Qt 4.1 introduces many new features as well as many improvements and
bugfixes over the 4.0.x series. For more details, see the online
documentation which is included in this distribution. The
documentation is also available at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/
The Qt version 4.1 series is binary compatible with the 4.0.x series.
Applications compiled for 4.0 will continue to run with 4.1.
****************************************************************************
* General *
****************************************************************************
Qt library
----------
- Integrated support for rendering Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
drawings and animations (QtSvg module).
- A Portable Document Format (PDF) backend for Qt's printing system.
- A unit testing framework for Qt applications and libraries.
- Modules for extending Qt Designer and dynamic user interface
building.
- New proxy models to enable view-specific sorting and filtering of
data displayed using item views.
- Additional features for developers using OpenGL, such as support
for pixel and sample buffers.
- A flexible syntax highlighting class based on the Scribe rich text
framework.
- Support for network proxy servers using the SOCKS5 protocol.
- Support for OLE verbs and MIME data handling in ActiveQt.
Qt Designer
-----------
- Added support for editing menu bars and tool bars.
- Added support for adding comments to string properties.
- Added new static QtForm library with improved
QForm::Loader API for loading designer forms at run-time.
- Added support for namespaces in uic generated code.
- Added support for dock widgets in main windows.
- Added support for editing table, tree and list widgets.
- Improved palette editing and resource support.
QTestLib
--------
- Added QTestLib, the Qt Unit Testing Library. See the "QTestLib" chapter
in the Qt documentation for more information.
- Users of older versions of QtTestLib can use the updater utility in
tools/qtestlib/updater to convert existing autotests to work with QTestLib.
Boost
-----
Added boost compatible syntax for declaring signals and slots. If you
define the macro QT_NO_KEYWORDS "Q_SIGNALS" and "Q_SLOTS" are
recognized as keywords instead of the default "signals" and "slots".
ActiveQt
--------
QAxServer now supports mime-type handling - a ActiveX control can be
registered to handle a certain file extension and mime-type, in which case
QAxBindable::load and QAxBindable::save can be reimplemented to serialize
the object.
Build system
------------
Added support for linking static plugins into the application.
Qt 3 to 4 Porting Tool
----------------------
Q(V|H)BoxLayout and QGridLayout usage is now ported to use
Q3(V|H)BoxLayout/Q3GridLayout, to retain the margin/spacing
behavior as in Qt 3.
Meta Object Compiler (moc)
--------------------------
- Added support for const signals.
Qt Assistant
------------
- Added -docPath command line option for easy setting of the
document root path.
QMake
-----
- Added support for new FORMS3 profile variable to make it possible
to have Qt Designer forms from Qt 3 and Qt 4 in the same project.
- Added support for precompiled headers on win32-g++ (MinGW)
Compilers
---------
Added support for Solaris 10 on AMD64 with the compiler provided by
Sun.
****************************************************************************
* Library *
****************************************************************************
New classes
-----------
- QTreeWidgetItemIterator
Added iterator to help iterating over items in a QTreeWidget.
- QSortingProxyModel
The QSortingProxyModel can contain another model and handles
the sorting of it.
- QFilteringProxyModel
Allows you to provide a subset of a model to a view.
- QStringFilterModel
Allows you to provide a subset of a model to a view based on a
regular expression.
- QSyntaxHighlighter
The QSyntaxHighlighter class allows you to define syntax
highlighting rules.
- QAbstractFileEngine
A base class for implementing your own file and directory handling
back-end for QFile, QFileInfo and QDir.
- QAbstractFileEngineHandler
For registering a QAbstractFileEngine subclass with Qt.
- QFSFileEngine
The default file engine for regular file and directory access in Qt.
- Q3(H|V)BoxLayout and Q3GridLayout
Layout classes provided for compatibility that behave the same
as the Qt 4 classes but use a zero margin/spacing by default,
just like in Qt 3.
- Added qFromLittleEndian, qToLittleEndian, qFromBigEndian and
qToBigEndian endian helper conversion functions (qendian.h)
- Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN2 macro
Obsoletes Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN and allows static linking of
plugins.
- Q3ComboBox
For enhanced backwards compatibility with Qt 3.
- QGLPbuffer
For creating and managing OpenGL pixel buffers.
- QNetworkProxy
For setting up transparent (SOCKS5) networking proxying.
- QDirectPainter (Qtopia Core only)
Provides direct access to video framebuffer hardware.
General improvements
--------------------
- QByteArray
Added toLong() and toULong().
- QFileDialog
Fix shortcut and focus for "Alpha channel" spinbox.
- QLinkedList
Added conversion methods to convert from/to STL lists.
