Qt Programming Language

Annabelle

@mrdebug said in Qt Programming Language:

It is incredible how many people are helping Annabelle.... But why?

What makes you ask why? Is it because I'm confused on whose advice to take? There are so many answers, I can't seem to tell which one to choose first. I mean, one wants me to make wizard pages. One wants me to use the Qt Creator to make the program, when my screenreader can't access it. one wants me to look at books that are most likely either only available as a physical print copy, or as a format which can't be read by my screenreader. One tells me I should go to outside sources other than the Qt website to find answers. Now my mind is in a whirlpool!

ambershark

@Annabelle Definitely don't use Qt Creator. If your screen reader doesn't support it that will just make things a lot harder.

I have written Qt apps for about 16 years and never used Qt Creator. You definitely don't need it.

As for what you need.. You said you need to be able to compile on the command line. Doing this is quite easy with Qt. First answer a couple questions for me and I can give you a complete step by step on how to get a program building. Once you can build a simple program, then you can worry about what goes into it like wizards and such.

What operating system are you using?
What compiler are you using? If windows is it visual studio or mingw? If linux it will probably be gcc, and if osx it will probably be clang. So mostly I just need to know in case of using windows.

@mrdebug We're all helping because it is very inspiring to see someone who is blind trying to learn and do something so sight oriented. The challenge she faces seems almost insurmountable to me. I am willing to help everyone on these forums but some people just deserve that extra attention. :)

Annabelle

@ambershark said in Qt Programming Language:

@Annabelle Definitely don't use Qt Creator. If your screen reader doesn't support it that will just make things a lot harder.

I have written Qt apps for about 16 years and never used Qt Creator. You definitely don't need it.

As for what you need.. You said you need to be able to compile on the command line. Doing this is quite easy with Qt. First answer a couple questions for me and I can give you a complete step by step on how to get a program building. Once you can build a simple program, then you can worry about what goes into it like wizards and such.

What operating system are you using?

What compiler are you using? If windows is it visual studio or mingw? If linux it will probably be gcc, and if osx it will probably be clang. So mostly I just need to know in case of using windows.

@mrdebug We're all helping because it is very inspiring to see someone who is blind trying to learn and do something so sight oriented. The challenge she faces seems almost insurmountable to me. I am willing to help everyone on these forums but some people just deserve that extra attention. :)

I think the compiler I have is Mingw.
On one machine, I have Windows XP 32 Bit (I haven't upgraded that machine to Windows 7 64 Bit, as it would be $787 for a whole new machine, money I don't have right now.) On the machine on which I'm making my program's code, I have Windows 7 64 Bit.

ambershark

Ok so for mingw/windows you will need to open a command prompt, press window+r and type cmd then press enter.

Once in the command prompt cd to your code directory.

Then, if you do not have a project file, *.pro, you can create one with qmake -project. This will create a <name of your directory>.pro file for you.

You can then edit that file to include other sources and add QT options and CONFIG options.

Then just run qmake and then finally mingw32-make to build your project.

You will need to make sure that your environment path has the path to qmake and mingw32-make. I prefer to use an msys environment for my qmake/make since I'm a linux user and it is bash like. That's probably a bit much for first time though, so stick with the command prompt for now.

J.Hilk

Additionally to what @ambershark said,
You should between the step qmake -project and qmake change your directory to a so called Shadow-Build Folder otherwise the commands qmake and make will create a big mess in your project folder.
They will automatically create a whole lot of files and directories, that are not neccessary for your creation of the app, but the compiler will need those.

Annabelle

@J.Hilk said in Qt Programming Language:

Additionally to what @ambershark said,
You should between the step qmake -project and qmake change your directory to a so called Shadow-Build Folder otherwise the commands qmake and make will create a big mess in your project folder.
They will automatically create a whole lot of files and directories, that are not neccessary for your creation of the app, but the compiler will need those.

"Shadow Build folders"? What are those?

SGaist

It's a folder outside of the sources of your application, usually at the same level:

--Code
----MyCoolProject
----build-mycoolproject

ambershark

@Annabelle Basically they keep your source directories clean without putting a bunch of object files, libs, exes, etc into your source dirs.

I would have mentioned that, as it is a much better way to keep your source clean instead of relying on make clean and make distclean.

