changes-3.2.0 - mozsearch

++

++ Qt 3.2 introduces new features as well as many improvements over the

++ 3.1.x series. This file gives an overview of the main changes since

++ version 3.1.2.  For more details, see the online documentation which

++ is included in this distribution. The documentation is also available

++ at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/

++

++ The Qt version 3.2 series is binary compatible with the 3.1.x series.

++ Applications compiled for 3.1 will continue to run with 3.2.

++

++ ****************************************************************************

++ *			    General					   *

++ ****************************************************************************

++

++ Qt library

++ ----------

++

++ New classes have been added to the Qt Library including a

++ class to add splash screens to applications (QSplashScreen), a toolbox

++ widget that provides a column of tabbed widgets (QToolBox), and a

++ class to manage per-thread data storage (QThreadStorage).

++

++ The SQL module received a fair bit of attention this time. The most

++ notable improvements include a native IBM DB2 driver, complete support

++ for stored procedures including the possibility to access

++ out-parameters, and native support for 64 bit fields without having to

++ convert to or from strings. We also added support for setting

++ connection parameters. This way you can, for example, conveniently

++ open an SSL connection to a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. If you need

++ even more customization, e.g. for an Oracle database, you can set up

++ the connection yourself and instantiate a Qt driver object on top of

++ it. An extended SQL cursor class has been added that makes it more

++ convenient to display result sets from general SQL queries

++ (QSqlSelectCursor). QSqlDatabase::tables() is now capable to return

++ tables, views and/or system tables. In addition, you can add custom

++ database drivers without compiling them as plugins

++ (see QSqlDatabase::registerSqlDriver()).

++

++ QLineEdit, the one-line text editor, now supports validation input

++ masks. The feature complements the previous QValidator concept and

++ allows e.g. restriction of input to the IP address format (mask

++ "990.990.990.990;_"), or to ISO date format (mask "0000-90-90;0").

++

++ Qt's unicode code support has been extended. Most notably, full

++ support for Indic scripts has been added, covering writing systems

++ such as Devanagari, Tamil and Bengali. The group of right to left

++ writing systems has been extended with support for Syriac. Both

++ improvements are available on both Windows with Uniscribe installed,

++ and on Unix/X11 when using XFT with OpenType fonts.

++

++ All tool classes that support STL-like iterators with begin() and

++ end(), contain two extra functions constBegin() and constEnd(). The

++ const versions always return const iterators, and thus can be a little

++ bit faster with Qt's implicitly shared containers.

++

++ QPainter's complex drawText() function has been highly

++ optimized. Despite its support for complex unicode scripts, it now

++ performs better than its less unicode-capable counterpart in Qt 2.3.

++

++ QPixmap now supports pixmaps with alpha channel (semi transparency) on

++ all Windows versions except Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.

++

++ The print dialog now supports "selection" as a print range as well as

++ the possibility to enable/disable all different printer options

++ individually.

++

++ On Windows, the Qt installation includes a toolbar for Visual Studio.NET

++ that provides an integration of the Qt tools (ie. Qt Designer) with the

++ IDE.

++

++ Many classes were improved; see the detailed overview that follows.

++

++ Qt Motif Extension

++ ------------------

++

++ Dialog handling has matured and has been extended since the

++ extension's introduction in Qt 3.1.  The documentation and code

++ examples have been improved, including a walkthrough that covers the

++ complete migration of a real-world Motif example to Qt. The process

++ contains four intermediate steps where the application utilizes both

++ toolkits.

++

++ ActiveQt Extension

++ ------------------

++

++ Type handling has been extended on both the container and the server

++ side. The new supported types are byte arrays and 64bit integers. The

++ QAxServer module supports aggregation, as well as QObject subclasses as

++ return and parameter types of slots, and allows error reporting through

++ COM exceptions.

++ The Designer integration has been extended to support property dialogs

++ implemented by the control server.

++ Controls developed with ActiveQt support aggregation, which makes it

++ possible to use them in containers that require this form of containment to

++ be supported. ActiveQt also supports masked controls in containers that

++ support this for window'ed controls.

