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diff --git a/doc/src/qt4-scribe.qdoc b/doc/src/qt4-scribe.qdoc new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5061a82 --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/src/qt4-scribe.qdoc @@ -0,0 +1,257 @@ +/**************************************************************************** +** +** Copyright (C) 2009 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies). +** Contact: Qt Software Information (qt-info@nokia.com) +** +** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit. +** +** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:LGPL$ +** No Commercial Usage +** This file contains pre-release code and may not be distributed. +** You may use this file in accordance with the terms and conditions +** contained in the either Technology Preview License Agreement or the +** Beta Release License Agreement. +** +** GNU Lesser General Public License Usage +** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Lesser +** General Public License version 2.1 as published by the Free Software +** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.LGPL included in the +** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to +** ensure the GNU Lesser General Public License version 2.1 requirements +** will be met: http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.1.html. +** +** In addition, as a special exception, Nokia gives you certain +** additional rights. These rights are described in the Nokia Qt LGPL +** Exception version 1.0, included in the file LGPL_EXCEPTION.txt in this +** package. +** +** GNU General Public License Usage +** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU +** General Public License version 3.0 as published by the Free Software +** Foundation and appearing in the file LICENSE.GPL included in the +** packaging of this file. Please review the following information to +** ensure the GNU General Public License version 3.0 requirements will be +** met: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html. +** +** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please +** contact the sales department at qt-sales@nokia.com. +** $QT_END_LICENSE$ +** +****************************************************************************/ + +/*! + \page qt4-scribe.html + \title The Scribe Classes + + \contentspage {What's New in Qt 4}{Home} + \previouspage The Arthur Paint System + \nextpage The Qt 4 Main Window Classes + + \keyword Scribe + + Scribe introduces a set of text layout classes to Qt 4. These classes + replace the old rich text engine found in Qt 3, and provide new features + for processing and laying out both plain and rich text. + + \tableofcontents + + For more details about how to use the Scribe classes, see the + \l{richtext.html}{Rich Text Processing} document. + + \section1 Overview of Scribe + + Support for text rendering and layout in Qt 4 has been redesigned + around a system that allows textual content to be represented in a more + flexible way than was possible with Qt 3. Qt 4 also provides a more + convenient programming interface for editing documents. These + improvements are made available through a reimplementation of the + existing text rendering engine, and the introduction of several new + classes. + + The following sections provide a brief overview of the main concepts + behind Scribe. + + \section2 The Document Interface + + Text documents are represented by the QTextDocument class, rather + than by QString objects. Each QTextDocument object contains + information about the document's internal representation, its + structure, and keeps track of modifications to provide undo/redo + facilities. + This approach allows features such as layout management to be + delegated to specialized classes, but also provides a focus for the + framework. + + Documents are either converted from external sources or created from + scratch using Qt. The creation process can done by an editor widget, + such as QTextEdit, or by explicit calls to the Scribe API. + + Text documents can be accessed in two complementary ways: as a linear + buffer for editors to use, and as an object hierarchy that is useful to + layout engines. + In the hierarchical document model, objects generally correspond to + visual elements such as frames, tables, and lists. At a lower level, + these elements describe properties such as the text style and alignment. + The linear representation of the document is used for editing and + manipulation of the document's contents. + + \section2 Document Structure + + Each document contains a root frame into which all other structural + elements are placed. This frame contains other structural elements, + including tables, text blocks, and other frames; these can be nested to + an arbitrary depth. + + Frames provide logical separation between parts of the document, but + also have properties that determine how they will appear when rendered. + A table is a specialized type of frame that consists of a number of + cells, arranged into rows and columns, each of which can contain + further structure and text. Tables provide management and layout + features that allow flexible configurations of cells to be created. + + Text blocks contain text fragments, each of which specifies text and + character format information. Textual properties are defined both at + the character level and at the block level. At the character level, + properties such as font family, text color, and font weight can be + specified. The block level properties control the higher level + appearance and behavior of the text, such as the direction of text + flow, alignment, and background color. + + The document structure is not manipulated directly. Editing is + performed through a cursor-based interface. + + \section2 Editing and Content Creation + + Documents can be edited via the interface provided by the QTextCursor + class; cursors are either created using a constructor or obtained from + an editor widget. The cursor is used to perform