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1 Qt 2.1 introduces new features as well as many improvements over the |
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2 2.0.x series. This file will only give an overview of the main changes |
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3 since version 2.0.2. A complete list would simply be too large to be |
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4 useful. For more detail see the online documentation which is included |
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5 in this distribution, and also available on |
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6 http://qt.nokia.com/doc/ |
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7 |
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8 The Qt version 2.1 series is binary compatible with the 2.0.x |
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9 series - applications compiled for 2.0 will continue to run with 2.1. |
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10 |
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11 As with previous Qt releases, the API and functionality of Qt is |
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12 completely portable between Microsoft Windows and X11. It is also portable |
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13 between Windows 95, 98 and NT; unlike most toolkits, Qt lets a single |
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14 executable work on all three. |
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15 |
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16 **************************************************************************** |
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17 * Overview * |
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18 **************************************************************************** |
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19 |
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20 As usual, large sections of the documentation have been revised and |
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21 lots of new documentation has been added. |
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22 |
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23 Much work went into existing classes, based on all the feedback we got |
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24 from our users. A warm thank you to you all at this point, we honestly |
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25 hope to satisfy most of your wishes with the new release. |
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26 |
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27 Among the things that got a lot of polishing is the new geometry |
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28 management system that was introduced with the 2.x series. Some |
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29 classes, such as QBoxLayout, have been rewritten and many size hints |
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30 and size policies were optimized. As usual with newly introduced |
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31 systems, the occasional bug has been fixed as well. As a result, |
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32 layout in Qt-2.1 is not only nicer but also faster. |
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33 |
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34 Big parts of the file dialog have been rewritten. It is now |
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35 synchronized in terms of features with the common Windows dialog, |
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36 including fancy drag'n'drop and in-place renaming. You can customize |
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37 both parts of the dialog, the front-end with info and preview widgets, |
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38 the back-end with different network protocols (see the QFileDialog and |
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39 QNetworkProtocol documentation for details). |
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40 |
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41 Especially interesting for dynamic Qt applications is the newly |
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42 introduced property system. Many interesting things, from scripting up |
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43 to graphical user interface builders, become easier. The technology |
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44 requires a new macro Q_PROPERTY and a new revision of Qt's meta object |
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45 compiler (moc). See the Qt documentation for details. |
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46 |
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47 Due to strong customer demand, we added a cross-platform way to easily |
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48 implement multi-document interfaces (known as 'MDI'). The widget is |
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49 called QWorkspace and makes this task trivial. |
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50 |
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51 On X11, text dropping from Motif drag'n'drop applications has been |
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52 added, to make your Qt applications inter-operable with those Motif |
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53 applications that survived Y2K. |
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54 |
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55 The rich text system, first introduced in Qt-2.0, has been |
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56 revised. Apart from great speed improvements, it now supports HTML |
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57 tables as well as floating images. |
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58 |
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59 QMultiLineEdit, the text input field in Qt, got the missing word wrap |
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60 functionality. It's probably the last big extension we will add to |
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61 that widget. In Qt 3.0, it will be replaced by a fancier, faster and |
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62 more powerful QTextEdit widget that also deals with different colors |
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63 and fonts in a way similar to the existing QTextView. |
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64 |
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65 Qt follows the respective GUI style guides even more closely. This |
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66 includes honoring desktop settings, and keyboard shortcuts such as |
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67 Ctrl-Z/Y for undo/redo in line edit and multi-line edit |
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68 controls. Dialog handling for both modal and non-modal dialogs has |
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69 been improved to follow the platform conventions precisely. |
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70 |
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71 With QIconView, we added a powerful new visualization widget similar |
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72 to QListView and QListBox. It contains optinally labelled pixmap items |
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73 that the user can select, drag around, rename, delete and more. |
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74 |
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75 Compared to the previous release, we have managed to reduce overall |
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76 memory consumption while improving execution speed and features. |
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77 |
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78 Below is a list of the major new features in existing classes as well |
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79 as short descriptions of all new classes and the changes in some of |
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80 the extensions shipped with Qt. |
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81 |
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82 |
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83 **************************************************************************** |
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84 * New major features in existing classes * |
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85 **************************************************************************** |
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86 |
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87 QApplication - new function wakeUpGuiThread() to simplify using threads |
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88 with Qt. |
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89 |
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90 QArray - added sorting and binary search. |
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91 |
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92 QColor - custom color support added. qRgb(r,g,b) helper function |
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93 now sets an opaque alpha value instead of a transparent |
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94 one. |
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95 |
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96 QComboBox - support for text items with icons. |
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97 |
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98 QFileDialog - many new features including fancy drag'n'drop |
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99 and in-place renaming. |
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100 Methods like setInfoPreviewWidget()and |
