Rant - Qt Creator
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Sorry if anyone doesn't like this, but I have to blow off some steam. I am extremely annoyed with the lack of documentation regarding how to set up Qt Creator. Following link after link from the qt-project.org site regarding this software, I cannot find any kind of guide to setting up the software. How the hell do you have all this information on a site, but you don't have anything to show people how to set it up?
All the information I have found on setup has come from me digging for a long time on the web to find other annoyed people who have posted their experiences, but this is an extremely inefficient way of getting this stuff sorted out. And to top it off, after finding some directions and following them, everything appears to work, but program crashes with the most basic Qt features make it apparent that something is wrong with my installation. If I hadn't used Qt 3 years ago and liked it, I would have given up on this MANY HOURS AGO.
With God as my witness, I would LOVE for someone to prove me wrong and show me where such a guide exists, because all I want to do is get busy coding. >:(
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There is documentation about how to set up "kits":http://doc-snapshot.qt-project.org/qtcreator-2.6/creator-targets.html , "qt versions":http://doc-snapshot.qt-project.org/qtcreator-2.6/creator-project-qmake.html and "compilers":http://doc-snapshot.qt-project.org/qtcreator-2.6/creator-tool-chains.html in the Qt Creator manual. Is that what you are looking for?
If not: What do you want to do? Which information do you miss? We do have pretty decent documentation in my opinion, but there is of course always room for improvements. This is especially true since everybody involved with writing Qt Creator and its documentation tends to know it pretty well, so we occasionally do miss things that a new user will run into.
PS: When adding the Kits I did that under the assumption that this will be part of a SDK where the installer will register everything for the user. Unfortunately there is no mingw version of Qt available yet, so there is nothing on windows where we can legally ship a complete toolset yet. Let's hope for Qt 5.0.1:-)
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Thanks very much Tobias for those links. That was pretty much the information I was looking for. Everything appears to be set up correctly compared to what is in that manual, but I have code which is known to be correct and working on other computers, and it will compile but crash on my computer. We're thinking it has to do with the setup of the libraries, but there just isn't anything I can see wrong. I'm using VS2010 compiler, I have installed the Qt 4.8.3 libraries for VS2010.
I was wondering Tobias, how would I find those links on my own? I don't see any link between the stuff I was looking at under the "Getting Started" information for Qt Creator and what you linked. I think you're right about how one's familiarity with something makes it easy to overlook some things that a new user would not know. I have known myself to cause this problems for others in the past :) I guess my only suggestion would be that the information for getting people started could stand to be more complete and/or easier to follow for noobs such as myself. If I ever get through this and become productive, perhaps I could help contribute to something like that.
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Hmm... the hierarchy of the Qt Creator Manual could be better. The home page (http://doc-snapshot.qt-project.org/qtcreator-2.6/index.html ) implies that, for example, there is a "Managing Projects" section, which contains the following sub-pages:
Creating Projects
Using Version Control Systems
Configuring Projects
Managing Sessions
However, if you go open the "Managing Projects" page and click though the 'forward'/'backward' links (top right/bottom right of the page), you'll find a flat hierarchy that links the following pages in this order (bolded items are in the home page):
Managing Projects
Creating Projects
Opening Projects
Adding Libraries to Projects
Adding New Custom Wizards
Using Version Control Systems
Configuring Projects
Specifying Build Settings
* Adding Kits
* Adding Qt Versions
* Adding Compilers
Specifying Run Settings
Specifying Editor Settings
Specifying Code Style Settings
Specifying Dependencies
Sharing Project Settings
Managing Sessions
The issues here are:
- Except for the visual arrangement in the home page, the pages are treated as a flat series with no hierarchy, and no way to easily navigate across different sections/categories
- The pages that Alan needed (*) are buried deep inside that flat series, with no indication on the home page that they're even there
Edit: Actually, most of pages 8 - 16 are linked from the "Configuring Projects" page, so perhaps they can be considered as sub-pages of "Configuring Projects". However, their links are not in the listed order, and pages 11 & 16 are not accessible from "Configuring Projects"
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@AlanGifford: I searched the docs for compiler, qt version and kit. Other relevant keywords should also work. You are right, these documents are pretty close to the end of the manual, while they might make more sense close to the start or maybe they could get pointed to from a "getting started" page or something.
Contributions would be appreciated!
