1 Qt 3.3 introduces many new features as well as many improvements over
2 the 3.2.x series. For more details, see the online documentation which
3 is included in this distribution. The documentation is also available
4 at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/
6 The Qt version 3.3 series is binary compatible with the 3.2.x series.
7 Applications compiled for 3.2 will continue to run with 3.3.
9 ****************************************************************************
11 ****************************************************************************
16 Qt 3.3 is .NET enabled. This release shows how to use classes
17 developed with Qt in a .NET environment. It includes an analysis of
18 the different interoperability infrastructures provided by the .NET
19 framework. An example demonstrates how to use both a manual approach
20 with Microsoft's managed extensions to the C++ language, and also
21 automated solutions based on COM and the ActiveQt framework to reuse
22 native Qt classes and widgets in .NET projects. To learn more about Qt
23 and .NET read the "Using Qt objects in Microsoft .NET" walkthrough
24 found in the ActiveQt framework documentation.
26 Qt 3.3 now supports IPv6 in addition to IPv4. New functions have been
27 added for IPv6 support to QSocketDevice, QHostAddress and QDNns.
29 Qt now includes a new tool class called QLocale. This class converts
30 between numbers and their string representations in various languages.
31 QLocale supports the concept of a default locale which allows a locale
32 to be set globally for the entire application.
34 Support for new 64bit platforms and compilers has been added for Qt
35 3.3. Qt now supports Itanium on both Linux (Intel C++ compiler) and
36 Windows (MSVC and Intel C++ Compiler). Qt 3.3 now also officially
39 Qt 3.3 also supports precompiled headers for Windows, Mac OS X and
40 X11. To use precompiled headers when compiling your Qt application
41 simply add PRECOMPILED_HEADER and then specify the header file to
42 precompile in your .pro file. To learn more about precompiled headers
43 see the "Using Precompiled Headers" chapter in the qmake User Guide.
45 Two new database drivers have been added to the SQL module, InterBase
46 and SQLite. This makes it possible to write database applications that
47 do not require a database server. SQLite is provided in the Qt 3.3
48 distribution and can be enabled with either -qt-sql-sqlite or
49 -plugin-sql-sqlite. The InterBase plugin also works with Firebird, the
50 open source version of InterBase.
52 QWidget has a new function setWindowState() which is used to make a
53 widget maximized, minimized, etc. This allows individual settings for
54 the minimized/maximized/fullscreen properties.
56 Support for semi-transparent top-level widgets on Mac OS X and Windows
57 2000/XP has also been added.
59 A new example, qregexptester, has been added that makes it easy to
60 test QRegExps on sample strings.
62 Qt 3.3 includes in addition to this, numerous bug fixes and
63 improvements. Special thanks goes to KDE for their reports and
70 Added support for SNAP graphics drivers from SciTech Software. This
71 gives access to accelerated drivers for more than 150 graphics
78 QAccessible support has been introduced (implemented in terms of Apple's
79 Universal Access API).
81 Added support for Xcode project files in qmake.
83 Added Tablet support for Mac OS X.
85 Numerous visual improvements.
91 Added support for Xft2 client side fonts on X servers without the
94 Added a new configure option (-dlopen-opengl) which will remove the
95 OpenGL and Xmu library dependencies in the Qt library. The functions
96 used by Qt in those libraries are resolved manually using dlopen()
97 when this option is used.
99 Improved support for the Extended Window Manager Hints.
105 Added support for Windows Server 2003 (Win64/Itanium).
111 Clipboard operations now work between Qt and Motif widgets in the same
112 application. Click-to-focus works with Motif widgets that are children
119 Two new functions, QAxFactory::startServer() and
120 QAxFactory::stopServer(), can be used to start and stop an
121 out-of-process ActiveQt server at runtime. The new functions
122 QAxFactory::serverDirPath() and QAxFactory::serverFilePath() return
123 the location of the COM server binary. Server binaries no longer
124 need to implement a main() entry point function. A default
125 implementation is used for out-of-process servers. IClassFactory2
126 is supported for the development of licensed components, and
127 QAxFactory supports the creation of non-visual COM objects. Class
128 specific information can be provided directly in the C++ class
129 declaration using the Q_CLASSINFO macro to control how objects and
130 controls are registered and exposed. New helper classes and macros
131 are avialable to make it even easier to expose object classes (see the
132 QAxServer documentation for details).
134 COM objects developed with ActiveQt are now supported in a wider range
135 of clients, including Microsoft Office applications and .NET. Examples
136 that demonstrate how to use the Qt objects from the examples in .NET
137 languages like C# are included. QStringList is supported as a type,
138 and QRect, QSize and QPoint are now supported datatypes for control
139 properties and as reference parameters. Saving the controls to a
140 storage or stream now includes the version number of the QDataStream
141 used for the serialization (note that this might break existing
144 The QAxContainer library is now static even for shared configurations
145 of Qt. This simplifies deployment and allows using both QAxServer and
146 QAxContainer in one project, i.e. an OLE automatable application that
147 uses COM objects itself. The semantics of QAxBase::setControl() have
148 been extended to allow creating of COM objects on remote machines via
149 DCOM, to create controls requiring a license key and to connect to
150 already running objects. The implementation of QAxBase::dynamicCall()
151 has been improved to support passing of parameter values directly in
152 the function string. Three new classes, QAxScript, QAxScriptManager
153 and QAxScriptEngine, can be used to script COM objects from within Qt
154 applications using Windows Script Host.
