Cross-Platform Development with Qt 6 and Modern C++

Enhance your cross-platform programming abilities with the powerful features and capabilities of Qt 6

▶Book Description
Qt is a cross-platform application development framework widely used for developing applications that can run on a wide range of hardware platforms with little to no change in the underlying codebase. If you have basic knowledge of C++ and want to build desktop or mobile applications with a modern graphical user interface (GUI), Qt is the right choice for you. Cross-Platform Development with Qt 6 and Modern C++ helps you understand why Qt is one of the favorite GUI frameworks adopted by industries worldwide, covering the essentials of programming GUI apps across a multitude of platforms using the standard C++17 and Qt 6 features.

Starting with the fundamentals of the Qt framework, including the features offered by Qt Creator, this practical guide will show you how to create classic user interfaces using Qt Widgets and touch-friendly user interfaces using Qt Quick. As you advance, you'll explore the Qt Creator IDE for developing applications for multiple desktops as well as for embedded and mobile platforms. You will also learn advanced concepts about signals and slots. Finally, the book takes you through debugging and testing your app with Qt Creator IDE.

By the end of this book, you'll be able to build cross-platform applications with a modern GUI along with the speed and power of native apps.

▶What You Will Learn
-Write cross-platform code using the Qt framework to create interactive applications
-Build a desktop application using Qt Widgets
-Create a touch-friendly user interface with Qt Quick
-Develop a mobile application using Qt and deploy it on different platforms
-Get to grips with Model/View programming with Qt Widgets and Qt Quick
-Discover Qt's graphics framework and add animations to your user interface
-Write test cases using the Qt Test framework and debug code
-Build a translation-aware application
-Follow best practices in Qt to write high-performance code

▶Key Features
-Leverage Qt and C++ capabilities to create modern, cross-platform applications that can run on a wide variety of software applications
-Explore what's new in Qt 6 and understand core concepts in depth
-Build professional customized GUI applications with the help of Qt Creator

▶Who This Book Is For
This book is for application developers who want to use C++ and Qt to create modern, responsive applications that can be deployed to multiple operating systems such as Microsoft Windows, Apple macOS, and Linux desktop platforms. Although no prior knowledge of Qt is expected, beginner-level knowledge of the C++ programming language and object-oriented programming system (OOPs) concepts will be helpful.

▶What this book covers
- Chapter 1, Introduction to Qt 6, will introduce you to Qt and describe how to set it up on a machine. By the end of the chapter, readers will be able to build Qt from source code and get started on their platform of choice.

- Chapter 2, Introduction to Qt Creator, introduces you to the Qt Creator IDE and its user interface. This chapter will also teach you how to create and manage projects in Qt Creator. You will learn to develop a simple Hello World application using Qt Creator and learn about different shortcuts, and practical tips.

- Chapter 3, GUI Design Using Qt Widgets, explores the Qt Widgets module. Here, you will learn the various kinds of widgets that are available for creating GUIs. You will also be introduced to Layouts, Qt Designer, and learn how to create your own custom controls. This chapter will help you in developing your first GUI application using Qt.

- Chapter 4, Qt Quick and QML, covers fundamentals of Qt Quick and QML, Qt Quick Controls, Qt Quick Designer, Qt Quick Layouts, and Basic QML Scripting. In this chapter, you will learn to use Qt Quick controls and how to integrate C++ code with QML. By the end of this chapter, you will be able to create a modern application with fluid UI using QML.

- Chapter 5, Cross-Platform Development, explores cross-platform development using Qt. You will learn about different settings in Qt Creator. In this chapter, you will be able to run sample applications on your favorite desktop and mobile platforms.

- Chapter 6, Signals and Slots, covers the signals and slots mechanism in depth. You will be able to communicate between different C++ classes and between C++ and QML. You will also learn about events, event filters and event loop.

- Chapter 7, Model View Programming, introduces you to the Model/View architecture in Qt and its core concepts. Here, you will be able to write custom models and delegates . You can use these to display required information on your Qt Widget-based or Qt Quick-based GUI application.

- Chapter 8, Graphics and Animations, introduces the concepts of 2D graphics and animations. You will learn how to use painter APIs to draw different shapes on the screen. We will further discuss the possibility of graphics data representation using Qt's Graphics View framework and Scene Graph. This chapter will guide you towards creating an attention-grabbing user interface with animations. The chapter also touches upon the state machine framework.

- Chapter 9, Testing and Debugging, explores different debugging techniques for a Qt application. You will learn about unit testing and the Qt Test framework in this chapter. We will also discuss how to use the Google Test framework with Qt Test, as well as learn about the available Qt tooling and GUI specific testing techniques.

- Chapter 10, Deploying Qt Applications, discusses the importance of software deployment. You will learn to deploy a Qt application on various platforms, including desktop and mobile platforms. You will learn about the available deployment tools and steps to create an installer package.

- Chapter 11, Internationalization, introduces you to internationalization. Qt provides excellent support for translating Qt Widgets and Qt Quick applications into local languages. In this chapter, you will learn how to make an application with multi-lingual support. You will also learn about inbuilt tools and various considerations for making a translation-aware application.

- Chapter 12, Performance Considerations, introduces you to performance optimization techniques and how to apply them in the context of Qt programming. Here, we will discuss different profiling tools to diagnose performance problems, concentrating specifically on the tools available on Windows. In this chapter, you will learn how to profile performance with QML Profiler and benchmark your code. The chapter will also help you write high-performance optimized QML code.