editing operations that + correspond exactly to those the user is able to make themselves in an + editor. As a result, information about the document structure is also + available through the cursor, and this allows the structure to be + modified. The use of a cursor-oriented interface for editing makes the + process of writing a custom editor simpler for developers, since the + editing operations can be easily visualized. + + The QTextCursor class also maintains information about any text it + has selected in the document, again following a model that is + conceptually similar to the actions made by the user to select text + in an editor. + + \section2 Document Layout + + The layout of a document is only relevant when it is to be displayed on + a device, or when some information is requested that requires a visual + representation of the document. Until this occurs, the document does + not need to be formatted and prepared for a device. + + Each document's layout is managed by a subclass of the + QAbstractTextDocumentLayout class. This class provides a common + interface for layout and rendering engines. The default rendering + behavior is currently implemented in a private class. This approach + makes it possible to create custom layouts, and provides the + mechanism used when preparing pages for printing or exporting to + Portable Document Format (PDF) files. + + \section1 Example Code + + Here we present two different ways in which the Scribe classes can be + used: for creating and manipulating rich text, and for laying out + plain text. + + + \section2 Manipulating Rich Text + + Rich text is stored in text documents that can either be created by + importing HTML from an external source, or generated using a + QTextCursor. The easiest way to use a rich text document is through + the QTextEdit class, providing an editable view onto a document. The code + below imports HTML into a document, and displays the document using a + text edit widget. + + \snippet doc/src/snippets/scribe-overview/main.cpp 1 + + You can retrieve the document from the text edit using the + document() function. The document can then be edited programmatically + using the QTextCursor class. This class is modeled after a screen + cursor, and editing operations follow the same semantics. The following + code changes the first line of the document to a bold font, leaving all + other font properties untouched. The editor will be automatically + updated to reflect the changes made to the underlying document data. + + \snippet doc/src/snippets/scribe-overview/main.cpp 0 + + Note that the cursor was moved from the start of the first line to the + end, but that it retained an anchor at the start of the line. This + demonstrates the cursor-based selection facilities of the + QTextCursor class. + + Rich text can be generated very quickly using the cursor-based + approach. The following example shows a simple calendar in a + QTextEdit widget with bold headers for the days of the week: + + \snippet doc/src/snippets/textdocument-blocks/mainwindow.cpp 0 + \codeline + \snippet doc/src/snippets/textdocument-blocks/mainwindow.cpp 1 + \snippet doc/src/snippets/textdocument-blocks/mainwindow.cpp 2 + \snippet doc/src/snippets/textdocument-blocks/mainwindow.cpp 3 + + The above example demonstrates how simple it is to quickly generate new + rich text documents using a minimum amount of code. Although we have + generated a crude fixed-pitch calendar to avoid quoting too much code, + Scribe provides much more sophisticated layout and formatting features. + + \section2 Plain Text Layout + + Sometimes it is important to be able to format plain text within an + irregularly-shaped region, perhaps when rendering a custom widget, for + example. Scribe provides generic features, such as those provided by + the QTextLayout class, to help developers perform word-wrapping and + layout tasks without the need to create a document first. + + \img plaintext-layout.png + + Formatting and drawing a paragraph of plain text is straightforward. + The example below will lay out a paragraph of text, using a single + font, around the right hand edge of a circle. + + \snippet doc/src/snippets/plaintextlayout/window.cpp 0 + + We create a text layout, specifying the text string we want to display + and the font to use. We ensure that the text we supplied is formatted + correctly by obtaining text lines from the text format, and wrapping + the remaining text using the available space. The lines are positioned + as we move down the page. + + The formatted text can be drawn onto a paint device; in the above code, + the text is drawn directly onto a widget. + + \section2 Printing Features + + The layout system used to display rich text documents also supports + paged layout of documents, and this is used by Qt to generate output for + printing. The printing process is performed by QPrinter and controlled by + the user via options displayed in a QPrintDialog: + + \snippet doc/src/snippets/textdocument-printing/mainwindow.cpp 0 + + Rich text documents can also be exported as PDF files using QPrinter and + the appropriate print engine: + + \snippet demos/textedit/textedit.cpp 0 + + \section1 Comparison with Qt 3 + + The cursor-based editing features, combined with the structural document + model, provide a powerful set of tools for manipulating and displaying + rich text documents. These provide features that were unavailable in + Qt 3's public API. The engine used is a complete rewrite and does not + use the rich text engine supplied with Qt 3. + + The QTextEdit class in Qt 4 has also been completely rewritten with an + API that is quite different from its Qt 3 counterpart. Some compatibility + methods have been added to allow the widget to be used, for basic cases, + in a way that is familiar to users of Qt 3. This class is provided as a + working example of an editor widget that uses the new API, showing that + it is possible to completely implement a document editor based on the + QTextCursor editing interface. +*/ |