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.

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Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Preface
Preface
Who this book is for
What this book covers
To get the most out of this book
Download the example code files
Download the color images
Conventions used
Get in touch
Reviews
1
Section 1: The Basics
Section 1: The Basics
Free Chapter
2
Chapter 1: Introduction to Qt 6
Chapter 1: Introduction to Qt 6
Technical requirements
Introducing Qt
Reasons for using Qt
Downloading and installing Qt
Building Qt 6 from source
Summary
3
Chapter 2: Introduction to Qt Creator
Chapter 2: Introduction to Qt Creator
Technical requirements
Exploring the Qt Creator UI
Building a simple Qt application
Understanding advanced options
Summary
4
Chapter 3: GUI Design Using Qt Widgets
Chapter 3: GUI Design Using Qt Widgets
Technical requirements
Introducing Qt widgets
Creating a UI with Qt Designer
Managing layouts
Creating custom widgets
Creating Qt Style Sheets and custom themes
Exploring custom styles
Using widgets, windows, and dialogs
Summary
5
Chapter 4: Qt Quick and QML
Chapter 4: Qt Quick and QML
Technical requirements
Getting started with QML and Qt Quick
Understanding Qt Quick Controls
Creating a simple Qt Quick application
Designing a UI with Qt Quick Designer
Positioners and layouts in QML
Integrating QML with C++
Integrating QML with JS
Handling mouse and touch events
Summary
6
Section 2: Cross-Platform Development
Section 2: Cross-Platform Development
7
Chapter 5: Cross-Platform Development
Chapter 5: Cross-Platform Development
Technical requirements
Understanding cross-platform development
Understanding compilers
Building with qmake
Qt Project (.pro) files
Understanding build settings
Platform-specific settings
Using Qt with Microsoft Visual Studio
Running a Qt application on Linux
Running a Qt application on macOS and iOS
Other Qt-supported platforms
Porting from Qt 5 into Qt 6
Summary
8
Section 3: Advanced Programming, Debugging, and Deployment
Section 3: Advanced Programming, Debugging, and Deployment
9
Chapter 6: Signals and Slots
Chapter 6: Signals and Slots
Technical requirements
Understanding Qt signals and slots
The working mechanism of Qt signals and slots
Getting to know Qt's property system
Using signals and slots in Qt Designer
Understanding signals and the handler event system in QML
Understanding events and the event loop
Managing events with an event filter
Drag and drop
Summary
10
Chapter 7: Model View Programming
Chapter 7: Model View Programming
Technical requirements
Understanding the M/V architecture
Creating a simple Qt Widgets application using the M/V pattern
Understanding Models and Views in QML
Using C++ Models with QML
Creating a simple M/V application with Qt Quick
Summary
11
Chapter 8: Graphics and Animations
Chapter 8: Graphics and Animations
Technical requirements
Understanding Qt's graphics framework
QPainter and 2D graphics
Introducing the Graphics View framework
Understanding the Qt OpenGL module
Graphics in Qt Quick
Understanding the Qt Quick scene graph
Shader effects
Using the Canvas QML type
Understanding particle simulations
Animation in Qt Widgets
Animation and transitions in Qt Quick
States, state machine, and transitions in Qt Quick
The state machine in Qt Widgets
Summary
12
Chapter 9: Testing and Debugging
Chapter 9: Testing and Debugging
Technical requirements
Debugging in Qt
Debugging strategies
Debugging a C++ application
Debugging a Qt Quick application
Testing in Qt
Integrating with Google's C++ testing framework
Testing Qt Quick applications
GUI testing tools
Summary
13
Chapter 10: Deploying Qt Applications
Chapter 10: Deploying Qt Applications
Technical requirements
Understanding the need for deployment
Deploying on desktop platforms
Using the Qt Installer Framework
Deploying on Android
Other installation tools
Summary
14
Chapter 11: Internationalization
Chapter 11: Internationalization
Technical requirements
Understanding internationalization and Qt Linguist
Writing source code for translation
Loading translations in a Qt application
Switching languages dynamically
Internationalization with Qt Widgets
Internationalization with Qt Quick
Deploying translations
Summary
15
Chapter 12: Performance Considerations
Chapter 12: Performance Considerations
Technical requirements
Understanding performance optimization
Optimizing C++ code
Using concurrency, parallelism, and multithreading
Profiling a Qt Quick application using QML Profiler and Flame Graph
Other Qt Creator analysis tools
Optimizing graphical performance
Creating benchmarks
Different analysis tools and optimization strategies
Performance considerations for Qt Widgets
Learning best practices of QML coding
Summary
Why subscribe?
16
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Reasons for using Qt

Qt is a modular, cross-platform application development framework. The biggest misunderstanding about Qt is that many people consider it as a GUI framework. However, Qt is much more than a GUI framework. It not only comprises a GUI module, but also a set of modules to make application development faster and easier to scale on various platforms. The biggest benefit of using Qt is its ability to provide portability to various platforms. Here are some advantages of using Qt for developers:

  • You can create incredible user experiences for your customers and boost your company brand using Qt.
  • Cross-platform development saves both time and money. You can target multiple platforms with the same code base.
  • Qt is known for making C++ easy and accessible. With Qt, developers can easily create high-performance, scalable applications with a fluid UI.
  • Due to the open source model, the framework is future-proof, along with a great ecosystem.
  • It further supports different programming languages and is a very flexible and reliable framework. Consequently, there are great companies such as Adobe, Microsoft, Samsung, AMD, HP, Philips, and MathWorks using Qt for their applications. Many open source projects such as VLC (previously known as VideoLAN Client), Open Broadcaster Software (OBS), and WPS Office (where WPS stands for Writer, Presentation, and Spreadsheets) are also built on Qt.

The core values of Qt are outlined as follows:

  • Cross-platform nature
  • Highly scalable
  • Very easy to use
  • Built-in with world-class application programming interfaces (APIs), tools, and documentation
  • Maintainable, stable, and compatible
  • A large community of users

Whether you are a hobbyist, a student, or working for a company, Qt provides great flexibility to use its modules as per your requirement. Many universities are using Qt as one of their coursework subjects. So, Qt is a great choice for programmers to start building new applications with ready-made features. Let's start by downloading and installing Qt 6 on your machine.

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