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 ****************************************************************************