Begginer and Qt

[etko]

Hello,

I am C++ beginner. After investigation which API I should learn to do GUI programming I've decided to use Qt for it's cross platform capabilities and relatively good reputation. I have Code::Blocks version 1.0-RC1 built 25. July 2005 with bundled GCC. As I have plenty of free space right now I have downloaded Visual C 2003 Toolkit too, and all other  supported compilers (just in case). I have downloaded M$ Platform SDK and DX9 SDK too. Then I have downloaded Qt 4.01, and I have patched it by unofficial patch to support VC2003 toolkit. Using their make I've sucessfully built the lib and all demos using VC2003 tk. I haven't yet used GCC make. I've also tried to build quake 3 source using both VC2003 and GCC, after some small hacks it went.

Now I've usead search on this site and found out that there are several minor issues when doing Qt programming. I would like to know whether the issues have been solved yet and wheteher it is possible to build Qt applications using above mentioned setup? If not can you please provide me some pointer what else need to be done befora starting Qt "hello world". I intentd to use GCC and VC2003 for buildnig. Thank you for your reply.

[takeshimiya]

Yes, it's possible to use QT with the above setup, the minor issues you're refering are most ones coming from the metacompiler system QT uses. There is some work in progress to support it well.

As a personal recommendation, I'll say give a look to the wxWidgets API, it's better than QT in my opinion, also with cross platform capabilities and good reputation, but more important, native widgets on each platform. Just compare how KDevelop (made in QT) and Code::Blocks (made in wxWidgets) looks in both Windows and Linux for example.

Also, if you plan to develop a plugin for C::B in the future, you'll need to use wxWidgets.

Having said that, I'd suggest you to try both APIs, and use the one you feel more comfortable.

[yop]

What you've read in the forum is pretty much it. If you can write .pro files (qmake inputs) then you can use codeblocks with qt flawlessly. Just write your .pro file, create a custom tool that runs qmake on your pro file and build with custom makefile option of codeblocks. A hint: use the paths of your cb setup for the outputs in the .pro file.
@takeshimiya I just find the signals-connections scheme of qt ireplaceable, but that's just an opinion. On the other hand I've started using wxWidgets for a couple of months due to codeblocks and I do agree with your points.

EDIT:

I am C++ beginner.

Sorry hadn't noticed. If you plan to use codeblocks (and believe me u should), then takeshimiya is right, trying to build qt apps with cb will produce errors and issues that will bug you, irritate you, hate qt in general. Stick with the "official" gui API of codeblocks, it's as full of capabilities as qt, has pretty much the same learning path, has excellent documentation and a large community to ask questions.

[Michael]

Hello,

As you said that you are a C++ beginner, my advice would be to learn a bit C++ alone before doing GUI programming. "Mastering" the basic concepts of OOP would make it  easier to work with Qt and/or wxWidgets. Both GUI APIs are good and their user forum relatively helpful.

Best wishes,
Michael

[etko]

I wanted to try wxWidget first but I didn't managed to compile latest stable version, on the other side Qt went flawlessly I've been reasoning long time before choosing Qt as first API to learn, and the signals mechanism was described as major advantage so I wanted to try it. I decided to return to wx later. Anyway thank you for your replies so far.

[Michael]

Hello,

Concerning Qt, the following links could be useful:

-http://doc.trolltech.com/
-qt-interest mailing list
-free qt book: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 3 (http://phptr.com/content/images/0131240722/downloads/blanchette_book.pdf). However, Qt ver. 3 and not 4, but still a good introduction.
-http://sourceforge.net/projects/qtwin ("unofficial Qt", but it seems a good alternative to the official version. Moreover, I could compile it with MinGW

Concerning wxWidgets:

-http://www.codeproject.com/useritems/wxWidgets.asp
-The wxWidgets book: Cross-Platform GUI Programming with wxWidgets. See www.wxWidgets.org for more info.
-If you have specific questions or problems, try the wxWidgets user mailing list.
-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WxWidgets
-http://www.pcplus.co.uk/tutorials/default.asp?pagetypeid=2&articleid=37599&subsectionid=379
-http://www.roebling.de/hworld.html

More information/resources are available in Internet (just google for themĀ  .

Best wishes,
Michael