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101 setContentsPreviewWidget() make it easy to customize |
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102 the dialog extensively. With QUrlOperator and the |
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103 QNetworkProtocol abstraction, the dialog can operate |
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104 transparently by various different network protocols, |
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105 such as HTTP and FTP (see the Network Extension). |
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106 |
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107 QFocusEvent - carries a reason() for the event. Possible reasons are |
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108 Mouse, Tab, ActiveWindow, ShortCut and other. The |
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109 addition makes line edit controls behave properly. |
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110 |
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111 QHeader - added optional visual sort indicator. Revisited API that |
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112 operates on sections only (solves the 'logical' vs. 'actual' |
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113 index confusion). A reworked 'table' example shows how |
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114 to use QHeader in combination with a scrollview to create |
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115 a simple spreadsheet. |
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116 |
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117 QListBox - many signals and functions added for convenience and |
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118 greater flexibility. |
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119 |
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120 QListView - various selections modes similar to QListBox, many |
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121 new functions and signals added for convenience and |
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122 greater flexibility. |
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123 |
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124 QMainWindow - implemented draggable and hidable toolbars. A menubar |
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125 can be made draggable by simply putting it in a toolbar. |
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126 |
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127 QMetaObject - Parts of the API made public. The meta object allows |
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128 applications to access information about an object's |
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129 properties as well as its signals and slots. |
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130 |
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131 QMultiLineEdit - added different word wrap modes: WidgetWidth, |
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132 FixedPixelWidth and FixedColumnWidth. |
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133 |
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134 QObject - property access functions property() and setProperty(). |
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135 |
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136 QPen - added adjustable cap and join styles. |
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137 |
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138 QPopupMenu - added support for tear-off menus, custom items |
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139 and widget items. |
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140 A new function setItemParameter() makes it possible |
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141 to distinguish between several menu items connected to |
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142 one single slot. |
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143 |
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144 QPrinter - Now allows printing to the default printer without doing |
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145 setup() first. |
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146 |
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147 QProgressDialog - auto-reset and auto-close modes. |
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148 |
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149 QPushButton - added a menu button mode with setPopup(). |
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150 |
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151 QScrollView - support for auto-scrolling on drag move events (drag |
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152 auto scroll mode). |
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153 |
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154 QSignal - optional additional integer parameter for the emitted |
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155 signal. |
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156 |
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157 QSimpleRichText - added adjustSize() function that implements a clever |
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158 size hint. Vertical break support for printing. inText() |
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159 hit test. |
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160 |
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161 QSpinBox - different button symbols, currently UpDownArrows and |
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162 PlusMinus. |
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163 |
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164 QSplitter - supports three resize modes now, Stretch, KeepSize |
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165 and FollowSizeHint. |
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166 |
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167 QString - new functions setUnicode(), setUnicodeCodes(), setLatin1(), |
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168 startsWith() and endsWith() |
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169 |
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170 QStringList - new functions fromStrList(), split(), join() and grep(). |
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171 |
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172 QStyle - some extensions for menu button indicators, default |
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173 button indicators, variable scrollbar extends and toolbar |
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174 handles. |
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175 |
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176 QStyleSheet - a couple of tags added to the default sheet, such as |
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177 U, NOBR, HEAD, DL, DT, DD and table support (TABLE, TR, |
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178 TD, TH). Many attributes added to existing tags. |
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179 |
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180 QTextView - basic table support. Contents is selectable, selections |
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181 can be pasted/dragged into other widgets. |
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182 |
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183 QToolBar - stretchable depending on the orientation (setHorizontalStretchable() |
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184 and setVerticalStretchable(). Added orientationChanged() signal. |
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185 |
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186 QToolButton - added optional delayed menu with setPopup() and |
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187 setPopupDelay(). Auto-raise behaviour adjustable. |
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188 |
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189 QWidget - new widget flag WStyle_ContextHelp that adds a |
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190 context-help button to the window titlebar. The |
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191 button triggers "What's This?"-help. The flag works |
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192 with MS-Windows and future versions of X11 desktops |
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193 such as KDE-2.0. |
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194 |
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195 - New function showFullScreen(). |
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196 |
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197 - Enabling and disabling with setEnabled() propagates to |
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198 children. |
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199 |
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200 - Changed isVisible(). It now returns whether a widget |
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201 is mapped up to the toplevel widget (the previous |
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202 implementation only returned isVisibleTo(parentWidget()). |
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203 |
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204 - New property 'backgroundOrigin' that lets a widget draw |
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205 its background relatively to its parent widget's coordinate |
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206 system. This makes pseudo-transparency possible, without |
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207 the overhead of a real widget mask. |
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208 |
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209 |
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210 **************************************************************************** |