- QMap/QHash
Fixed operator>>() to read back multiple values associated
to a same key correctly.
Added constFind(), for finding an item without causing a detach.
- QMap/QHash
Const-correctness in const_iterator's operator--(int).
- QMainWindow
The saveState() and restoreState() functions no longer
fallback to using the windowTitle property when the objectName
property is not set on a QToolBar or QDockWidget; this
behavior was undocumented and has been removed.
- QToolBar
Added Qt 3 compatibility signal visibilityChanged(bool).
- QMetaType
Class is now fully reentrant.
Metatypes can be registered or queried from multiple threads.
Added qMetaTypeId<T>(), which returns the meta type ID of T at compile time.
- QMetaProperty
Added isResettable().
- QSql
Oracle plugin adds support for authentication using external credentials.
Added isValid() to QSqlError.
- QThread
Added setPriority() and priority(), for querying and setting
the priority of a thread.
- QTreeWidgetItem/QTreeWidget
Added new constructors and addChildren(), insertChildren(),
takeChildren(), insertTopLevelItems(), addTopLevelItems to
speed up insertion of multiple items.
- QTextDocument
Added the class QTextBlockUserData and added the possibility
of storing a state or custom user data in a QTextBlock
Added useDesignMetrics property, to enable the use of design metrics for
all fonts in a QTextDocument.
- QTextFormat
Added support for setting the font pixel size.
Added UserObject to QTextFormat::ObjectTypes enum.
- QMetaType
The value of QMetaTypeId<T>::Defined indicates whether a given type T is
supported by QMetaType.
- QAbstractItemView
Added setIndexWidget() and indexWidget() which makes it
possible to set a widget at a given index.
Added a QAbstractItemView::ContiguousSelection mode.
Added scrollToTop() and scrollToBottom().
- QAbstractItemModel
Added a SizeHintRole that can be set for each item. The item
delegate will now check for this value before computing the
size hint based on other item data.
Add QModelIndex::operator<() so we are able to use them in
QMap and other containers.
Added qHash function for QModelIndex.
- QTableWidget
Added cellWidget() and setCellWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget at a specified cell.
Added setCurrentCell().
Added QTableWidgetItem copy constructors.
- QTreeWidget
Added setItemWidget() and itemWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget on an item.
- QListWidget
Added setItemWidget() and itemWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget on an item.
Added QListWidgetItem copy constructors.
- QMutableMapIterator
Added value() overloads to Java-style iterators that return
non-const references.
- QTextTable
Added mergeCells() and splitCells() to be able to set the row
or column span on a table cell.
- QStyle
Added standardIcon() which returns a default icon for standard
operations.
Added State_ReadOnly, which is enabled for read-only widgets.
Renamed QStyleOption::init() to initFrom().
- QGroupBox is now completely stylable (QStyleOptionGroupBox)
- Indeterminate (busy) progress bars are now animated properly
in all styles.
Added PM_DockWidgetTitleMargin as pixel metric.
- QHash
Make it possible to use QHash with a type that has no default
constructor.
- QTableView
Made QTableView::setShowGrid() a slot, like in Qt 3.
Added setRowHeight() and setColumnWidth().
- QTableWidgetSelectionRange
Added rowCount() and columnCount() convenience functions.
- QSettings
Added support for custom formats in QSettings.
- QTextStream
Added status(), setStatus() and resetStatus() for improved error handling.
Added read(qint64 maxlen), for reading parts of a text stream into a
QString.
- QTextCursor
Added support for BlockUnderCursor selection type.
- QHeaderView
Added defaultSectionSize property which tells the default size
of the header sections before resizing.
- QScrollBar
Added context menu to the scrollbar with default navigation
options.
- QScrollArea
Added ensureVisible(), which can scroll the scrollarea to make sure a
specific point is visible.
- QDateTime
Added addMSecs(), which adds a number of milliseconds to the QDateTime.
- QDateTimeEdit
Added support for more date/time formats.
Now allows multiple sections of the same type.
- QButtonGroup
Added handling of buttons with IDs to the buttongroup like in
Qt 3.
- QIODevice
Added peek() for peeking data from a device.
- QTextEdit
Added property tabStopWidth which sets the tab stop width in
pixels.
append(const QString &) is now a public slot.
Added support for inserting Unicode control characters through the
context menu.
Added property acceptRichText, for whether or not the text edit
accepts rich text insertions by the user.
Added overwriteMode property.
- QDataStream
Added skipRawData().
Added support for QRegExp.
- QProgressBar
Added support for vertical progress bars.
- QImageIOHandler
The name() function has been obsoleted; use format() instead.
Added QImageIOHandler::Animation, for determining if the image format
supports animation.