Annabelle

@SGaist said in Qt Programming Language:

It's a folder outside of the sources of your application, usually at the same level:
--Code
----MyCoolProject
----build-mycoolproject

So for example, if I want to build my Ceremony Script Generator after writing all the codes for each page, I would write:

--Code
----CeremonyScriptGenerator
----build-ceremonyscriptgenerator

ambershark

@Annabelle Yes that would work. Remember shadow build directories can literally be anywhere. I tend to have mine inside my project in a dir called build, but it can literally be any directory that you like. The purpose is just to keep your code clean. It lets you delete the build directory at any time to clean up without affecting your code.

Annabelle

If I ever uninstall Qt Creator, is there a way to install just the Mingw compiler? Or can Mingw and Qt be accessed directly through the Command Prompt?

mrjj

@Annabelle
Hi
Creator is just an editor and can be uninstalled while keeping the mingw compiler and
Qt framework.
You can compile from command prompt yes.

To uninstall Creator, you can use the maintenance tool.
It is located in the root of the Qt folder. Normally c:\Qt
the tool is called MaintenanceTool.exe
Im not sure it works with a screen reader though.

That said, it only saves you around 400 mb.

Annabelle

I've successfully uninstalled QT Creator, but unfortunately the Mingw compiler is gone, too. Is there a way to get the Mingw compiler separately?

mrjj

@Annabelle
Hi
The MaintenanceTool allows you to install that.
Make sure that Creator is not checked in the Tool section or else it comes back :)

Does it work with screen reader ?

Else im not sure it works very well as you need to select / deselect elements in the
tree structure shown.

Annabelle

@mrjj said in Qt Programming Language:

@Annabelle
Hi
The MaintenanceTool allows you to install that.
Make sure that Creator is not checked in the Tool section or else it comes back :)

Does it work with screen reader ?

Else im not sure it works very well as you need to select / deselect elements in the
tree structure shown.

Unfortunately, when I click on QT Maintenance Tool.exe, it says "Missing Shortcut". What's up with that? Did that file get deleted, too?

mrjj

@Annabelle
Yes sounds like the tool is not good for a screen reader.
I think you just uninstalled it all.

There is Add and Remove option
where you can select Qt versions and also
if to install Creator or not.

I must resist the urge to post screen shots as i assume they are useless?

If you want to save the space used by Creator, maybe just delting the folder is the way to go.

Annabelle

@mrjj said in Qt Programming Language:

@Annabelle
Hi
The MaintenanceTool allows you to install that.
Make sure that Creator is not checked in the Tool section or else it comes back :)

Does it work with screen reader ?

Else im not sure it works very well as you need to select / deselect elements in the
tree structure shown.

I tried like three or four times to use the Maintenance Tool, but sadly, it won't let me uncheck the option of "Qt Creator". Grrr that makes me so steamin' mad! What do I do next?

ambershark

@Annabelle You can just leave Qt Creator, it won't hurt to have it on there and you'll only save a bit of hard drive space not having it there.

If you can't get just a mingw install with Qt, then you can always install mingw by itself. I would be careful to get the exact version used to compile whatever version of Qt you are using though, just to avoid issues.

Here's a link to mingw:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/

Keep in mind installing it this way can be kind of complicated compared to just letting Qt's installer do it for you, but it works. I've used the mingw direct version for years.

Annabelle

@ambershark said in Qt Programming Language:

@Annabelle You can just leave Qt Creator, it won't hurt to have it on there and you'll only save a bit of hard drive space not having it there.

If you can't get just a mingw install with Qt, then you can always install mingw by itself. I would be careful to get the exact version used to compile whatever version of Qt you are using though, just to avoid issues.

Here's a link to mingw:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/mingw/files/

Keep in mind installing it this way can be kind of complicated compared to just letting Qt's installer do it for you, but it works. I've used the mingw direct version for years.

Is the coding for all the Qt widgets and parameters like buttons and checkboxes different from version to version (for example, 4.8 vs. 5.9)? I'm confused on that one!

ambershark

@Annabelle Qt 4 to 5 would be different. Not hugely so, but definitely has some differences. 4 and 5 are not compatible at all.

However versions during the same major version of Qt tend to be the same. Some things may get deprecated and some things may get added to the interface, but the core stuff stays the same. Your applications should always compile with newer Qt versions with the same major version number.