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diff --git a/doc/qtmac-as-native.doc b/doc/qtmac-as-native.doc new file mode 100644 index 000000000..64849a901 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/qtmac-as-native.doc @@ -0,0 +1,163 @@ +/**************************************************************************** +** +** Qt/Mac documentation +** +** Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Trolltech ASA. All rights reserved. +** +** This file is part of the Qt GUI Toolkit. +** +** This file may be used under the terms of the GNU General +** Public License versions 2.0 or 3.0 as published by the Free +** Software Foundation and appearing in the files LICENSE.GPL2 +** and LICENSE.GPL3 included in the packaging of this file. +** Alternatively you may (at your option) use any later version +** of the GNU General Public License if such license has been +** publicly approved by Trolltech ASA (or its successors, if any) +** and the KDE Free Qt Foundation. +** +** Please review the following information to ensure GNU General +** Public Licensing retquirements will be met: +** http://trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/opensource/. +** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please +** review the following information: +** http://trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/licensingoverview +** or contact the sales department at sales@trolltech.com. +** +** This file may be used under the terms of the Q Public License as +** defined by Trolltech ASA and appearing in the file LICENSE.QPL +** included in the packaging of this file. Licensees holding valid Qt +** Commercial licenses may use this file in accordance with the Qt +** Commercial License Agreement provided with the Software. +** +** This file is provided "AS IS" with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, +** INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR +** A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Trolltech reserves all rights not granted +** herein. +** +**********************************************************************/ + +/*! + +\page qtmac-as-native.html + +\title Qt/Mac is Mac OS X Native + +This document explains what makes an application "native" on Mac OS X. +It shows the areas where Qt/Mac is compliant, and the grey areas where +compliance is more questionable. (See also the document +\link mac-differences.html Qt/Mac Issues\endlink.) + +Normally when referring to a native application, one really means an +application that talks directly to the underlying window system and +operating system, rather than one that uses some intermediary (for +example the X11 server, or a web browser). Qt/Mac applications run as +first class citizens, just like Cocoa, Java, and Carbon applications. + +When an application is running as a first class citizen it means that +it can interact with specific components of the Mac OS X experience: + +\list +\i <b>The global menubar</b><br> + + Qt/Mac does this via the QMenuBar abstraction. Mac users expect to + have a menubar at the top of the screen and Qt/Mac honors this. + + Additionally, users expect certain conventions to be respected, for + example the application menu should contain About, Preferences, + Quit, etc. Qt/Mac handles this automatically, although it does not + provide a means of interacting directly with the application menu. + (By doing this automatically, Qt/Mac makes it easier to port Qt/Mac + applications to other platforms.) + +\i <b>Aqua</b><br> + + This is a critical piece of Mac OS X (documentation can be found at + \l{http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html}). + It is a huge topic, but the most important guidelines for GUI + design are probably these: + + \list + \i \e{Aqua look}<br> + + As with Cocoa/Carbon Qt/Mac provides widgets that look like + those described in the Human Interface Descriptions. Qt/Mac's + widgets use the Appearance Manager to implement the look, so + Apple's own API's are doing the rendering (Qt/Mac \<3.1 used an + emulation style with pixmaps, however this tquickly proved to be + cumbersome, and unable to keep up with style changes at Apple). + + \i \e{Aqua feel}<br> + + This is a bit more subjective, but certainly Qt/Mac strives to + provide the same feel as any Mac OS X application (and we + consider situations where it doesn't achieve this to be bugs). + Of course Qt has other concerns to bear in mind, especially + remaining multiplatform. Some "baggage" that Qt carries is in + an effort to provide a widget on a platform for which an + equivelant doesn't exist, or so that a single API can be used to + do something, even if the API doesn't make entire sense for a + specific widget (for example pushbuttons with a popup menu are + really bevel buttons in Mac OS X, but Qt/Mac cannot guess that + this bevel button is right next to other real pushbuttons). + + \i \e{Aqua guides}<br> + + This is the most subjective, but there are many suggestions and + guidelines in the Aqua style guidelines. This is the area where + Qt/Mac is of least assistance. The decisions that must be made + to conform (widget sizes, widget layouts with respect to other + widgets, window margins, etc) must be made based on the user + experience demanded by your application. If your user base is + small or mostly comes from the Windows or Unix worlds, these are + minor issues much less important than trying to make a mass + market product. Qt/Mac is fully API compatible with Qt/Windows + and Qt/X11, but Mac OS X is a significantly different platform + to Windows and some special considerations must be made based on + your audience. + + \endlist + +\i <b>Dock</b><br> + + Interaction with the dock is limited, but at the very least the icon + should be able to be interacted with. This can be achieved with + QWidget::setIcon(). The setIcon() call can be made as often as + necessary, so can be used to provide a constantly updating pixmap + that works as expected. + +\i <b>Accessiblity</b><br> + + Although many users never use this, some users will only interact + with your applications via assistive devices. With Qt the aim is to + make this automatic in your application so that it conforms to + accepted practice on its platform (X11 accessiblity support is + still in the works due to the developing nature of its + accessibility design). With Qt 3.3 Qt/Mac will support + accessiblity, and hopefully a host of assistive devices. + +\i <b>Build tools</b><br> + + Mac OS X developers expect a certain level of interopability + between their development toolkit and the platform's developer + tools (for example MSVC, gmake, etc). Qt/Mac supports both Unix + style Makefiles, and ProjectBuilder/Xcode project files by using + the qmake tool. For example: + + \code + qmake -spec macx-pbuilder project.pro + \endcode + + will generate an Xcode project file from project.pro. With qmake + you do not have to worry about rules for Qt's preprocessors (moc + and uic) since qmake automatically handles them and ensures that + everything necessary is linked into your application. + + Qt does not entirely interact with the development environment (for + example plugins to set a file to 'mocable' from within the Xcode + user interface). Trolltech is actively working on improving Qt's + interoperability with various IDEs, so hopefully this will be + supported soon. + +\endlist + +*/ |