Added QImageIOHandler::BackgroundColor, for setting the background
color for the image loader.
- QImageReader
Added setBackgroundColor() and backgroundColor(), for setting the
background color of an image before it is read.
Added supportsAnimation(), for checking if the image format supports
animation.
- QImageWriter
Added support for saving image text.
- QLocale
Added dateFormat()/timeFormat() to query the date/time format for the
current locale.
Added toString() overloads for localized QTime and QDate output.
Added decimalPoint(), groupSeparator(), percent(), zeroDigit(),
negativeSign() and exponential(), which provide a means to generate
custom number formatting.
- QHostInfo
Added support for reverse name lookups.
- QHostAddress
Added a QString assignment operator
Added convenience functions for initializing from a native sockaddr
structure.
Added support for the IPv6 scope-id.
- QPrinter
Added property "embedFonts" for embedding fonts into the target
document.
Added support for printing to PDF.
Added support for custom print and paint engines
- QPrintEngine
Added PPK_SuppressSystemPrintStatus, for suppressing the printer
progress dialog on Mac OS X.
- QKeySequence
Added fromString() and toString() for initializing a key sequence
from, and exporting a key sequence to a QString.
- QUrl
Added the port(int) function, which provides a default value for the
port if the URL does not define a port.
Support for decoding Punycode encoded hostnames in URLs.
Made the parser more tolerant for mistakes, and added a ParsingMode
flag for selecting strict or tolerant parsing.
Added support for the NAMEPREP standard in our i18n domain name support.
- QDir
Added the filter QDir::NoDotAndDotDot, for the
special directories "." and "..".
Added the filter QDir::AllEntries, for all entries
in a directory, including symlinks.
- QAbstractSocket
Added slots connectToHostImplementation() and
disconnectFromHostImplementation() to provide polymorphic behavior for
connectToHost() and disconnectFromHost().
- QMenuBar
Added setActiveAction(), which makes the provided action
active.
- QProxyModel
This class has been obsoleted (see QAbstractProxyModel)
- QWidget
Now supports three modes of modality: NonModal, WindowModal and
ApplicationModal.
Added Qt::WindowModality, obsoleted WA_ShowModal and WA_GroupLeader.
Added Qt::WA_OpaquePaintEvent widget attribute, obsoleting Qt::WA_NoBackground.
Added boolean autoFillBackground property.
Child widgets now always inherit the contents of their parent.
- QPalette
Added QPalette::Window (obsoletes Background) and
QPalette::WindowText (obsoletes Foreground).
- QHttpResponseHeader
Added two constructors and the function setStatusLine() for generating
a response header.
- QBitArray
Added count(bool), for counting on and off-bits in a bit array.
- QVariant
Added support for QRegExp
- QRegExpValidator
Added the property "regExp".
- QTabBar
Added the property "iconSize", for setting the size of the icons on
the tabs.
- QLineEdit
Added support for inserting Unicode control characters through the
context menu.
- QString
Added toLong() and toULong().
Support for std::string conversions with embedded \0 characters.
- QRegion
Added translate(), like QRect::translated().
- QProcess
Added systemEnvironment(), which returns the environment variables
of the calling process.
Added exitStatus(), and added a new finished() signal which takes the
exit status as a parameter.
- QComboBox
Made setCurrentIndex() a slot.
- QFontDataBase
Added styleString(), for retrieving the style string from a QFontInfo.
Added support for Myanmar fonts.
- QFontMetrics
Added xHeight(), which returns the 'X' height of the font.
- QCoreApplication
Added arguments(), which returns a list of command line arguments as a
QStringList.
- QTcpSocket
Added support for SOCKS5 via setProxy().
- QUdpSocket
Added property "bindMode", for binding several sockets to the same
address and port.
- QPen
Added support for custom dash pattern styles and miter limits.
Added support for QDebug.
- QDebug
Added support for QVector and QPair output.
- QStringListModel
Added support for sorting.
- QOpenGLPaintEngine
Gradients in the OpenGL paint engine are now drawn using
fragment programs, if the extension is available. Lots of
fixes, speedups and tweaks.
Platform-Specific changes
-------------------------
Windows:
- Painting
Added support for ClearType text rendering.
- File Engine
Added support for long filenames/paths.
X11:
- QWidget
Added support for freedesktop.org startup notifications.
Mac OS X:
- Improved support for the VoiceOver accessibility tool in Mac OS 10.4
and later
3rd-party libraries
-------------------
- zlib
Upgraded to zlib 1.2.3.
- FreeType
Upgraded to FreeType 2.1.10.
- SQLite
Upgraded to SQLite 3.2.7