Qt 2.2 introduces new features as well as many improvements over the

2.1.x series. This file will only give an overview of the main changes

since version 2.1.  A complete list would simply be too large to be

useful.  For more detail see the online documentation which is

included in this distribution, and also available on

http://qt.nokia.com/doc/

The Qt version 2.2 series is binary compatible with the 2.1.x and

2.0.x series - applications compiled for 2.0 or 2.1 will continue to

run with 2.2.

As with previous Qt releases, the API and functionality of Qt is

completely portable between Microsoft Windows and X11.  It is also

portable between Windows 95, 98, NT and 2000.

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*			    Overview					   *

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The greatest new feature in the 2.2 release is the Qt Designer, a

visual GUI design tool. It makes it possible to cut down on

development time even further through WYSIWYG dialog design. The

designer makes use of improved runtime flexibility and a revised

property system. Please see $QTDIR/doc/html/designer.html for a

feature overview.

Qt 2.2 integrates now fully on MS-Windows 2000.  This includes fade

and scroll effects for popup windows and title bar gradients for MDI

document windows in the MDI module. As with all Qt features, we

provide the same visual effects on Unix/X11.

Two new classes QAction and QActionGroup make it much easier to

create sophisticated main windows for today's applications. A QAction

abstracts a user interface action that can appear both in menus and

tool bars.  An action group makes it easier to deal with groups of

actions. It allows to add, remove or activate its children with a

single call and provides "one of many" semantics for toggle

actions. Changing an action's properties, for example using

setEnabled(),setOn() or setText(), immediately shows up in all

representations.

Few people consider the original OSF Motif style the most elegant or

flashy GUI style. Therefore several attempts have been made to come up

with a slightly improved Motif-ish look and feel. One of them is the

thinner CDE style, that was supported by Qt since version 2.0.  In the

2.2 release, we now added support for SGI's very own Motif version on

IRIX workstations.  With its more elegant bevelling of 3D elements and

mouse-under highlight effects, it is quite appealing. For Linux users,

we added a Motif plus style, that resembles the bevelling used by the

GIMP toolkit (GTK+). Optionally, this style also does hovering

highlight on buttons.

Last but not least we added support for multi-threaded

applications. The classes involved are QThread to start threads,

QMutex to serialize them and QCondition to signal the occurrence of

events between threads ("condition variables").

Another major change was done regarding distribution. In order to

address the steady growth of functionality in the Qt library, we

split the source code into distinct modules that can be compiled

in (or left out) separately. This also makes it possible for us to

keep the cost of entry into the commercial Qt world as low as possible.

The modules available in Qt 2.2 are:

- Tools: platform-independent Non-GUI API for I/O, encodings, containers,

    strings, time & date, and regular expressions.

- Kernel: platform-independent GUI API, a complete window-system API.

- Widgets: portable GUI controls.

- Dialogs: ready-made common dialogs for selection of colors, files,

    printers, fonts, and basic types, plus a wizard framework, message

    boxes and progress indicator.

- OpenGL 3D Graphics: integration of OpenGL with Qt, making it very

    easy to use OpenGL rendering in a Qt application.

- Network: advanced socket and server-socket handling plus

    asynchronous DNS lookup.

- Canvas: a highly optimized 2D graphic area.

- Table:  a flexible and editable table widget

- IconView: a powerful visualization widget similar to QListView and

    QListBox. It contains optionally labelled pixmap items that the user

    can select, drag around, rename, delete and more.

- XML: a well-formed XML parser with SAX interface plus an

    implementation of the DOM Level1

- Workspace: a workspace window that can contain decorated document

    windows for Multi Document Interfaces (MDI).

Network, Canvas, Table and XML are entirely new modules.

Below is a list of the major new features in existing classes as well

as short descriptions of all new classes.

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* 		New major features in existing classes			   *

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QApplication: 	- "global strut", an adjustable minimum size for interactable

		  control elements like the entries in a listbox, useful for

		  touch-screens. Popup window effects ( setEffectEnabled() )

		  and more threading support ( guiThreadTaken(), lock(),

		  unlock(), locked() ).

