handlers 163

Installing Event Filters 168

Staying Responsive During Intensive Processing 171

8. 2D and 3D Graphics 175

Painting with QPainter 175

Painter Transformations 180

High-Quality Rendering with QImage 188

Printing 190

Graphics with OpenGL 198

9. Drag and Drop 205

Enabling Drag and Drop 205

Supporting Custom Drag Types 210

Clipboard Handling 215

10. Item View Classes 217

Using the Item View Convenience Classes 218

Using Predefined Models 225

Implementing Custom Models 230

Implementing Custom Delegates 244

11. Container Classes 251

Sequential Containers 252

Associative Containers 260

Generic Algorithms 263

Strings, Byte Arrays, and Variants 265

12. Input/Output 273

Reading and Writing Binary Data 274

Reading and Writing Text 279

Traversing Directories 285

Embedding Resources 286

Inter-Process Communication 287

13. Databases 293

Connecting and Querying 294

Presenting Data in Tabular Form 299

Implementing Master-Detail Forms 304

14. Networking 311

Writing FTP Clients 311

Writing HTTP Clients 320

Writing TCP Client-Server Applications 323

Sending and Receiving UDP Datagrams 333

15. XML 339

Reading XML with SAX 339

Reading XML with DOM 344

Writing XML 348

16. Providing Online Help 351

Tooltips, Status Tips, and "What's This?" Help 351

Using QTextBrowser as a Simple Help Engine 353

Using Qt Assistant for Powerful Online Help 356

Part III: Advanced Qt17. Internationalization 361

Working with Unicode 362

Making Applications Translation-Aware 365

Dynamic Language Switching 371

Translating Applications 376

18. Multithreading 381

Creating Threads 381

Synchronizing Threads 385

Communicating with the Main Thread 391

Using Qt's Classes in Secondary Threads 396

19. Creating Plugins 399

Extending Qt with Plugins 400

Making Applications Plugin-Aware 408

Writing Application Plugins 412

20. Platform-Specific Features 415

Interfacing with Native APIs 415

Using ActiveX on Windows 419

Handling X11 Session Management 431

21. Embedded Programming 439

Getting Started with Qtopia 440

Customizing Qtopia Core 441

Appendix A. Installing Qt 447

Appendix B. Introduction to C++ for Java and C# Programmers 451

Index 493

Downloadable Sample Chapter

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