Qt 4.1 introduces many new features as well as many improvements and
bugfixes over the 4.0.x series. For more details, see the online
documentation which is included in this distribution. The
documentation is also available at
http://doc.trolltech.com/The Qt version 4.1 series is binary compatible with the 4.0.x series.
Applications compiled for 4.0 will continue to run with 4.1.
****************************************************************************
* General *
****************************************************************************
Qt library
----------
- Introduced widget backing store support, allowing semi-transparent
(alpha-blended) child widgets and faster widget painting, as well
as solving long-lasting issues with non-rectangular widgets.
- Integrated support for rendering Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)
drawings and animations (QtSvg module).
- A Portable Document Format (PDF) backend for Qt's printing system.
- A unit testing framework for Qt applications and libraries.
- Modules for extending Qt Designer and dynamic user interface
building.
- Additional features for developers using OpenGL, such as support
for pixel and sample buffers.
- A flexible syntax highlighting class based on the Scribe rich text
framework.
- Support for network proxy servers using the SOCKS5 protocol.
- Support for OLE verbs and MIME data handling in ActiveQt.
- Support for universal binaries on Mac OS X.
Qt Designer
-----------
- Added support for editing menu bars and tool bars.
- Added support for adding comments to string properties.
- Added new static QtUiTools library with improved
QUiLoader API for loading designer forms at run-time.
- Added support for namespaces in uic generated code.
- Added support for dock widgets in main windows.
- Added support for editing table, tree and list widgets.
- Improved palette editing and resource support.
QTestLib
--------
- Added QTestLib, the Qt Unit Testing Library. See the "QTestLib"
chapter in the Qt documentation for more information.
- Users of older versions of QtTestLib can use the updater utility in
tools/qtestlib/updater to convert existing autotests to work with
QTestLib.
Boost
-----
Added boost compatible syntax for declaring signals and slots. If you
define the macro QT_NO_KEYWORDS, "Q_SIGNALS" and "Q_SLOTS" are
recognized as keywords instead of the default "signals" and "slots".
Added a new keyword to qmake to enable this macro: CONFIG += no_keywords.
ActiveQt
--------
QAxServer now supports mime-type handling - a ActiveX control can be
registered to handle a certain file extension and mime-type, in which
case QAxBindable::load and QAxBindable::save can be reimplemented to
serialize the object.
Build system
------------
Added support for linking static plugins into the application.
Qt 3 to 4 Porting Tool
----------------------
Q(V|H)BoxLayout and QGridLayout usage is now ported to use
Q3(V|H)BoxLayout/Q3GridLayout, to retain the margin/spacing behavior
as in Qt 3.
Meta Object Compiler (moc)
--------------------------
- Added support for const signals.
Qt Assistant
------------
- Added -docPath command line option for easy setting of the
document root path.
QMake
-----
- Added support for new FORMS3 profile variable to make it possible
to have Qt Designer forms from Qt 3 and Qt 4 in the same project.
- Added support for precompiled headers on win32-g++ (MinGW)
Compilers
---------
Added support for Solaris 10 on AMD64 with the compiler provided by
Sun.
****************************************************************************
* Library *
****************************************************************************
New classes
-----------
- QTreeWidgetItemIterator
Added iterator to help iterating over items in a QTreeWidget.
- QStringFilterModel
Allows you to provide a subset of a model to a view based on a
regular expression.
- QSyntaxHighlighter
The QSyntaxHighlighter class allows you to define syntax
highlighting rules.
- QAbstractFileEngine
A base class for implementing your own file and directory
handling back-end for QFile, QFileInfo and QDir.
- QAbstractFileEngineHandler
For registering a QAbstractFileEngine subclass with Qt.
- QFSFileEngine
The default file engine for regular file and directory access
in Qt.
- Q3(H|V)BoxLayout and Q3GridLayout
Layout classes provided for compatibility that behave the same
as the Qt 4 classes but use a zero margin/spacing by default,
just like in Qt 3.
- Added qFromLittleEndian, qToLittleEndian, qFromBigEndian and
qToBigEndian endian helper conversion functions (qendian.h)
- Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN2 macro
Obsoletes Q_EXPORT_PLUGIN and allows static linking of
plugins.
- Q3ComboBox
For enhanced backwards compatibility with Qt 3.
- QGLPbuffer
For creating and managing OpenGL pixel buffers.
- QNetworkProxy
For setting up transparent (SOCKS5) networking proxying.
- QDirectPainter (Qtopia Core only)
Provides direct access to video framebuffer hardware.
General improvements
--------------------
- QByteArray
Added toLong() and
- QColorDialog
Fix shortcut and focus for "Alpha channel" spinbox.
- QLinkedList
Added conversion methods to convert from/to STL lists.
- QMap/QHash
Fixed operator>>() to read back multiple values associated
to a same key correctly.
