Qt 3.1 introduces many significant new features and many improvements
over the 3.0.x series. This file provides an overview of the main
changes since version 3.0.5. For further details see the online
documentation which is included in this distribution, and also
available at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/.
The Qt version 3.1 series is binary compatible with the 3.0.x series:
applications compiled for 3.0 will continue to run with 3.1.
****************************************************************************
* General *
****************************************************************************
Qt Script for Applications
--------------------------
Qt 3.1 is the first Qt release that can be used with Qt Script for
Applications (QSA). QSA provides a scripting engine, an IDE for
creating and editing scripts and script forms, and bindings to the Qt
API. Script-enabling a Qt application is not difficult and the IDE
makes it easy for resellers and end-users to write their own scripts.
QSA is due for release after Qt 3.1.
Qt Designer
-----------
Qt Designer, the visual GUI builder, has undergone several usability
improvements. A new dialog for creating and editing signals and slots
connections has been created: it is much easier to use and much faster
for setting up multiple connections. The widgets are now presented in
an easy-to-use toolbox rather than in toolbars (although you can still
have the toolbars if you want). The property editor now handles common
properties in multiple widgets simultaneously. By popular demand,
WYSIWYG support for QWidgetStack has been added. Rich text is now
supported with a rich text editor. And the code editor can be used for
ordinary member functions as well as for slots.
Qt Assistant
------------
Qt Assistant, the Qt documentation browser, can now be used with
custom documentation sets. This new functionality combined with the
new QAssistantClient class means that you can use Qt Assistant as a
help browser for your own applications. Qt Assistant has also been
enhanced by the addition of a fast full text search engine.
Motif
-----
The general industry-wide move away from Motif is leaving more and
more companies in need of a migration solution. But converting large
legacy applications in one step is often impractical. To minimize
risks and to manage the workload companies often want to port code on
a module by module basis. Qt 3.1 includeds a completely new Motif
module that supports hybrid applications in which Qt code and Motif
code coexist. (This obsoletes the earlier rudimentary Qt Xt/Motif
extension.)
ActiveX
-------
With the release of Qt 3.1, customers who use Qt for Microsoft Windows
development can now use Qt with ActiveX. The new ActiveQt module
provides a simple API for COM and ActiveX. The module can be used to
create applications which host ActiveX controls, and also to create
applications that serve ActiveX controls (e.g. Internet Explorer
plugins).
Qt/Mac
------
The introduction of Qt/Mac, a Mac OS X port of Qt, with Qt 3.0 has
proved a great success. This port has undergone many improvements in
Qt 3.1, especially with respect to Appearance Manager, anti-aliased
text and user settings. The Qt OpenGL support is greatly improved, and
uses the hardware-accelerated drivers.
Qt/Embedded
-----------
Graphics, mouse and keyboard drivers can now be compiled as plugins.
Qt library
----------
In addition to the new additions and enhancements referred to above,
as with all major Qt releases, Qt 3.1 includes hundreds of
improvements in the existing class library. Here is a brief summary of
the most significant changes:
- QTextEdit has a new text format: LogText. This is a performance and
memory optimized format especially designed for the fast display of
large amounts of text. The format supports basic highlighting,
including bold and colored text.
- The new QSyntaxHighlighter class makes it both easy and efficient to
add syntax highlighting capabilities to a QTextEdit.
- QHttp and QFtp in earlier Qt's were implementations of the
QNetworkProtocol. Both have been extended to stand in their own
right. If you missed some flexibility in the network protocol
abstractions of earlier Qt's, the new QHttp and QFtp classes should
provide the solution.
- QAccel, used to handle keyboard shortcuts, now gracefully copes with
shortcut clashes. If a clash occurs, a new signal,
activatedAmbiguously(), is emitted. Classes that use QAccel, like
QButton and QPopupMenu, make use of this new functionality.
Futhermore QAccel can now handle multi-key sequences, for example,
Ctrl+X,Ctrl+F.
- QClipboard has been extended to simplify data exchange between
programs.
