|
 |
|
 |
 |
Qt Programming for LINUX and Windows 2000 (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books)
|
by Patrick Ward
Sales Rank: 961705
|
$39.99
At Amazon
|
|
Paperback: 304 pages
Publisher: Prentice Hall PTR; Pap/Cdr edition October 2000
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0130270016
ISBN-13: 978-0130270016
Product Dimensions:
9.4 x 7 x 0.8 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Book Info
Provides in-depth coverage of QT programming for Linux and Windows 2000, interfacing with Microsoft APIs, working with DDE servers, COM, DCOM, and Qt2. The CD-ROM comes with the new Qt 2.1 with toolkit extensions, sample code, and more. Softcover.
From the Inside Flap
Preface
This book is a guide to writing applications for Linux, Microsoft NT 4.0, Windows 2000, Windows 95, and Windows 98, using the Qt software toolkit from Trolltech AS. As any respectable programming guide should, it provides a working knowledge of the Qt software distribution and the objects, widgets, and conveniences that the Qt toolkit provides. In addition, it explores some aspects of Qt programming for enterprise application development that are not obvious from the toolkit vendor's documentation.Audience
This book is for C++ programmers and students that want to write effective application software using the Qt toolkit. The focus is primarily on platform-independent software, but some platform-specific topics are unavoidably covered.Assumptions
This book is not a reference manual for the Qt objects and widgetsTrolltech has done an excellent job of providing reference documentation in HTML and Adobe Postscript formats. Their documentation is included with both the Qt-Free edition and the
Qt-Professional edition licenses, and is available from the Troll web site. trolltech
This book is written for both the experienced C++ programmer and the knowledgeable beginner. It is assumed the reader is familiar with standard C++ data types and how new data types are created. The reader should be familiar with the basic concepts of object-oriented (OO) design and implementation, particularly the concept of object inheritance. I have avoided using multiple inheritance in my examples for purposes of clarity, but the reader is encouraged to experiment.
While the title of this book implies a focus on Linux and Windows 2000, the actual scope is much larger. Most of the examples, as well as the code provided on the CD, will compile and function correctly on virtually any platform that Qt will.
If you are an experienced Microsoft developer, some of the coding style presented here may cause mild confusion. Please remember that with a few exceptions, the code presented in this book is intended for cross-platform use. As a result, you will seldom see references to DWORD, LPVOID, and LPSTR data types because they are undefined on platforms outside the Microsoft arena, and since most of the standard Unix data types are compatible with Windows development, they are used instead. The "correctness" of either is purely subjective.
Microsoft platform-specific examples require a Qt-Professional license. Licensing can be obtained directly from Trolltech, and is discussed in some detail in Chapter 1. While Qt software development can be done using the Borland compiler and tools, it is far more common for developers to use Microsoft Visual C++. As a result, it is assumed that the Windows developer has access to Microsoft Visual Studio 6.0 and VC98 (Visual C++).
It is possible, in theory, to compile and use Qt-Free edition applications on a Windows platform, using the Cygnus Win32 implementation, the ming32 compiler distribution, the X11R6.3 development kit for Win32, and an appropriate X server. Since this is an incredibly esoteric environment, it isn't addressed by any of the examples in this book. However, any of the Linux examples should work, assuming you succeed in compiling the Qt-Free edition with the Cygnus compiler distributionsomething I haven't tried yet.
Linux development can be accomplished using the Qt-Free edition. You will need a C++ compiler. This book assumes a generic gcc/g++ distribution (gcc-2.95 was used for the examples) from the Free Software Foundation (FSF), in the assumption that it is a reasonably low common denominator.
Many other platforms are supported out-of-the-box by Troll. I have had virtually no trouble using Qt on HP/UX or AIX.How This Book Is Organized
This book is organized into three parts. Part One is an introduction to the Qt toolkit. It provides some initial programming examples, and discusses some of the unique features that set Qt development apart from other toolkits. Part Two is a detailed discussion of toolkit components. Part Three discusses project-level considerations and debugging techniques.
Appendix A maps the contents of the accompanying CD-ROM. Appendix B (and the index) help to map the contents of this book.The Accompanying CD-ROM
The CD-ROM that comes with this book is in ISO9660 format with Joliet extensions (long filenames). The root directory of the CD-ROM contains a number of subdirectories with names that are (hopefully) descriptive of their contents. The only file in the root directory is a file named "contents.txt" that, surprisingly, contains a text map of what the CD-ROM contains, along with some brief descriptions of those contents.
Customer Reviews & Comments
This book is unfortunately very overpriced (a fact which didn't stop my cover falling off after a couple of weeks though) and difficult to recommend. The best the book has to offer is an accompanying Cd with a relatively current version (2.1) of Qt, which may be a reason to buy for those with a poor or no internet connection (Downloading qt is an ~ 10M undertaking depending on exactly which version, and although most linux distributions come with a version is currently much earlier (1.4, I believe at present). The author seems to have tried to write a reference book in 270 pages. Instead I would suggest such books should try to offer introductions and an pedagogical overview as does Solin ("Qt Programming" by Sams), since the online Qt documentation is almost impossible to beat as a reference (what it leaves to be desired is the short complete examples covering the wide spectrum of classes/concepts that Solin achieves).
Comment | Permalink |
(Report this)
|
Qt Programming for LINUX and Windows 2000 (Hewlett-Packard Professional Books)
Available from Amazon
Price: $39.99
| |
|
|
|
|
