Overview

lqt is a Lua binding to the Qt framework. It is an automated binding generated from the Qt headers, and covers almost all classes and methods from supported Qt modules.

For more info, check the documentation, mailing list or contact the authors:

• Michal Kottman michal.kottman@gmail.com
• Mauro Iazzi mauro.iazzi@gmail.com
• Peter Kümmel syntheticpp@gmx.net

Features

• automatically generated from Qt headers - remains up-to-date even with as Qt progresses
• supported modules: QtCore, QtGui, QtNetwork, QtXml, QtXmlPatterns, QtWebKit, QtOpenGL, QtSql, QtSvg, QtUiTools
• high API coverage - only a minimum of methods are not available
• C++/Qt features available:
  • method overloads
  • virtual methods (including abstract methods)
  • multiple inheritance
  • you can store additional Lua values in userdata - they act like Lua tables
  • several overloaded operators are supported
  • chosen templated classes are available, like QList<QString>
  • signal/slot mechanism - you can define custom slots in Lua
  • QObject derived objects are automatically cast to correct type thanks to Qt metaobject system
  • implicit conversion - i.e. write Lua strings where QString is expected, or numbers instead of QVariant
• optional memory management - you can let the Lua GC destroy objects, or let Qt parent/child management do the work

History

lqt 0.9

• Public beta, most issues and API stabilized

Building lqt

Pre-compiled Windows binaries of lqt compiled against Qt 4.7 compatible with Lua for Windows are available, on other systems you need:

• Lua 5.1
• CMake
• Qt and headers, on Ubuntu you need to install the libqt4-dev package

You can get the latest source of lqt from https://github.com/mkottman/lqt . When you have the sources, create an out-of-source build directory (where the binaries will be built, I often use build or /dev/shm). Then, use CMake to generate the Makefile and run make as usual:

mkdir build; cd build
cmake ..
make -j4 # use parallel build with your number of cores/processors

The generated Lua binding libraries are created in the lib directory, you can copy them to your LUA_CPATH.

Usage

A quick example of "Hello World!" button with signal/slot handling:

require 'qtcore'
require 'qtgui'

app = QApplication.new(select('#',...) + 1, {'lua', ...})

btn = QPushButton.new("Hello World!")
btn:connect('2pressed()', function(self)
    print("I'm about to close...")
    self:close()
end)
btn:setWindowTitle("A great example!")
btn:resize(300,50)
btn:show()

app.exec()

For more examples, check out the test folder and the doc folder for documentation on detailed usage - memory management, signal/slot handling, virtual method overloading, etc. Also, have a look at the examples and feel free to add your own!

License

Copyright (c) 2007-2009 Mauro Iazzi Copyright (c) 2008-2009 Peter Kümmel Copyright (c) 2010-2011 Michal Kottman

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.