Book Image

Cross-Platform Development with Qt 6 and Modern C++

By : Nibedit Dey
Book Image

Cross-Platform Development with Qt 6 and Modern C++

By: Nibedit Dey

Overview of this book

Qt is a cross-platform application development framework widely used for developing applications that can run on a wide range of hardware platforms with little to no change in the underlying codebase. If you have basic knowledge of C++ and want to build desktop or mobile applications with a modern graphical user interface (GUI), Qt is the right choice for you. Cross-Platform Development with Qt 6 and Modern C++ helps you understand why Qt is one of the favorite GUI frameworks adopted by industries worldwide, covering the essentials of programming GUI apps across a multitude of platforms using the standard C++17 and Qt 6 features. Starting with the fundamentals of the Qt framework, including the features offered by Qt Creator, this practical guide will show you how to create classic user interfaces using Qt Widgets and touch-friendly user interfaces using Qt Quick. As you advance, you'll explore the Qt Creator IDE for developing applications for multiple desktops as well as for embedded and mobile platforms. You will also learn advanced concepts about signals and slots. Finally, the book takes you through debugging and testing your app with Qt Creator IDE. By the end of this book, you'll be able to build cross-platform applications with a modern GUI along with the speed and power of native apps.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: The Basics
6
Section 2: Cross-Platform Development
8
Section 3: Advanced Programming, Debugging, and Deployment

Understanding Qt's graphics framework

Qt is one of the most popular frameworks for GUI applications. Developers can build awesome cross-platform GUI applications using Qt without worrying about the underlying graphics implementation. The Qt Rendering Hardware Interface (RHI) interprets graphics instructions from Qt applications to the available graphics APIs on the target platform.

RHI is the abstract interface for hardware-accelerated graphics APIs. The most important class in the rhi module is QRhi. The QRhi instance is supported by a backend for the specific graphics API. The selection of the backend occurs at runtime and is decided by the application or library that creates the QRhi instance. You can add the module by adding the following line into your project file:

QT += rhi

Different types of graphics APIs supported by RHI are as follows:

  • OpenGL
  • OpenGL ES
  • Vulkan
  • Direct3D
  • Metal

Figure 8.1 shows the major layers of the graphics stack...