path: root/dist/changes-3.1.0

Qt 3.1 introduces many significant new features and many improvements
over the 3.0.x series. This file provides an overview of the main
changes since version 3.0.x. For further details see the online
documentation which is included in this distribution, and also
available at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/.

The Qt version 3.1 series is binary compatible with the 3.0.x series:
applications compiled for 3.0 will continue to run with 3.1.


****************************************************************************
*                                 General                                  *
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Qt Script for Applications
--------------------------
Qt 3.1 is the first Qt release that can be used with Qt Script for
Applications (QSA). QSA provides a scripting engine, an IDE for
creating and editing scripts and script forms, and bindings to the Qt
API. Script-enabling a Qt application is not difficult and the IDE
makes it easy for resellers and end-users to write their own scripts.
QSA is due for release after Qt 3.1.


Qt Designer
-----------
Qt Designer, the visual GUI builder, has undergone several usability
improvements. A new dialog for creating and editing signals and slots
connections has been created: it is much easier to use and much faster
for setting up multiple connections. The widgets are now presented in
an easy-to-use toolbox rather than in toolbars (although you can still
have the toolbars if you want). The property editor now handles common
properties in multiple widgets simultaneously. By popular demand,
WYSIWYG support for QWidgetStack has been added. Rich text is now
supported with a rich text editor. And the code editor can be used for
ordinary member functions as well as for slots.


Qt Assistant
------------
Qt Assistant, the Qt documentation browser, can now be used with
custom documentation sets. This new functionality combined with the
new QAssistantClient class means that you can use Qt Assistant as a
help browser for your own applications. Qt Assistant has also been
enhanced by the addition of a fast full text search engine.


Motif
-----
The general industry-wide move away from Motif is leaving more and
more companies in need of a migration solution. But converting large
legacy applications in one step is often impractical. To minimize
risks and to manage the workload companies often want to port code on
a module by module basis. Qt 3.1 includeds a completely new Motif
module that supports hybrid applications in which Qt code and Motif
code coexist. (This obsoletes the earlier rudimentary Qt Xt/Motif
extension.)


ActiveX
-------
With the release of Qt 3.1, customers who use Qt for Microsoft Windows
development can now use Qt with ActiveX. The new ActiveQt module
provides a simple API for COM and ActiveX. The module can be used to
create applications which host ActiveX controls, and also to create
applications that serve ActiveX controls (e.g. Internet Explorer
plugins).


Qt/Mac
------
The introduction of Qt/Mac, a Mac OS X port of Qt, with Qt 3.0 has
proved a great success. This port has undergone many improvements in
Qt 3.1, especially with respect to Appearance Manager, anti-aliased
text and user settings. The Qt OpenGL support is greatly improved, and
uses the hardware-accelerated drivers.


Qt/Embedded
-----------
Graphics, mouse and keyboard drivers can now be compiled as plugins.


Qt library
----------
In addition to the new additions and enhancements referred to above,
as with all major Qt releases, Qt 3.1 includes hundreds of
improvements in the existing class library. Here is a brief summary of
the most significant changes:

- QTextEdit has a new text format: LogText. This is a performance and
  memory optimized format especially designed for the fast display of
  large amounts of text. The format supports basic highlighting,
  including bold and colored text.

- The new QSyntaxHighlighter class makes it both easy and efficient to
  add syntax highlighting capabilities to a QTextEdit.

- QHttp and QFtp in earlier Qt's were implementations of the
  QNetworkProtocol. Both have been extended to stand in their own
  right. If you missed some flexibility in the network protocol
  abstractions of earlier Qt's, the new QHttp and QFtp classes should
  provide the solution.

- QAccel, used to handle keyboard shortcuts, now gracefully copes with
  shortcut clashes. If a clash occurs, a new signal,
  activatedAmbiguously(), is emitted. Classes that use QAccel, like
  QButton's subclasses and QPopupMenu, make use of this new
  functionality. Futhermore QAccel can now handle multi-key sequences,
  for example, Ctrl+X,Ctrl+F.

- QClipboard has been extended to simplify data exchange between
  programs.

- Thread support: almost all methods in the tools classes have been
  made reentrant. QApplication::postEvent() and a few other methods
  are now thread-safe if Qt is compiled as a multi-threaded library.
  (The documentation now states if a class or function is thread-safe
  or reentrant.)

- A QMutexLocker class has been added to simplify the locking and
  unlocking of mutexes.

- Input methods: A selectionLength() function has been added to
  QIMEvent. Japanese compositions are now handled correctly. Support
  for AIMM based input methods (those working on non-Asian versions of
  Win95/98/Me) has been added.

- Large File support: Qt's internals have been modified to support
  Large Files (> 2GB). QFileDialog will now correctly display and
  select large files.

- SQL module: Support for prepared query execution and value binding
  has been added. Among other benefits, this makes it possible to
  write large BLOBs (> 2 KB) to Oracle databases, and to write Unicode
  strings to SQL Server databases.

- Support for XIM on Solaris.

Build process
-------------
The build process has been improved:

- The configure script does not need QTDIR to be set anymore.

- Improved support for building Qt on MSVC.NET.