- Thread support: almost all methods in the tools classes have been
made reentrant. QApplication::postEvent() and a few other methods
are now thread-safe if Qt is compiled as a multi-threaded library.
(The documentation now states if a class or function is thread-safe
or reentrant.)
- A QMutexLocker class has been added to simplify the locking and
unlocking of mutexes.
- Input methods: A selectionLength() function has been added to
QIMEvent. Japanese compositions are now handled correctly. Support
for AIMM based input methods (those working on non-Asian versions of
Win95/98/Me) has been added.
- Large File support: Qt's internals have been modified to support
Large Files (> 2GB). QFileDialog will now correctly display and
select Large Files.
- SQL module: Support for prepared query execution and value binding
has been added. Among other benefits, this makes it possible to
write large BLOBs (> 2 KB) to Oracle databases, and to write Unicode
strings to SQL Server databases.
Build process
-------------
The build process has been improved:
- The configure script does not need QTDIR to be set anymore.
****************************************************************************
* Library *
****************************************************************************
New classes
==================
- QBackInsertIterator
- QEventLoop
- QIconFactory
- QMutexLocker
- QSyntaxHighlighter
QAction
------------------
New functions:
void setVisible( bool )
bool isVisible() const
QCanvas
------------------
New functions:
void invalidate()
bool isValid() const
QColorDialog
------------------
New functions:
static void setStandardColor( int, QRgb )
QAccel
------------------
New signals:
void activatedAmbiguously( int id )
QApplication
------------------
The event loop has been moved to the QEventLoop class, making it
easier to integrate other toolkits with Qt.
New functions:
QEventLoop *eventLoop() const
void setEventLoop( QEventLoop * )
QString sessionKey() const
QClipboard
------------------
New functions:
void clear( Mode mode )
bool supportsSelection() const
bool ownsSelection() const
bool ownsClipboard() const
QString text( Mode mode ) const
QString text( QCString& subtype, Mode mode ) const
void setText( const QString &, Mode mode )
QMimeSource *data( Mode mode ) const
void setData( QMimeSource*, Mode mode )
QImage image( Mode mode ) const
QPixmap pixmap( Mode mode ) const
void setImage( const QImage &, Mode mode )
void setPixmap( const QPixmap &, Mode mode )
QDesktopWidget
------------------
New functions:
const QRect& screenGeometry( QWidget *widget ) const
const QRect& screenGeometry( const QPoint &point ) const
const QRect& availableGeometry( int screen ) const
const QRect& availableGeometry( QWidget *widget ) const
const QRect& availableGeometry( const QPoint &point ) const
QFileDialog
------------------
Large Files (> 2GB) are now correctly displayed and selected.
QFileInfo
------------------
QFileInfo now supports Large Files (> 2GB) internally. To maintain
binary compatibility the QFileInfo API cannot be adapted before Qt 4
and will truncate file sizes and offsets to 4 GB.
New functions:
bool isHidden() const
QFile
------------------
QFile now supports Large Files (> 2GB) internally. To maintain binary
compatibility the QFile API cannot be adapted before Qt 4 and will
truncate file sizes and offsets to 4 GB.
QDir
------------------
QDir now supports Large Files (> 2GB).
QImEvent
------------------
New functions:
in selectionLength() const
QIconSet
------------------
New functions:
void installIconFactory( QIconFactory *factory )
QImage
------------------
New functions:
static QImage fromMimeSource( const QString& abs_name )
QMetaObject
------------------
New functions:
QStrList enumeratorNames( bool super ) const
int numEnumerators( bool super ) const
static bool hasMetaObject( const char *class_name )
QMenuData
------------------
New functions:
bool isItemVisible( int id ) const
void setItemVisible( int id, bool visible )
Both functions are inherited by QMenuBar and QPopupMenu
QPaintDevice
------------------
New functions (x11 only):
static Qt::HANDLE x11AppRootWindow()
static int x11AppDepth( int screen )
static int x11AppCells( int screen )
static Qt::HANDLE x11AppRootWindow( int screen )
static Qt::HANDLE x11AppColormap( int screen )
static void *x11AppVisual( int screen )
static bool x11AppDefaultColormap( int screen )
static bool x11AppDefaultVisual( int screen )
static int x11AppDpiX( int )
static int x11AppDpiY( int )
static void x11SetAppDpiX( int, int )
static void x11SetAppDpiY( int, int )
QPicture
------------------
New functions:
void setBoundingRect( const QRect &r )
QPixmap
------------------
New functions:
bool hasAlpha() const
static QPixmap fromMimeSource( const QString& abs_name )
QPrinter
------------------
New functions:
void setMargins( uint top, uint left, uint bottom, uint right )
void margins( uint *top, uint *left, uint *bottom, uint *right ) const
Improvements:
Handle masked images and pixmaps correctly. Add code to handle
asymmetrical printer margins correctly.