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211 * New clases * |
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212 **************************************************************************** |
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213 |
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214 QCustomMenuItem - an abstract base class for custom menu items in |
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215 popup menus. |
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216 |
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217 QFontDataBase - provides information about the available fonts. Not really |
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218 a new class (it was used internally for the QFontDialog), |
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219 but for the first time public API. |
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220 |
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221 QGuardedPtr - a template class that provides guarded pointers to |
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222 QObjects. |
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223 |
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224 QIconView - a sophisticated new widget similar to QListView and |
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225 QListBox. An iconview contains optinally labelled pixmap |
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226 items that the user can select, drag around, rename, delete |
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227 and more. The widget is highly optimized for speed and |
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228 large amounts of icons. |
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229 |
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230 QInputDialog - a convenience dialog to get some simple input values from |
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231 the user. |
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232 |
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233 QMetaProperty - stores meta data about properties. Part of the meta |
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234 object system. |
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235 |
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236 QNetworkProtocol- base class for network protocols, provides |
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237 a common API for network protocols. |
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238 |
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239 QUrl/ |
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240 QUrlOperator - provides an easy way to work with URLs. |
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241 |
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242 QVariant - a tagged union for the most common Qt data types. |
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243 |
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244 QValueStack - a value-based stack container. |
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245 |
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246 QWorkspace - provides a workspace that can contain decorated |
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247 windows as opposed to frameless child widgets. |
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248 QWorkspace makes it easy to implement a multi-document |
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249 interface (MDI). |
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250 |
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251 QBig5Codec - provides support for the Big5 Chinese encoding. |
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252 |
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253 |
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254 **************************************************************************** |
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255 * Changes which may affect runtime behaviour * |
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256 **************************************************************************** |
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257 |
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258 QDataStream / QPicture |
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259 To accomodate for improved functionality, the stream serialization format |
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260 of QString and QPen has changed in Qt 2.1. The format version |
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261 number has been increased to 3. Compatibility has been kept, so |
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262 applications built with this version of Qt are automatically able to read |
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263 QDataStream and QPicture data generated by earlier Qt 2.x versions. But if |
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264 your application needs to generate data that must be readable by |
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265 applications that are compiled with earlier versions of Qt, you must use |
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266 QDataStream::setVersion() (if the data contains QString or QPen objects). |
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267 See the documentation of this function for further discussion. |
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268 |
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269 QPainter::drawPolygon() |
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270 An outline is no longer drawn in the brush color if NoPen is specified. |
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271 This matches the behaviour on Windows and ensures that the area |
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272 painted in this case is the same pixels defined by a QRegion made |
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273 from the polygon. To get the old behaviour, you can call |
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274 painter.setPen(painter.brush()) prior to painting, which will also |
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275 work on Windows. |
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276 |
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277 QPushButton::sizeHint() |
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278 The size hint of auto-default push buttons has been slightly |
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279 increased in order to reserve space for a default button indicator |
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280 frame. This is necessary for a proper Motif or Platinum emulation. If |
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281 this change destroys your geometry management, a auto-default button |
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282 is probably not what you wanted anyway. Simply call |
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283 setAutoDefault(FALSE) on these push buttons to get the old behaviour. |
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284 |
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285 QWidget |
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286 Font and palette propagation has changed totally (from "almost |
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287 brain-dead" to working). In practice, the only changes we've seen are |
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288 to the better. |
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289 |
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290 QColor |
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291 qRgb(r,g,b) now sets a default opaque alpha value of 0xff instead of |
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292 a transparent 0x00 alpha value formerly. Use qRgb(r,g,b,a) if you do |
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293 need a transparent alpha value. |
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294 |
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295 QPalette |
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296 It turned out that the old normal/active/disabled set of color groups |
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297 didn't work very well, except in the simplest hello-world examples, |
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298 that it couldn't be fixed without nasty hacks, and that during five |
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299 years nobody had discovered the bugs. So, we've dropped our broken |
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300 attempt at Tcl/Tk L&F compatibility, and added support for Windows |
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301 2000 and Macintosh L&F compatibility instead. The Macintosh and |
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302 Windows 2000 looks differentiate between the window with focus and |
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303 other windows. Qt calls the color groups QPalette::active() and |
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304 QPalette::inactive() respectively. |
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305 |
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306 QGridLayout/QBoxLayout |
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307 setMargin() now also works on child layouts. As a result of this |
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308 change, the geometry() of a layout now includes margin(). This may |
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309 effect programs that use QLayout::geometry(). |
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310 |
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311 QToolButton |
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312 The now adjustable auto-raise behaviour defaults to TRUE only when |
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313 a button is used inside a QToolBar. That's usually what you want. If not, |
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314 call setAutoRaise(FALSE). |