++

++ Qt Designer

++ -----------

++

++ The popup menu editor has been rewritten. The new editor provides the

++ the ability to add, edit and remove menus and menu items directly in

++ the menubar and in the popup menu. Navigation and editing can be done

++ using either the mouse or the keyboard.

++

++ The property editor now allows editing of properties with or'd values

++ (sets).

++

++ Designer also supports the new QToolBox widget in a similar fashion to

++ QTabWidget, etc.

++

++ Qt Assistant

++ ------------

++

++ Profiles have been introduced to allow applications to extend the use

++ of Qt Assistant as a help system. Profiles describe the documentation

++ to use so that only application specific documentation will be

++ referenced in an end user installation. Profiles also allow some

++ customization of the look in Qt Assistant. For detailed information,

++ see the helpdemo example in $QTDIR/examples/helpdemo.

++

++ Profiles replace the content files and categories system. The

++ following command line options are removed since they no longer serve

++ any purpose: addContentFile, removeContentFile, category, and

++ disableFirstRun.

++

++ Qt Assistant has multiple tabs for browsing, therefore enabling

++ multiple pages to be browsed without opening a new window.

++

++ It is possible to specify a default home page.

++

++ It is possible to specify a PDF reader so that urls to PDF files can

++ be opened from Qt Assistant.

++

++ Compilers

++ ---------

++

++ Note: Qt 3.2 is the last version to officially support IRIX MIPSpro

++ o32 and Sun CC 5.0. A script, $QTDIR/bin/qt32castcompat, is provided

++ for 3.2 which needs to be run for these compilers.

++

++ Miscellaneous

++ -------------

++

++ Users of the 3.2.0 beta releases please note: The QWidgetContainerPlugin

++ interfaces was removed from the final release due to some serious issues.

++

++ ****************************************************************************

++ *			   Library					   *

++ ****************************************************************************

++

++ - QAction / QActionGroup

++ 	Simplified constructors so that it is no longer necessary to

++ 	specify texts for buttons and menu items separately.

++ 	For action groups, we fixed the enable/disable behavior. If

++ 	an action inside an action group is explicitly disabled, it is

++ 	no longer implicitly enabled together with the group.

++ 	This is identical to enabling/disabling widgets and their

++ 	children.

++

++ - QApplication

++ 	Added the aboutQt() slot for convenience.

++

++ - QAssistantClient

++ 	Added the new function, setArguments(), that invokes Qt

++ 	Assistant in different modes.

++

++ - QAxBase

++ 	Added the new function, asVariant(), that passes a COM

++ 	object through dynamicCall().

++

++ - QAxBindable

++ 	Added the new function, reportError(), that sends error

++ 	information to the ActiveX client.

++

++ - QColor

++ 	Added the new static function, colorNames(), that retrieves a

++ 	list of all color names known to Qt.

++

++ - QDeepCopy

++ 	Now also supports QDir, QFileInfo, and QStringList.

++

++ - QDom

++ 	Now has long and ulong support for setAttribute() and

++ 	setAttributeNS().

++

++ - QFont

++ 	Added the new properties: stretch and overline. Added the new

++ 	function, resolve(), that copies unspecified attributes from

++ 	one font to another.

++

++ - QFontDataBase

++ 	Added a new overload for families() that restricts the

++ 	returned list to fonts supporting a specific QFont::Script,

++ 	e.g. QFont::Greek, QFont::Devanagari or QFont::Arabic.

++

++ - QFontInfo / QFontMetrics

++ 	Added new constructors that force the info and metrics objects

++ 	to use a given QFont::Script.

++

++ - QGLWidget

++ 	Added a new constructor that takes a QGLContext

++ 	parameter. Makes the undocumented setContext() obsolete.

++

++ - QHeader

++ 	Added getters for the sort indicator (sortIndicatorSection()

++ 	and sortIndicatorOrder() ).

++

++ - QImage

++ 	Added a new overload for save() that writes to a given

++ 	QIODevice*.

