For immediate release April 23, 1999 For more information, a review copy, cover art, or interview with the author, contact: Lisa Mann (707) 829-0515 ext 230 or [email protected]
Dissolving Boundaries with Qt
Sebastopol, CA–Qt is an easy-to-use, multi-platform C++ GUI
toolkit. With Qt, a developer can write an application once and run
it on UNIX, Windows 95/98, and Windows NT platforms. Qt has a
similar look and feel to the standard Motif toolkit for UNIX
systems, but it is easier to use. And it emulates the look-and-feel
of Windows, so you can provide all of your users with
native-looking interfaces. Qt also manages to straddle both the
proprietary and open source communitiescorporations are comfortable
paying for Qt and the accompanying support agreements they expect
from a commercial sale. Linux developers can acquire Qt for free
(unless they wish to develop closed-source commercial applications
in which case they must purchase a license). Now O’Reilly and
Associates has published a book on Qt”Programming with Qt” by
Matthias Kalle Dalheimer.
“I do contract programming specializing in cross-platform
software development. My customers contract me because I can
deliver on both UNIX and Windows – something which not many people
do nowadays, but has become a quite comfortable market niche for
me.” explained Dalheimer, ” It would simply not be feasible to
write an application twice — the cost would be so high that my
rates would not be competitive at all. Qt allows me to write my
application once and then compile it on various UNIX systems and
Windows. Thus I only have the development time once instead of
twice. This is about what Java promises, but without the slowness
of the application and the horrible development tools that still
hamper Java application development.”
Platform independence is not the only benefit of Qt. Qt uses an
ingenious signal/slot mechanism for connecting user interaction
with program functionality, providing an excellent framework for
component-based programming. Graphical rendering in Qt is highly
optimized due to its use of effective caching mechanisms —
rendering in Qt is often faster than with the similar native API.
In addition to user interface classes, Qt features portable support
for file system access, working with date and time values, and
network programming. With Qt, you’ll find that you need to write
very little, if any, platform-dependent code because Qt already has
what you need.
Qt’s benefits are impressive, but the learning curve can be
steep. Qt comes with excellent reference documentation, but
beginners often find the included tutorial is not enough to really
get started with Qt. “We felt there was a need for a book that
guides you through the steps of writing a Qt application and
presents all of the GUI elements in Qt, along with advice about
when and how to use them, so that you can make full use of the
toolkit.” said Elke Hansel, Managing Director of O’Reilly Germany,
“There’s also lots of information for seasoned Qt programmers,
including material on advanced 2D transformations, drag-and-drop,
and writing custom image file filters.”
An interesting side note on the book: “Programming QT” is the
first book in English published by O’Reilly to have originated in
the German office. “Traditionally, Europeans have always had a
strong affinity for Linux and free software in general, both as
users and as programmers” explained Hansel, “So when we started the
Qt book, we had a strong interest here in Europe, but we weren’t
sure how strong the interest would be in the US. So we decided to
publish it in English for the European market only. By the time the
book was published by the German company, the Open Source movement
had advanced so that Qt was widely recognized as a cutting-edge
topic. This was the first time we published an English language
O’Reilly book outside the US – but we will do so again whenever it
makes sense.”
For an Profile of Matthias Kalle Dalheimer by Thomas Scoville
see:
http://opensource.oreilly.com/news/dalheimer_0499.html
For more information on the book, see:
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/prowqt/
Programming with Qt Writing Portable GUI applications on UNIX and Win32 By Matthias Kalle Dalheimer 1st Edition April 1999 (US) 1-56592-588-2, 384 pages, $32.95 (US) http://www.oreilly.com 1-800-998-9938 [email protected]