156 SAFEARRAY(BSTR) parameters are supported as QStringList. Calling COM
157 object methods with out-parameters of type short, char and float is
158 now supported (the parameters are of type int& and double& in the Qt
159 wrapper), and QVariants used for out-parameters don't have to be
160 initialized to the expected type. Calling QByteArray functions in
161 out-of-process controls no longer returns an error code. The control's
162 client side is set to zero when the container releases the control.
168 Qt Designer, Qt's visual GUI builder, has received some speed
169 optimizations, along with minor improvements to the menu editor.
175 Qt Assistant now saves the states of the tab bars between runs. This
176 enables users to start browsing where they ended their previous
179 Shortcuts for Find Next (F3) and Find Previous (Shift+F3) have been
186 Qt 3.3 adds support for two new compilers. The Intel C++ compiler is
187 supported on Windows, Linux and FreeBSD. GNU gcc is supported on
190 Qt 3.3 no longer officially supports the Sun WorkShop 5.0 compiler or the
191 SGI MIPSpro o32 mode.
194 ****************************************************************************
196 ****************************************************************************
199 Added a setDisabled() slot similar to QWidget::setDisabled.
200 Added an activate() slot which activates the action and
201 executes all connected slots.
202 QActions::menuText() escapes ampersand characters ('&') when
203 using the value of the text property.
206 Added QButtonGroup::selectedId property to allow mapping with
210 Added new enum value Qt::BusyCursor.
211 X11 only: Added QCursor constructor taking a X11 cursor handle.
214 The QDom classes are now reentrant.
217 Added new event type WindowStateChange, obsoleting ShowNormal,
218 ShowMinimized, ShowMaximized and ShowFullScreen.
221 The sizeChange() signal is emitted when the section sizes are
222 adjusted by double clicking.
225 Added new constructor for IPv6 and new functions
226 isIPv6Address() and toIPv6Address(). Obsoleted the functions
227 isIp4Addr() and ip4Addr(), replacing them with isIPv4Address()
231 Improved keyboard search to behave like QListView.
234 Improved alignment for text in QListViewItems. Right aligned
235 text now has the ellipsis on the left.
236 Keyboard search now uses the sort column as the column to
238 Improved branch drawing.
241 This new tool class converts between numbers and their string
242 representations in various languages.
245 Allow disabling of size constraints.
251 Support full alpha-maps for paletted (8-bit) images.
252 Support 16-bit grayscale PNG images with transparency.
255 A push button with both an iconset and text left-aligns the
259 Added setProtocol() and protocol() for IPv6 support.
262 Windows: Support loop related APIs.
265 Less intrusive stay-on-top policy.
268 Support for InterBase and SQLite.
271 Draw messages with the foreground() color of the palette,
272 rather than with the text() color.
275 Added support for %lc and %ls to sprintf(). %lc takes a
276 Unicode character of type ushort, %ls takes a zero-terminated
277 array of Unicode characters of type ushort (i.e. const
278 ushort*). Also added support for precision (e.g. "%.5s").
279 Changed arg() to support "%L1" for localized conversions.
280 Windows only: QString::local8Bit() now returns an empty
281 QCString when called on a null QString to unify behavior
282 with the other platforms.
285 Add a new primitive element: PE_RubberBand.
286 Added PM_MenuBarItemSpacing and PM_ToolBarItemSpacing pixel metrics.
289 decode() now autodetects the encoding of text/html content.
292 Reduced memory consumption by 20 bytes per line.
293 Added a getter for the currently set QSyntaxHighlighter.
296 Qt now automatically detects the charset of HTML files set
300 Comparison between variants where one of the variants is a
301 numeric value will compare on the numeric value. Type casting
302 between different variants is more consistent.
305 Added setWindowOpacity() and windowOpacity() to support
306 transparent top-level widgets on Windows and Mac.
307 Added windowState() and setWindowState() to allow individual
308 setting of the minimized/maximized/fullscreen properties.
311 Qt supports toggling of the accelerator underlines using the
312 Alt-key on Windows 98, 2000 and later. On other platforms this
313 change has no effect.