****************************************************************************
*			   Library					   *
****************************************************************************

- QAccel:
	Corrected illegal accelerator state when using multiple
	keysequences. (Resulted in no accelerator being triggered when
	there's a partial match). Only triggers on enabled
	accelerators and their enabled items. Eats all keys in a
	keysequence, not just the first and last.

- QCString:
	Speed-optimized replace().

- QDataStream:
	Applies to printable data streams only: If the version number
	of the device is less than 4, use the same streaming format
	that was used in Qt 2.3 and earlier.

- QDataTable:
	Respect read-only columns. Make it possible to swap columns.

- QDockWindow:
	Added a standard widget constructor (taking a QWidget *parent,
	const char *name and WFlags). Improved docking behavior.

- QFileDialog:
	Windows only: make Qt's filedialog work properly with network
	paths.

- QFontMetrics:
	Windows only: Fixed QFontMetrics::boundingRect( QChar c ) to
	work for non-TrueType fonts.

- QHeader:
	Optimized the sectionSizeHint() calculation, which in turn 
	speeds up all QHeader size/label calculations.

- QIconFactory:
	Avoid infinite loops when recursively calling
	QPixmap::pixmap().

- QIconView:
	Fixed navigation and selection with arrow keys. Some speedups
	when repainting.

- QKeySequence:
	Treat Unicode characters in string defined sequences
	correctly. So, now letters like �, � and � should work as
	accelerators, even through translation files.

- QLayout:
	alignmentRect() respects the layout's maximum size.

- QLineEdit:
	Added a lostFocus() signal. Double-clicking only uses spaces
	as word bounderies for the selection now, not dots, commas,
	etc. Support double-click+mousemove selection.

- QListBox:
	Fixed the item which is passed into the contextMenuRequested()
	signal (this was sometimes wrong). Don't select items that are
	not selectable.

- QListView:
	Shift selection in Extended mode now follows Windows
	Shift-selection standard. Erase empty area when drawing
	listviews without columns. Only drops on drop-enabled items
	that accept drops.

- QListViewItem:
	Optimized size claculation for multi-line items.

- QMainWindow:
	Base the minimumSizeHint() on the sizeHint()s of the left hand
	dock area (instead of the minimumSize()).

- QMenuBar:
	Fixed broken Alt release detection. Fixed flickering. Fixed
	empty menubars resizing properly.

- QObject:
	Fixed return value of disconnect(). Fixed disconnect()ing
	SIGNALs from SIGNALs and disconnect()ing multiple SLOTs with
	the same name from a SIGNAL.

- QProcess:
	Unix only: Don't eat the file descriptors if a lot of
	processes (with short runtimes) are started immediately after
	each other.

- QPSQLDriver:
	Make the driver compile with the standard PostgreSQL source
	distribution under Windows. Better handling of network,
	datetime and geometrical datatypes.

- QRegion:
	Fixed setRects() to calculate the bounding rectangle
	correctly.

- QScrollView:
	Doesn't reposition the view when the user is scrolling the
	view.

- QSpinBox:
	Fixed setValue() so that any not-yet-interpreted input is
	ignored when setting a new value.

- QString:
	Support QTextCodec::codecForCStrings(). Support
	std::string<==>QString conversion when STL support is on.

- QSyntaxHighlighter:
	Added function rehighlight(). Improved internals to be more
	efficient (less calls to highlightParagraph() necessary).

- QTable:
	Fixed Tab/BackTab handling to always work. Fixed
	setColumnLabels() and setRowLabels().

- QTableItem (and subclasses):
	Now supports global struts. (See QApplication::globalStrut().)

- QTDSDriver:
	Added support for binary datatypes.

- QTextCodec:
	Added QTextCodec::codecForCStrings and QTextCodec::codecForTr.

- QTextEdit:
	Fixed a painting error which resulted in areas of the textedit
	not being erased correctly. Make sure repainting is done after
	changing the underline-links setting. Renamed 'allowTabs'
	property to 'tabChangesFocus' (inverted value). Added a new
	property 'autoFormatting'. When exporting HTML also quote
	quotes. Fixed a background erasing bug which messed up the
	view.

- QUrl:
	Recognize Windows drive letters not only in the form of "c:/"
	but also in the form "c:" (without the '/').

- QWidget:
	Fixed some visibility issues.

****************************************************************************
*			   Qt Designer					   *
****************************************************************************

- Now displays the classname of "gray box" custom widgets in the gray
  box on the form.

- Accept tildes (~) in the project settings.

- A new command line tool conv2ui (in qt/tools/designer/tools) has
  been added, to convert dialog description files from different file
  formats to .ui files without the need to invoke Qt Designer. This
  tool uses the same plugins as Qt Designer for loading other dialog
  description files.

- An import filter for .kdevdlg files has been added.

- Actions in the action editor are now sortable.

- Improved usability of more dialogs (in-place renaming, drag'n'drop,
  etc.)

- Preserve creation order of forward declarations, variables, etc.

- Save comments for actions.

- uic: Fixed generating code for QStringList properties.

****************************************************************************
*			   Qt Assistant					   *
****************************************************************************

- Fixed some accelerator conflicts.

****************************************************************************
*			   Qt Linguist					   *
****************************************************************************

- Handle trailing backslash in strings correctly in lupdate.

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