QCheckBox: 	- "tristate" is now a property.

QClipboard: 	- text() supports subtypes.

QComboBox: 	- "editable" is now a property that is changeable at runtime

QDialog: 	- support for extensible dialogs ("More...") with

		  setExtension() and setOrientation(). Optional size grip.

QFont: 		- new functions styleStrategy() and  setStyleHint()

QIconSet: 	- new constructor that takes both a small and a large pixmap

QKeyEvent: 	- numeric keypad keys now set a Keypad flag

QLabel: 	- support for scaled pixmap contents, "pixmap" as property

QLayout:	- improved flexibility with setEnabled(), access to the

		  laid out menu bar with menuBar().

QListView: 	- "showSortIndicator" as property. New function

		  QListViewItem::moveItem() to simplify drag and drop.

QMovie: 	- new functions pushSpace(), pushData(), frameImage()

QMultiLineEdit: - new functions pasteSubType() and copyAvailable()

QObject: 	- new function normalizeSignalSlot(), tr() now supports a comment.

QPicture: 	- streaming to and from QDataStream

QPopupMenu: 	- new signal aboutToHide()

QRegExp: 	- new functions setPattern() and find()

QRegion: 	- new function setRects()

QScrollView: 	- new property "staticBackground" to define a pixmap

		  background that does not scroll with the contents.

QStatusBar: 	- "sizeGripEnabled" as property

QStyle: 	- themable menu bars with drawMenuBarItem(). New functions

		  buttonMargin(), toolBarHandleExtent(), sliderThickness()

QTabWidget: 	- new functions currentPageIndex(), setCurrentPage(), new

		  signal currentChanged(). Similar extensions to QTabBar

		  and QTabDialog

QTranslator:	- new algorithmen for faster lookup. No more risk of

		"hash collisions" when many translators are loaded.

QVariant: 	- new subtype QSizePolicy. Necessary for QWidget's

		   new sizePolicy property.

QWidget: 	- new properties "sizePolicy", "ownPalette", "ownFont",

		  "ownCursor" and "hidden". The size policy is now adjustable

		  at runtime with setSizePolicy().  Added convenience slot

		  setDisabled(). Fast geometry mapping functions mapTo() and

		  mapFrom(). On X11, support for a new background mode

		  X11ParentRelative.

QWizard: 	- runtime changable titles with setTitle(), new signal

		  selected()

QWorkspace:	- support for more widget flags like WType_Tool. Titlebar

		  blending effects on MS-Windows 98/2000.

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*				New classes				   *

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QAction 	- Abstracts a user interface action that can appear both in

		  menus and tool bars. Changing an action's properties, for

		  example using setEnabled(),setOn() or setText(),

		  immediately shows up in all representations.

QActionGroup 	- Combines actions to a group. An action group makes it easier

		  to deal with groups of actions. It allows to add, remove or

		  activate its children with a single call and provides

		  "one of many" semantics for toggle actions.

QDial		- A rounded rangecontrol (like a speedometer or

		  potentiometer). Both API- and UI-wise the dial is very

		  similar to a QSlider.

QDom 		- [XML Module] DOM Level 1 Tree

QMotifPlusStyle	- This class implements a Motif-ish look and feel with more

		  sophisticated bevelling as used by the GIMP toolkit (GTK+)

		  for Unix/X11.

QMutex:		- Provides access serialization between threads.

QSemaphore:	- A robust integer semaphore.  Another way of thread

		  serialization.

QThread 	- Baseclass for platform-independent threads.

QWaitCondition 	- Provides signalling of the occurrence of events between

		  threads ("condition variables")

QCanvas 	- [Canvas Module] a highly optimized 2D graphic area.

QTable 		- [Table Module] a flexible and editable table widget

QXML 		- [XML Module] XML parser with SAX interface