Qt Programming Language

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.

Annabelle

@ambershark said in Qt Programming Language:

@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.

I went to the link you provided and got the latest version of mingw-get-setup.exe, however, when I open it, it takes me to an installation manager. Is that what's supposed to happen? Also, for some reason, I have to be connected to the Internet when opening the file. When I try the command line prompt "mingw-get --help", I get the following error. "mingw-get is not an operable program or recognized command". That's a bit strange, since the installation manager specifically asks me to enter that command to have access to its help file.

ambershark

@Annabelle I haven't installed mingw in a long time so I'll let someone else help with the specifics of that. I'm not really a windows guy. I do almost exclusively posix oses like linux or mac.

As for the error you got, that is because you are not in the directory with the mingw-get executable. That is a generic dos error that is telling you it has no idea what mingw-get is.

Annabelle

When I installed the Mingw-Get-Setup.exe file, it put some sort of Installation Manager on my computer, and I'm not sure what that does. Also, I'm still wondering how to put together the commands to compile a simple example of a program after wrtiing the code in Notepad++. I know one of you fellow members said something about "using ID's", and I'm not exactly sure what that means.

ambershark

@Annabelle You can compile using cmake or qmake on the command line. It was covered above on how to do it by me and a few others.

Annabelle

@Allanis said in Qt Programming Language:

@Annabelle Sorry, I was at work when I made my initial response to this thread. A more elaborate answer for you follows as I take it you are beginning in Qt and it may be difficult for you to look up resources.

Given the scope of your project I think it will suffice to use a simple Qmake project file such as:

myapp.pro
TEMPLATE = app

QT += widgets

SOURCES += main.cpp \
    MainWindow.cpp \
    SpouseWidget.cpp

HEADERS += \
    MainWindow.h \
    SpouswWidget.h

OTHER_FILES += \
    anyotherfile.png
You may need to make changes to this in order to fit the needs of your project, but this should be a good enough example for you.

Once you have this in place, you can open up your favorite Command Line Interface (eg. cmd.exe for Windows).

Type:
qmake myapp.pro
make
Your compiler will generate a binary file for your application at this point.

I hope this helps,
Have fun.

Would the header files be created in Notepad++ as well? So I'm guessing that the codes I write would be saved as .cpp files?