/**************************************************************************** ** ** Copyright (C) 2011 Nokia Corporation and/or its subsidiary(-ies). ** All rights reserved. ** Contact: Nokia Corporation (qt-info@nokia.com) ** ** This file is part of the documentation of the Qt Toolkit. ** ** $QT_BEGIN_LICENSE:FDL$ ** GNU Free Documentation License ** Alternatively, this file may be used under the terms of the GNU Free ** Documentation License version 1.3 as published by the Free Software ** Foundation and appearing in the file included in the packaging of ** this file. ** ** Other Usage ** Alternatively, this file may be used in accordance with the terms ** and conditions contained in a signed written agreement between you ** and Nokia. ** ** ** ** ** $QT_END_LICENSE$ ** ****************************************************************************/ /*! \page guibooks.html \title Books about GUI Design \ingroup best-practices \brief Some recommended books about GUI design. This is not a comprehensive list -- there are many other books worth buying. Here we mention just a few user interface books that don't gather dust on our shelves. \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0132354160/ref=ase_trolltech/}{C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4, Second Edition}} by Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield, ISBN 0-13-235416-0. This is the official Qt book written by two veteran Trolls. The first edition, which is based on Qt 4.1, is \l{http://www.qtrac.eu/C++-GUI-Programming-with-Qt-4-1st-ed.zip}{available online}. The second edition, based on Qt 4.3, is \l{http://www.informit.com/store/product.aspx?isbn=0132354160}{also available online}. \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0385267746/trolltech/t}{The Design of Everyday Things}} by Donald Norman, ISBN 0-38526774-6, is one of the classics of human interface design. Norman shows how badly something as simple as a kitchen stove can be designed, and everyone should read it who will design a dialog box, write an error message, or design just about anything else humans are supposed to use. \target fowler \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0070592748/trolltech/t}{GUI Design Handbook}} by Susan Fowler, ISBN 0-07-059274-8, is an alphabetical dictionary of widgets and other user interface elements, with comprehensive coverage of each. Each chapter covers one widget or other element, contains the most important recommendation from the Macintosh, Windows and Motif style guides, notes about common problems, comparison with other widgets that can serve some of the same roles as this one, etc. \target Design Patterns \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201633612/103-8144203-3273444} {Design Patterns - Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software}} by Gamma, Helm, Johnson, and Vlissides, ISBN 0-201-63361-2, provides more information on the Model-View-Controller (MVC) paradigm, explaining MVC and its sub-patterns in detail. \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0201622165/trolltech/t}{Macintosh Human Interface Guidelines}}, Second Edition, ISBN 0-201-62216-5, is worth buying for the \e {don't}s alone. Even if you're not writing Macintosh software, avoiding most of what it advises against will produce more easily comprehensible software. Doing what it tells you to do may also help. This book is now available \link http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGuidelines/HIGuidelines-2.html online\endlink and there is a \link http://developer.apple.com/techpubs/mac/HIGOS8Guide/thig-2.html Mac OS 8 addendum.\endlink \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/047159900X/trolltech/t}{The Microsoft Windows User Experience}}, ISBN 1-55615-679-0, is Microsoft's look and feel bible. Indispensable for everyone who has customers that worship Microsoft, and it's quite good, too. \bold{\l{http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/047159900X/trolltech/t}{The Icon Book}} by William Horton, ISBN 0-471-59900-X, is perhaps the only thorough coverage of icons and icon use in software. In order for icons to be successful, people must be able to do four things with them: decode, recognize, find and activate them. This book explains these goals from scratch and how to reach them, both with single icons and icon families. Some 500 examples are scattered throughout the text. \section1 Buying these Books from Amazon.com These books are made available in association with Amazon.com, our favorite online bookstore. Here is more information about \link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/help/shipping-policy.html/t Amazon.com's shipping options\endlink and its \link http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/subst/help/desk.html/t customer service.\endlink When you buy a book by following one of these links, Amazon.com gives about 15% of the purchase price to \link http://www.amnesty.org/ Amnesty International.\endlink */