Added constFind(), for finding an item without causing a
detach.
- QMap/QHash
Const-correctness in const_iterator's operator--(int).
- QMainWindow
The saveState() and restoreState() functions no longer
fallback to using the windowTitle property when the objectName
property is not set on a QToolBar or QDockWidget; this
behavior was undocumented and has been removed.
- QToolBar
Added Qt 3 compatibility signal visibilityChanged(bool).
- QMetaType
Class is now fully reentrant.
Metatypes can be registered or queried from multiple threads.
Added qMetaTypeId<T>(), which returns the meta type ID of T at
compile time.
- QMetaProperty
Added isResettable().
- QSql
Oracle plugin adds support for authentication using external
credentials.
Added isValid() to QSqlError.
- QThread
Added setPriority() and priority(), for querying and setting
the priority of a thread.
- QTreeWidgetItem/QTreeWidget
Added new constructors and addChildren(), insertChildren(),
takeChildren(), insertTopLevelItems(), addTopLevelItems to
speed up insertion of multiple items.
- QTextDocument
Added the class QTextBlockUserData and added the possibility
of storing a state or custom user data in a QTextBlock
Added useDesignMetrics property, to enable the use of design
metrics for all fonts in a QTextDocument.
- QTextFormat
Added support for setting the font pixel size.
Added UserObject to QTextFormat::ObjectTypes enum.
- QMetaType
The value of QMetaTypeId<T>::Defined indicates whether a given
type T is supported by QMetaType.
- QAbstractItemView
Added setIndexWidget() and indexWidget() which makes it
possible to set a widget at a given index.
Added a QAbstractItemView::ContiguousSelection mode.
Added scrollToTop() and scrollToBottom().
Changed signals pressed(), clicked() and doubleClicked() to
only emit when the index is valid.
- QAbstractItemModel
Added a SizeHintRole that can be set for each item. The item
delegate will now check for this value before computing the
size hint based on other item data.
Add QModelIndex::operator<() so we are able to use them in
QMap and other containers.
Added qHash function for QModelIndex.
- QTableWidget
Added cellWidget() and setCellWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget at a specified cell.
Added setCurrentCell().
Added QTableWidgetItem copy constructors.
- QTreeWidget
Added setItemWidget() and itemWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget on an item.
- QListWidget
Added setItemWidget() and itemWidget() which makes it possible
to set a widget on an item.
Added QListWidgetItem copy constructors.
- QMutableMapIterator
Added value() overloads to Java-style iterators that return
non-const references.
- QTextTable
Added mergeCells() and splitCells() to be able to set the row
or column span on a table cell.
- QStyle
Added standardIcon() which returns a default icon for standard
operations.
Added State_ReadOnly, which is enabled for read-only widgets.
Renamed QStyleOption::init() to initFrom().
- QGroupBox is now completely stylable (QStyleOptionGroupBox).
- QToolBar is now stylable according to its position in the
toolbar dock area (QStyleOptionToolBar).
- Indeterminate (busy) progress bars are now animated properly
in all styles.
- By popular request, the default toolbar icon size
(PM_ToolBarIconSize) in Windows and Plastique styles has
been changed to 24 x 24 (instead of 16 x 16 in Windows and
32 x 32 in Plastique).
Added PM_DockWidgetTitleMargin as pixel metric.
- QHash
Make it possible to use QHash with a type that has no default
constructor.
- QTableView
Made QTableView::setShowGrid() a slot, like in Qt 3.
Added setRowHeight() and setColumnWidth().
- QTableWidgetSelectionRange
Added rowCount() and columnCount() convenience functions.
- QSettings
Added support for custom formats in QSettings.
- QTextStream
Added status(), setStatus() and resetStatus() for improved
error handling.
Added read(qint64 maxlen), for reading parts of a text stream
into a QString.
- QTextCursor
Added support for BlockUnderCursor selection type.
- QHeaderView
Added defaultSectionSize property which tells the default size
of the header sections before resizing.
- QScrollBar
Added context menu to the scrollbar with default navigation
options.
- QScrollArea
Added ensureVisible(), which can scroll the scrollarea to make
sure a specific point is visible.
- QDateTime
Added addMSecs(), which adds a number of milliseconds to the QDateTime.
- QDateTimeEdit
Added support for more date/time formats.
Now allows multiple sections of the same type.
- QButtonGroup
Added handling of buttons with IDs to the buttongroup like in
Qt 3.
- QIODevice
Added peek() for peeking data from a device.
- QTextEdit
Added property tabStopWidth which sets the tab stop width in
pixels.
append(const QString &) is now a public slot.
Added support for inserting Unicode control characters through
the context menu.
Added property acceptRichText, for whether or not the text
edit accepts rich text insertions by the user.
Added overwriteMode property.
- QDataStream
Added skipRawData().
Added support for QRegExp.
