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C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3
The first question that came to mind when I got this book - is there any need for it? Qt's Documentation is detailed and extensive with how-to's and an API reference available online for free. I have done GUI development in .NET (with C#) and Tk (with Perl) environments, and even though I've never tried Qt, the site with tutorials looked like a sufficiently good resource to start.
However, after getting through the first few chapters, religiously trying out the code, my opinions on whether a separate book is needed have changed. Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield's book can take a sufficiently clueless newbie with some C++ knowledge and guide him through the intricacies of GUI building, providing practical advice and some bits of experience on the way. You learn about the practicality of this book by turning to page 3 (with page 1 being the title) and seeing a code example as the second paragraph of the first chapter. Writing a basic GUI application in C++/Qt is attractively easy, to win you over and make you read the rest of the chapter, as well as finish the basic introduction by creating a windowed application with SpinBox and Slider widgets.
The table of contents is available on the publisher's Web site and looks fairly simple. Each chapter takes about 20-30 pages, with screenshots and code examples provided as part of the text. Reading the first 5 chapters, which comprise the "Basic Qt" section and take up 110 pages, should be enough for any C++ developer to build a sufficiently complex GUI application if all that's required is some graphical interface slapped on top of the functionality that's already there.
The rest of the book -- "Intermediate Qt" chapters -- take the reader into the common problems of GUI development, providing some insight into more advanced topics as well. Supporting networking, working with graphics and images, internationalization of the software application, interacting with help, reading XML through SAX and DOM APIs, accessing databases and doing inter-process communication are all covered here. The authors tended to avoid inserting huge amounts of reference material into the book, and, for example, in the XML chapter when working with Unicode you will be told to go online and download the numeric values of the Unicode characters instead of dedicating valuable book pages to it.
The language of the book is simple to follow; there are plenty of code examples (with discussion following each), and when the authors make certain choices, they also explain why. The diagrams and screenshots are clear (although not in color), and the code examples can be easily separated from the text. This is the first official TrollTech guide to Qt 3.2 programming, and the authors promise that the techniques will work with Qt 4.
Perhaps part of the positive impression that this book left is the fact that programming in Qt is easy and straightforward. At the early stages of my education, I started learning GUI programming with MFC, which left an indelible image of complexity and will probably increase psychiatrist bills in the future (to be fair to Microsoft, Windows Forms with .NET is a huge step forward). The book and the Qt library made some complex things sound quite simple and enjoyable to program. As Matthias Ettrich notes in the foreword to this book, the most important point in reasoning why Qt is so popular is "because programmers like it."
The book comes with a CD that contains non-commercial version of Qt 3.2 for Windows/Mac/Linux, Borland C++ 5.5 (Non-Commercial) and trial version of Borland C++ 6.0 compilers, SQLite database engine and book source code. The non-commercial version of Qt 3.2 for Windows can be installed for Borland C++ 5.5, Borland C++ 6.0, Microsoft Visual C++ 6 and Microsoft Visual C++.NET environments. The examples are quite conveniently located in folders with chapter numbers, followed by subfolders with example names.
Whether you're looking for general introduction to GUI development with C++ or trying to learn Qt, having worked with other libraries and toolkits before, this book is a good source of practical information and reference. The book is part of Perens' Open Source Series.
Alex Moskalyuk enjoys reading and reviewing books on programming and tech industry in general. You can read his other reviews on his personal site. You can purchase C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
SCO and Canopy combined own a bit over 5% of TT. Majority of the company is owned by the employees of TT. SCO/Canopy can in no shape or form control TT. And TT can't buy the shares back if SCO/Canopy is unwilling to sell.
So quit your whining.
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
Actually, no they aren't. Java source code is compiled to byte code once. From then on that byte code is read by the Java Virtual Machine and executed. The JVM does do some JIT compiling, but it would be wrong to state that you have to recompile every time you run an application.
I had the misfortune to read a book on Qt by Patrick Ward called Qt Programming. I'm sorry, but it's got to be one of the worst books on this topic that I've ever seen.
Stay far, far away from it.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
And if its portability would be so great, why did complete, standards-compliant compilers only get available recently? Why do many projects choose not to use exceptions or even templates to avoid portability problems?
Oh, and no, you cannot easily call C++ from other languages, unless you take the time to create 'extern "C"' wrappers for all functions, either manually or with some tool like swig. Otherwise name mangling, which is not standardized across implementations will bite you. You cannot even generally link two libraries compiled with different C++ compilers together.
Programming can be fun again. Film at 11.
There was, then there wasn't, now there is again. Trolltech withdrew the old non-comm version late last year because it was based on 2.3, and every other supported platform/license combination was on 3.x. The book includes a non-commercial version of 3.2 for Windows.
This sig intentionally left blank.
It's not the policy of my series to publish proprietary software on the accompanying CD. But there is some Borland stuff and a copy of Windows Qt on the CD. This is due to a mis-communication with my publisher. I found out about it very late in the process (as I was reading a galley proof), and decided to allow the deviation from policy this time rather than cause a tremendous hassle for Troll Tech. The book had already been advertised, and orders had been booked from stores, etc.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
In 1996 Linux Journal published its first article on developing with Qt: http://www.linuxjournal.com/article.php?sid=0201. By that time, Qt had already been in development for four years, and Troll Tech was 2 1/2 years old.
With all due respect, you need to clarify your grant/funding issues.
If you are producing something which is non-commercial, then there should be no issue with the GPL. You aren't selling it, so you don't need to distribute source. Moreover, you are working with a university, which absorbs public funds and has an obligation to contribute to public knowledge and development.
If the issue is that a private company is using you as a cheap research arm, producing a product for them, then they should easily be able to fork out for a license. You should remember that as a university researcher, you also have a responsiblity to society, even in these circumstances, to attempt to return value back to the public domain.
Finally, a rudimentary search of the Trolltech web site will show you that there is an educational licensing scheme specifically aimed at universities, which you could take advantage of, for teaching etc.
Quite simply:
1) If you want to research, Trolltech will help you out; they'll bend over backwards to help.
2) If you want to make money, pay them a license and be done with it.
Thanks
Bruce
Bruce Perens.
"I ask anyone who's developed in either/both of GTK/Qt, and even those with Win32 experience. What advantages does Qt have over the other choices?"
I haven't programmed directly in the Win32 API beyond making a few calls from VB (back when I was forced to use that steaming pile...), but the general gist is that it is comparable to Xlib (which I have used a lot in the last year or so). Xlib, and therefore Win32 API, are quite painful to use extensively. Qt is light years easier and friendlier to use than either of the raw APIs mentioned above.
I had started GUI programming under Linux with GTK+. I used it (and it's C++ counterpart called GTK--, which was the whole reason I learned C++) as much as I could for a couple years before discovering Qt. I have been a Qt programmer since late 1998/early 1999 (or whenever version 1.44 was mainstream).
Qt, with its support applications (Qt Designer being the cream of the crop); its incredible documentation; and it's thoroughly well-designed API, was a dramatic step forward from GTK+/GTK--. It is, all by itself, a compelling reason to learn C++ if you don't already know it.