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139 lines
6.7 KiB
139 lines
6.7 KiB
14 years ago
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<!-- /home/espenr/tmp/qt-3.3.8-espenr-2499/qt-x11-free-3.3.8/doc/qtmac-as-native.doc:36 -->
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<title>Qt/Mac is Mac OS X Native</title>
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<font color="#004faf">All Classes</font></a>
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<td align="right" valign="center"><img src="logo32.png" align="right" width="64" height="32" border="0"></td></tr></table><h1 align=center>Qt/Mac is Mac OS X Native</h1>
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<p>
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<p> This document explains what makes an application "native" on Mac OS X.
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It shows the areas where Qt/Mac is compliant, and the grey areas where
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compliance is more questionable. (See also the document
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<a href="mac-differences.html">Qt/Mac Issues</a>.)
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<p> Normally when referring to a native application, one really means an
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application that talks directly to the underlying window system and
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operating system, rather than one that uses some intermediary (for
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example the X11 server, or a web browser). Qt/Mac applications run as
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first class citizens, just like Cocoa, Java, and Carbon applications.
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<p> When an application is running as a first class citizen it means that
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it can interact with specific components of the Mac OS X experience:
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<p> <ul>
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<li> <b>The global menubar</b><br>
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<p> Qt/Mac does this via the <a href="qmenubar.html">QMenuBar</a> abstraction. Mac users expect to
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have a menubar at the top of the screen and Qt/Mac honors this.
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<p> Additionally, users expect certain conventions to be respected, for
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example the application menu should contain About, Preferences,
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Quit, etc. Qt/Mac handles this automatically, although it does not
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provide a means of interacting directly with the application menu.
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(By doing this automatically, Qt/Mac makes it easier to port Qt/Mac
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applications to other platforms.)
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<p> <li> <b>Aqua</b><br>
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<p> This is a critical piece of Mac OS X (documentation can be found at
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<a href="http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html">http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html</a>).
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It is a huge topic, but the most important guidelines for GUI
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design are probably these:
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<p> <ul>
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<li> <em>Aqua look</em><br>
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<p> As with Cocoa/Carbon Qt/Mac provides widgets that look like
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those described in the Human Interface Descriptions. Qt/Mac's
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widgets use the Appearance Manager to implement the look, so
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Apple's own API's are doing the rendering (Qt/Mac <3.1 used an
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emulation style with pixmaps, however this quickly proved to be
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cumbersome, and unable to keep up with style changes at Apple).
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<p> <li> <em>Aqua feel</em><br>
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<p> This is a bit more subjective, but certainly Qt/Mac strives to
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provide the same feel as any Mac OS X application (and we
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consider situations where it doesn't achieve this to be bugs).
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Of course Qt has other concerns to bear in mind, especially
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remaining multiplatform. Some "baggage" that Qt carries is in
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an effort to provide a widget on a platform for which an
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equivelant doesn't exist, or so that a single API can be used to
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do something, even if the API doesn't make entire sense for a
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specific widget (for example pushbuttons with a popup menu are
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really bevel buttons in Mac OS X, but Qt/Mac cannot guess that
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this bevel button is right next to other real pushbuttons).
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<p> <li> <em>Aqua guides</em><br>
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<p> This is the most subjective, but there are many suggestions and
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guidelines in the Aqua style guidelines. This is the area where
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Qt/Mac is of least assistance. The decisions that must be made
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to conform (widget sizes, widget layouts with respect to other
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widgets, window margins, etc) must be made based on the user
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experience demanded by your application. If your user base is
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small or mostly comes from the Windows or Unix worlds, these are
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minor issues much less important than trying to make a mass
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market product. Qt/Mac is fully API compatible with Qt/Windows
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and Qt/X11, but Mac OS X is a significantly different platform
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to Windows and some special considerations must be made based on
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your audience.
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<p> </ul>
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<p> <li> <b>Dock</b><br>
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<p> Interaction with the dock is limited, but at the very least the icon
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should be able to be interacted with. This can be achieved with
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<a href="qwidget.html#setIcon">QWidget::setIcon</a>(). The setIcon() call can be made as often as
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necessary, so can be used to provide a constantly updating pixmap
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that works as expected.
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<p> <li> <b>Accessiblity</b><br>
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<p> Although many users never use this, some users will only interact
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with your applications via assistive devices. With Qt the aim is to
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make this automatic in your application so that it conforms to
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accepted practice on its platform (X11 accessiblity support is
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still in the works due to the developing nature of its
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accessibility design). With Qt 3.3 Qt/Mac will support
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accessiblity, and hopefully a host of assistive devices.
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<p> <li> <b>Build tools</b><br>
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<p> Mac OS X developers expect a certain level of interopability
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between their development toolkit and the platform's developer
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tools (for example MSVC, gmake, etc). Qt/Mac supports both Unix
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style Makefiles, and ProjectBuilder/Xcode project files by using
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the qmake tool. For example:
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<p> <pre>
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qmake -spec macx-pbuilder project.pro
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</pre>
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<p> will generate an Xcode project file from project.pro. With qmake
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you do not have to worry about rules for Qt's preprocessors (moc
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and uic) since qmake automatically handles them and ensures that
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everything necessary is linked into your application.
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<p> Qt does not entirely interact with the development environment (for
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example plugins to set a file to 'mocable' from within the Xcode
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user interface). Trolltech is actively working on improving Qt's
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interoperability with various IDEs, so hopefully this will be
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supported soon.
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<p> </ul>
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<p>
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<!-- eof -->
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<p><address><hr><div align=center>
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<table width=100% cellspacing=0 border=0><tr>
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<td>Copyright © 2007
|
||
|
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<a href="troll.html">Trolltech</a><td align=center><a href="trademarks.html">Trademarks</a>
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|
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<td align=right><div align=right>Qt 3.3.8</div>
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</table></div></address></body>
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</html>
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