- QProgressBar
Added support for vertical progress bars.
- QImageIOHandler
The name() function has been obsoleted; use format() instead.
Added QImageIOHandler::Animation, for determining if the image
format supports animation.
Added QImageIOHandler::BackgroundColor, for setting the
background color for the image loader.
- QImageReader
Added setBackgroundColor() and backgroundColor(), for setting
the background color of an image before it is read.
Added supportsAnimation(), for checking if the image format
supports animation.
- QImageWriter
Added support for saving image text.
- QLocale
Added dateFormat()/timeFormat() to query the date/time format
for the current locale.
Added toString() overloads for localized QTime and QDate
output.
Added decimalPoint(), groupSeparator(), percent(),
zeroDigit(), negativeSign() and exponential(), which provide a
means to generate custom number formatting.
- QHostInfo
Added support for reverse name lookups.
- QHostAddress
Added a QString assignment operator
Added convenience functions for initializing from a native
sockaddr structure.
Added support for the IPv6 scope-id.
- QPrinter
Added property "embedFonts" for embedding fonts into the
target document.
Added support for printing to PDF.
Added support for custom print and paint engines
- QPrintEngine
Added PPK_SuppressSystemPrintStatus, for suppressing the
printer progress dialog on Mac OS X.
- QKeySequence
Added fromString() and toString() for initializing a key
sequence from, and exporting a key sequence to a QString.
- QUrl
Added the port(int) function, which provides a default value
for the port if the URL does not define a port.
Support for decoding Punycode encoded hostnames in URLs.
Made the parser more tolerant for mistakes, and added a
ParsingMode flag for selecting strict or tolerant parsing.
Added support for the NAMEPREP standard in our i18n domain
name support.
- QDir
Added the filter QDir::NoDotAndDotDot, for the
special directories "." and "..".
Added the filter QDir::AllEntries, for all entries
in a directory, including symlinks.
- QAbstractSocket
Added slots connectToHostImplementation() and
disconnectFromHostImplementation() to provide polymorphic
behavior for connectToHost() and disconnectFromHost().
- QMenuBar
Added setActiveAction(), which makes the provided action
active.
- QProxyModel
This class has been obsoleted (see QAbstractProxyModel)
- QWidget
Now supports three modes of modality: NonModal, WindowModal
and ApplicationModal.
Added Qt::WindowModality, obsoleted WA_ShowModal and
WA_GroupLeader.
Added Qt::WA_OpaquePaintEvent widget attribute, obsoleting
Qt::WA_NoBackground.
Added boolean autoFillBackground property.
Child widgets now always inherit the contents of their parent.
- QPalette
Added QPalette::Window (obsoletes Background) and
QPalette::WindowText (obsoletes Foreground).
- QHttpResponseHeader
Added two constructors and the function setStatusLine() for
generating a response header.
- QBitArray
Added count(bool), for counting on and off-bits in a bit
array.
- QVariant
Added support for QRegExp
- QRegExpValidator
Added the property "regExp".
- QTabBar
Added the property "iconSize", for setting the size of the
icons on the tabs.
- QLineEdit
Added support for inserting Unicode control characters through
the context menu.
- QString
Added toLong() and toULong().
Support for std::string conversions with embedded \0
characters.
- QRegion
Added translate(), like QRect::translated().
- QProcess
Added systemEnvironment(), which returns the environment
variables of the calling process.
Added exitStatus(), and added a new finished() signal which
takes the exit status as a parameter.
- QComboBox
Made setCurrentIndex() a slot.
- QFontDataBase
Added styleString(), for retrieving the style string from a
QFontInfo.
Added support for Myanmar fonts.
- QFontMetrics
Added xHeight(), which returns the 'X' height of the font.
- QCoreApplication
Added arguments(), which returns a list of command line
arguments as a QStringList.
- QTcpSocket
Added support for SOCKS5 via setProxy().
- QUdpSocket
Added property "bindMode", for binding several sockets to the
same address and port.
- QPen
Added support for custom dash pattern styles and miter limits.
Added support for QDebug.
- QDebug
Added support for QVector and QPair output.
- QStringListModel
Added support for sorting.
- QOpenGLPaintEngine
Gradients in the OpenGL paint engine are now drawn using
fragment programs, if the extension is available. Lots of
fixes, speedups and tweaks.
Platform-Specific changes
-------------------------
Windows:
- Painting
Added support for ClearType text rendering.
- File Engine
Added support for long filenames/paths.
X11:
- QWidget
Added support for freedesktop.org startup notifications.
Mac OS X:
- Added support for universal binaries
- Improved support for the VoiceOver accessibility tool in Mac OS X 10.4
and later
3rd-party libraries
-------------------
- zlib
Upgraded to zlib 1.2.3.
- FreeType
Upgraded to FreeType 2.1.10.
- SQLite
Upgraded to SQLite 3.2.7
