As QGIS is implemented in C++, the documentation for QGIS APIs is all based on C++. This can make it difficult for Python developers to understand and work with the QGIS APIs. For example, the API documentation for the QgsInterface.zoomToActiveLayer() method:
If you're not familiar with C++, this can be quite confusing. Fortunately, as a Python programmer, you can skip over much of the complexity as it doesn't apply to you. In particular:
The
virtualkeyword is an implementation detail you don't need to worry aboutvoidindicates that the method doesn't return a valueThe double colons in
QgisInterface::zoomToActiveLayerare simply a C++ convention for separating the class name from the method name
Just like in Python, the parentheses show that the method doesn't take any parameters. So if you have an instance of QgisInterface (for example, as the standard iface variable available in the Python Console), you can call this method simply by typing the following...