Use of Qt documentation

goetz · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 14:31

I mostly use Qt Assistant. Help mode of Qt Creator is handy sometimes, but having Creator on one screen and Assistant on the other one makes my live easier :-) No printing here - save the trees :-) And of course it works too in trains and the like, where it is likely that the internet connection drops from time to time.

I use the online help only for answering questions on DevNet in order to put some helpful links to the API docs. doc.qt.nokia.com is not quite useful for searching, in my opinion. It is far less comfortable than Assistant.

No Qt related books here. Like Gerolf, I prefer books for learning things (Introductions, presenting concepts and the like). Also, books tend to be a bit outdated once they are off press, IT things move to quick :-)

andre · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 16:44

Assistant is king here. If I use a dual screen setup, one screen is Assistant, the other Qt Creator. The online docs have degraded their usability to the point of being virtually useless. The search function doesn't work (comes up with irrelevant option only, irrevant options first, or nothing at all), the index layout for the class list sucks, and the difference between method descriptions is virtually non-existant so it becomes very hard to quickly scan for the the method you need.

It would be cool however, if you could get an online link from Assistant so you can easily refer people to the online docs for use this forum, IRC, the mailinglists or any of the other channels. I created "a Jira issue for that":http://bugreports.qt.nokia.com/browse/QTBUG-14417 a while ago. Votes are appreciated :-)

I have never printed Qt documentation. Books are nice for introductions into new technologies and the likes, but not for reference documentation.

tobias.hunger · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 16:52

Volker: You are aware that you can detach the help mode in Qt Creator? It is in Tools->Options->Help, set "On context help" to external and you have a separate help window.

goetz · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 16:56

[quote author="Tobias Hunger" date="1294764753"]Volker: You are aware that you can detach the help mode in Qt Creator? It is in Tools->Options->Help, set "On context help" to external and you have a separate help window.[/quote]

No, I wasn't. Thanks Tobias! Nonetheless I will continue using Assistant, as it has nice support for multiple tabs :-)

andre · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 16:57

Tobias: true, that's possible, but personally I like Qt Assistant's tabs more than I like QtCreators way of dealing with multiple pages and the way you need two mouseclicks to switch from the index to the contents or the bookmarks.

tobias.hunger · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 17:01

I just use Qt Creaotr with the default help setup and use F1 or "Ctrl-K" to open the locator and then type "? QSomething" to search what I need to know. No mouse required at all:-)

BlackDante · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 18:54

I'm too almost always use Qt Assistant :) and I like reading books, but only a paper books, I don't like books in pdf unlees pdf is opened in another monitor and I don't have to switch windows to reading and coding :)

DenisKormalev · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 19:10

For most part of time I'm using Assistant (as individual app or inside QtCreator). But sometimes while I'm google for some complicated problem I find myself somewhere inside online docs :)

ucomesdag · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 19:39

Never used Assistant, I always used the online docs until Qt Creator :)

Wolf P. · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 21:31

When working in Creator, I use the offline version. When googling the online docs.

BTW: If there were links to the online version embedded in the offline docs, this would help much.

goetz · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 21:39

Hm, I can't imagine how this could work properly. All the links in Assistant are for internal content...

Wolf P. · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 21:49

The link shoud explicitely marked as online, something "linkable URL to the online version of this page" - from my point of view, the offline docs are equivalent to the online ones, aren't they?

Zlatomir · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 22:02

Well i use mostly the online documentation, but i don't know how the build-in search works because i use google to search topics and then the documentation is pretty well organized (has links to inherited_by-inherits classes and other goodies)

Also another reason i use google to search for online documentation/content is that it finds the documentation site and, in most of the cases, it also can find discussions on QtDN or "qtcentre":http://www.qtcentre.org (i learned a lot about Qt from there).

Panke · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 22:07

I'm using the help in Qt Creator. When Konqueror is open and I want to know something about a particular class, qt <classname-here> does it as well.

sfilippidis · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 22:13

I mainly use the online documentation.

DenisKormalev · wrote on 11 Jan 2011, 22:42

Oh, forgot also about krunner in kde. It is helpful sometimes.

parancibia · wrote on 12 Jan 2011, 00:26

My first option is F1 on Qt Creator, for everything else Qt Assistant

? This user is from outside of this forum · wrote on 12 Jan 2011, 11:33

Assistant +1
Forum +1
Book -1 (proven sleep catalyst)

qtrahul · wrote on 12 Jan 2011, 13:03

I always read the help section of Qt Creator.(Main INDEX style is best).

When I need more content of particular topic at that time I prefer online documents.

talmage · wrote on 22 Feb 2011, 01:08

I use the help in QtCreator. When I search for help, I usually search online. By reading this thread just now, I learned that I can launch QtCreator's Offline Help in a separate window and how to search it.

I wish I had printouts for QtMobility. I wish I had more examples, too. For Qt, I have Blanchette & Summerfeld's C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4.