++

++ - QListView

++ 	Added tristate support to check list items

++ 	(QCheckListItem::setTristate()). Added the new function,

++ 	setSelectionAnchor(), to set the list view's selection anchor

++ 	explicitly.

++

++ - QLineEdit

++ 	Added input masks: setInputMask(), inputMask(), and

++ 	hasAcceptableInput(). Added new function selectionStart()

++ 	which returns the index of the first selected character in the

++ 	line edit.

++

++ - QMacStyle

++ 	Added customizable focus rectangle policy.

++

++ - QMessageBox

++ 	Added the new static function, question(), that complements

++ 	the existing information(), warning() and fatal() functions.

++

++ - QMotifDialog [Qt Motif Extension]

++ 	Now has two distinct modes of operation: 1) it allows a Motif

++ 	dialog to have a Qt parent, and 2) it allows a Qt dialog to have

++ 	a Motif parent.

++

++ - QMYSQLDriver

++ 	Better support for MySQL/embedded.

++

++ - QPixmapCache

++ 	Added the new function, remove(), to explicitly remove a

++ 	pixmap from the cache.

++

++ - QPrinter

++ 	Added the new functions: setPrintRange(), printRange(),

++ 	setOptionEnabled(), and optionEnabled(). For Windows only,

++ 	added the new function, setWinPageSize(), that allows setting

++ 	DEVMODE.dmPaperSize directly.

++

++ - QPtrList

++ 	Added STL-like iterators with begin(), end(), and erase().

++

++ - QScrollBar

++ 	Maintains a user defined size policy when the direction

++ 	changes.

++

++ - QSplashScreen [new]

++ 	This new widget class provides a splash screen to be shown

++ 	during application startup.

++

++ - QSplitter

++ 	Added the new properties: opaqueResize, childrenCollapsible,

++ 	and handleWidth.

++

++ - QSqlError

++ 	Added a couple of convenience functions: text(), which returns

++ 	the concatenated database and driver texts. showMessage(),

++ 	which will pop up a QMessageBox with the text that text()

++ 	returns.

++

++ - QSqlQuery

++ 	Added overloads for the bindValue() call which makes it

++ 	possible to specifiy what role a bound value should have: In,

++ 	Out or InOut.

++

++ - QSqlSelectCursor [new]

++ 	This new QSqlCursor subclass provides browsing of general SQL

++ 	SELECT statements.

++

++ - QSqlDatabase

++ 	Added overloaded tables() call which can return tables, views

++ 	and/or system tables.

++

++ - QPSQLDriver

++ 	Calling tables() with no arguments will only return table names,

++ 	instead of table and view names as in Qt 3.1.

++ 	The new tables() call in QSqlDatabase can be used to get

++ 	table and/or view names.

++

++ - QString

++ 	Added 64 bit support. Added the new functions: multiArg(),

++ 	reserve(), capacity(), squeeze(). Added case insensitive

++ 	overloads for startsWith() and endsWidth().

++

++ - QStringList

++ 	Added the new function gres().

++

++ - QStyle

++ 	Added support for toolbox, header, MDI frame, table grid line

++ 	color, line edit password character, and message box question.

++

++ - QSyntaxHighlighter

++ 	Added the new function, currentParagraph().

++

++ - QTabWidget

++ 	Added support for custom widgets to be placed beside

++ 	the tab bar: setCornerWidget() and cornerWidget().

++

++ - QTextEdit

++ 	In Log mode, added the new functions: setMaxLogLines() and

++ 	maxLogLines(). Implemented insertAt() for LogText mode.

++

++ - QThreadStorage [new]

++ 	This new tool class provides per-thread data storage, also

++ 	referred to as thread local storage or TLS.

++

++ - QToolBox [new]

++ 	This new widget class provides a column of tabbed widgets, one

++ 	above the other, with the current page displayed below the

++ 	current tab.

++

++ - QVariant

++ 	Added support for LongLong and ULongLong.

++

++ - QWidget

++ 	Added a new widget flag, WNoAutoErase, that combines the now

++ 	obsolete WResizeNoErase and WRepaintNoErase flags.

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