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++ // Copyright (C) 2025 The Qt Company Ltd.
++ // SPDX-License-Identifier: LicenseRef-Qt-Commercial OR GFDL-1.3-no-invariants-only
++
++ /*!
++ \page topics-ui.html
++ \title User Interfaces
++ \brief Qt's technologies for Creating User Interfaces.
++ \ingroup explanations-ui
++
++ The Qt framework's main user interface technologies are \b{Qt Quick}
++ and \b{Qt Widgets}. Qt Quick interfaces are fluid, dynamic, and are best
++ on touch interfaces. Qt Widgets are for creating complex desktop applications.
++ You can create Qt Quick and Qt Widgets interfaces with the target
++ platform's native look and feel.
++
++ \section1 Building UIs with Qt Quick
++
++ \l [Quick]{Qt Quick} is for creating dynamic and fluid user interfaces. The
++ \l{Qt Quick Controls} module supplies QML types such as buttons, dialogs, and
++ menus. You can use \l{The QML Reference}{QML}, a declarative language,
++ to build the UI and JavaScript to implement the logic.
++
++ The following list contains related overviews:
++ \list
++ \li \l {Qt Quick Controls}
++ \li \l {Getting started with Qt Quick applications}
++ \li \l {First Steps with QML}
++ \li \l {Glossary Of QML Terms}
++ \li \l {Visual types}
++ \li \l {Positioners and layouts}
++ \li \l {Handling user input}
++ \li \l {Displaying text}
++ \li \l {Animations}
++ \li \l {Integrating JavaScript in QML}
++ \li \l {Qt Quick 3D} - add-on for 3D graphics
++ \li \l {Qt Shader Tools} - add-on shader effects
++ \endlist
++
++ \section1 Qt Widgets User Interfaces
++
++ \l {Qt Widgets} are the user interface elements that are typical in desktop
++ environments. The widgets integrate well to the underlying platform providing
++ native look and feel on Windows, Linux and \macos. The widgets are
++ mature and feature rich user interface elements suitable for mostly traditional
++ user interfaces. In contrast to \l {Qt Quick}, the widgets are for creating
++ large desktop applications and less suited for creating touch-centric
++ applications with fluid interfaces.
++
++ The following list contains related overviews for Qt Widgets:
++ \list
++ \li \l{Widgets Classes}
++ \li \l{Animation Framework}
++ \li \l{Application Main Window}
++ \li \l{Dialog Windows}
++ \li \l{Drag and Drop}
++ \li \l{Gestures in Widgets and Graphics View}
++ \li \l{Layout Management}
++ \li \l{Window and Dialog Widgets}
++ \li \l{Styles and Style Aware Widgets}
++ \endlist
++
++ \section1 Comparison of UI Technologies
++
++ The following table provides a comparison of Qt Quick and Qt Widgets, highlighting their strengths,
++ limitations, and ideal use cases:
++
++ \table
++ \header
++ \li Feature
++ \li Qt Quick and Qt Quick Controls
++ \li Qt Widgets
++ \li Explanation
++ \row
++ \li Primary languages
++ \li \l{QML Applications}{QML and JavaScript}
++ \li C++
++ \li Qt Quick is declarative. Qt Widgets is imperative, classic C++.
++ \row
++ \li Native look and feel
++ \li Yes (via Qt Quick Controls styles).
++ \li Yes (native desktop widgets).
++ \li Both support native look and feel on their target platforms.
++ \row
++ \li Custom styling
++ \li Yes (\l{Styling Qt Quick Controls}{customizable styles}, custom QML components).
++ \li Yes (\l{Qt Style Sheets}).
++ \li Both frameworks allow extensive custom styling through different mechanisms.
++ \row
++ \li Fluid animations and transitions
++ \li Yes (GPU-accelerated animations built-in).
++ \li Limited (supported via QPropertyAnimation, but not designed for fluid UI animation).
++ \li Qt Quick is designed for animated, modern UIs. Qt Widgets are not.
++ \row
++ \li Touch support
++ \li Yes (designed for touch and gestures).
++ \li Limited (touch events exist but Qt Widgets assume mouse and keyboard input).
++ \li Qt Quick handles multimodal input better. Qt Widgets require more manual work for good
++ touch UX.
++ \row
++ \li Standard industry widgets
++ \li Yes (provides common desktop controls, and custom components can implement any required
++ widget).
++ \li Yes (rich set of mature, ready-made desktop widgets).
++ \li Qt Quick can implement all types of desktop controls, but Qt Widgets include a wider
++ set of traditional widgets out of the box.
++ \row
++ \li Model/View programming
++ \li Yes (flexible model support with delegate-based views such as ListView and TableView).
++ \li Yes (comprehensive set of classic MVC views, including QTableView, QListView,
++ and QTreeView).
++ \li Both technologies support robust model/view programming. Qt Quick uses delegates to
++ clearly separate data from presentation, while Qt Widgets provide a large set of
++ mature, ready-made model/view classes.
++ \row
++ \li Rapid UI prototyping
++ \li Yes (very fast iteration in QML).
++ \li Yes (fast for traditional UIs, escpecially with
++ \l{Qt Widgets Designer Manual}{Qt Widgets Designer}).
++ \li Qt Quick is particularly well-suited for rapid visual prototyping, while Qt Widgets
++ allow quick assembly of classic desktop interfaces using Qt Widgets Designer.
++
++ \row
++ \li Hardware-accelerated graphics
++ \li Yes (GPU-accelerated via \l{Qt Quick Scene Graph}).
++ \li Partially (widgets render in software. OpenGL widgets possible but isolated).
++ \li Only Qt Quick provides built-in full-scene GPU acceleration. See \l{Graphics}
++ for more information.
++ \row
++ \li Graphical effects
++ \li Yes (shader-based blur, glow, drop shadow, color effects, and more).
++ \li Limited (basic effects via \l{Qt GUI} only).
++ \li Qt Quick offers rich, GPU-driven visual effects. Qt Widgets offer only simple CPU
++ effects.
++ \row
++ \li Rich text processing.
++ \li Yes (Qt's rich text document classes can be utilized in Qt Quick and Qt Quick
++ Controls' TextArea, but may require some C++ implementation).
++ \li Yes (complete support through QTextDocument, QTextEdit, and related classes).
++ \li Both technologies can be used to build complex text editors. Qt Quick integrates with
++ Qt’s rich text engine via QTextDocument, while Qt Widgets provide a mature set of
++ ready-to-use classes for text handling.
++ \row
++
++ \endtable
++
++ \note You can display QML views in a Qt Widgets UI. For more information, see
++ \l {Qt Quick Widgets}.
++
++ \section1 Related Topics
++
++ The following pages contain more information about designing and developing user
++ interfaces:
++
++ \list
++ \li \l{Design Tools} - overview of user interface tools for designers and developers
++ \li \l{Graphics} - graphics overview
++ \li \l{Model/View Programming}
++ \li \l{High DPI}
++ \endlist
++
++ */
++