QSessionManager
------------------
New functions:
QString sessionKey() const
QStyleOption
------------------
New functions:
QStyleOption( QCheckListItem* i )
QCheckListItem* checkListItem() const
New enums values:
PE_CheckListController, PE_CheckListIndicator,
PE_CheckListExclusiveIndicator, PE_PanelGroupBox
CE_MenuBarEmptyArea
CE_DockWindowEmptyArea
PM_CheckListButtonSize
CT_TabBarTab, CT_Slider, CT_Header, CT_LineEdit
SH_GroupBox_TextLabelVerticalAlignment
QThread
------------------
New functions:
void terminate()
QTranslator
------------------
New functions:
bool load( const uchar *data, int len )
QVariant
------------------
New functions:
QVariant( const QPen& )
const QPen toPen() const
QPen& asPen()
bool isNull() const
New enum values:
KeySequence, Pen
QWidget
------------------
All top-level widgets will now try to find an appropriate application
icon when they're not given one, trying in this order
1. Parent widget's icon
2. Top-level widget's icon
3. Application main widget's icon
New functions:
bool isFullScreen() const
void setSizePolicy( QSizePolicy::SizeType hor, QSizePolicy::SizeType ver, bool hfw = FALSE )
New enum values:
AncestorOrigin
QWMatrix
------------------
Two different transformation modes for painter transformations are now
available. See the QWMatrix documentation for details.
New functions:
QPointArray mapToPolygon( const QRect &r ) const
double det() const
static void setTransformationMode( QWMatrix::TransformationMode m )
static TransformationMode transformationMode()
New enums:
TransformationMode { Points, Areas }
QFtp
------------------
While still remaining a subclass of QNetworkProtocol, QFtp can be now
used directly for more advanced FTP operations. The QFtp documentation
provides details of the extensions to the API.
QHttp
------------------
While still remaining a subclass of QNetworkProtocol, QHttp can be now
used directly for more advanced HTTP operations. The QHttp
documentation provides details of the extensions to the API.
Related new classes:
QHttpHeader
QHttpResponseHeader
QHttpRequestHeader
QSqlDriver
------------------
New enum values:
Unicode, PreparedQueries, OracleBindingStyle, ODBCBindingStyle
QSqlQuery
------------------
New functions:
bool isForwardOnly() const
void setForwardOnly( bool forward )
bool exec()
bool prepare( const QString& query )
void bindValue( const QString& placeholder, const QVariant& val )
void bindValue( int pos, const QVariant& val )
void addBindValue( const QVariant& val )
QTableSelection
------------------
New functions:
QTableSelection( int start_row, int start_col, int end_row, int end_col )
QTable
------------------
New properties:
int numSelections
New functions:
void selectCells( int start_row, int start_col, int end_row, int end_col )
void selectRow( int row )
void selectColumn( int col )
void updateHeaderStates()
void setRowLabels( const QStringList &labels )
void setColumnLabels( const QStringList &labels )
QCString
------------------
New functions:
QCString &replace( char c, const char *after )
QCString &replace( const char *, const char * )
QCString &replace( char, char )
New global functions:
QByteArray qCompress( const uchar* data, int nbytes )
QByteArray qUncompress( const uchar* data, int nbytes )
QByteArray qCompress( const QByteArray& data )
QByteArray qUncompress( const QByteArray& data )
Improvements:
Speed optimisations in lots of the old search and replace
functions.
QDate
------------------
New functions:
int weekNumber( int *yearNum = 0 ) const
static QDate currentDate( Qt::DateTimeSpec )
QTime
------------------
New functions:
static QTime currentTime( Qt::DateTimeSpec )
QDateTime
------------------
New functions:
static QDateTime currentDateTime( Qt::DateTimeSpec )
QPtrList
------------------
New functions:
bool replace( uint i, const type *d )
QRegExp
------------------
New functions:
QString errorString()
static QString escape( const QString& str )
int numCaptures() const
QSettings
------------------
New functions:
QSettings( Format format )
void setPath( const QString &domain, const QString &product, Scope = User )
void beginGroup( const QString &group )
void endGroup()
void resetGroup()
QString group() const
New enums:
Format { Native = 0, Ini }
Scope { User, Global }
QChar
------------------
Updated Unicode tables to Unicode-3.2
QString
------------------
New functions:
QString &append( const QByteArray & )
QString &append( const char * )
QString &prepend( const QByteArray & )
QString &prepend( const char * )
QString &remove( QChar c )
QString &remove( char c )
QString &remove( const QString & )
QString &remove( const QRegExp & )
QString &remove( const char * )
QString &replace( uint index, uint len, QChar )
QString &replace( uint index, uint len, char c )
QString &replace( QChar c, const QString & )
QString &replace( char c, const QString & after )
QString &replace( const QString &, const QString & )
QString &replace( QChar, QChar )
QString &operator+=( const QByteArray &str )
QString &operator+=( const char *str )
static QString fromUcs2( const unsigned short *ucs2 )
const unsigned short *ucs2() const
Improvements:
find(), findRev() and contains() use either a fast hashing
algorithm (for short strings) or an optimized Boyer-Moore
implementation for long strings. Lots of smaller performance
optimisations.
QTextStream
------------------
New functions:
QTextCodec *codec()
QTimeEdit
------------------
New properties:
Display display
New functions:
uint display() const
void setDisplay( uint )
New enums:
Display { Hours, Minutes, Seconds, AMPM }
QFrame
------------------
New enum values:
GroupBoxPanel
QGroupBox
------------------
New properties:
bool flat
New functions:
bool isFlat() const
void setFlat( bool b )
QListBox
------------------
New functions:
QListBoxItem* selectedItem() const
QListView
------------------
New functions:
int sortColumn() const
QSlider
------------------
New functions:
void addLine() ( as slot)
void subtractLine() (as slot)
QTextBrowser
------------------
New functions:
void sourceChanged( const QString& )
void anchorClicked( const QString&, const QString& )
QTextEdit
------------------
QTextEdit offers another TextFormat (LogText), which is optimized
(speed and memory) for displaying large read-only texts normally used
for logging.
New properties:
bool allowTabs
New functions:
QString anchorAt( const QPoint& pos, AnchorAttribute a )
void setAllowTabs( bool b )
bool allowTabs() const
void insert( const QString &text, uint insertionFlags = CheckNewLines | RemoveSelected )
New signals:
void clicked( int parag, int index )
void doubleClicked( int parag, int index )
New enums:
TextInsertionFlags { RedoIndentation, CheckNewLines, RemoveSelected }
New enum values:
AtWordOrDocumentBoundary
QToolButton
------------------
New properties:
TextPosition textPosition
New functions:
TextPosition textPosition() const
void setTextPosition( TextPosition pos )
New enums:
TextPosition { Right, Under }
QTooltip
------------------
New functions:
static void setWakeUpDelay( int )
QWhatsThis
------------------
New functions:
static void setFont( const QFont &font )
QDomDocument
------------------
New functions:
QString toString( int ) const
QCString toCString( int ) const
QFont on X11
------------------
Improvements:
Safe handling of huge font sizes. Added support for the new
Xft2 font library on XFree-4.x.
QRegion on X11
------------------
Improvements:
Removed the 16 bit size limitation
****************************************************************************