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/****************************************************************************
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**
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** Qt/Mac documentation
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**
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** Copyright (C) 2002-2008 Trolltech ASA. All rights reserved.
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**
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** This file is part of the TQt GUI Toolkit.
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**
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** This file may be used under the terms of the GNU General
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** Public License versions 2.0 or 3.0 as published by the Free
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** Software Foundation and appearing in the files LICENSE.GPL2
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** and LICENSE.GPL3 included in the packaging of this file.
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** Alternatively you may (at your option) use any later version
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** of the GNU General Public License if such license has been
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** publicly approved by Trolltech ASA (or its successors, if any)
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** and the KDE Free TQt Foundation.
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**
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** Please review the following information to ensure GNU General
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** Public Licensing requirements will be met:
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** http://trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/opensource/.
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** If you are unsure which license is appropriate for your use, please
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** review the following information:
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** http://trolltech.com/products/qt/licenses/licensing/licensingoverview
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** or contact the sales department at sales@trolltech.com.
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**
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** This file may be used under the terms of the Q Public License as
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** defined by Trolltech ASA and appearing in the file LICENSE.QPL
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** included in the packaging of this file. Licensees holding valid Qt
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** Commercial licenses may use this file in accordance with the Qt
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** Commercial License Agreement provided with the Software.
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**
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** This file is provided "AS IS" with NO WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
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** INCLUDING THE WARRANTIES OF DESIGN, MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR
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** A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. Trolltech reserves all rights not granted
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** herein.
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**
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**********************************************************************/
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/*!
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\page qtmac-as-native.html
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\title Qt/Mac is Mac OS X Native
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This document explains what makes an application "native" on Mac OS X.
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It shows the areas where Qt/Mac is compliant, and the grey areas where
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compliance is more questionable. (See also the document
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\link mac-differences.html Qt/Mac Issues\endlink.)
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Normally when referring to a native application, one really means an
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application that talks directly to the underlying window system and
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operating system, rather than one that uses some intermediary (for
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example the X11 server, or a web browser). Qt/Mac applications run as
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first class citizens, just like Cocoa, Java, and Carbon applications.
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When an application is running as a first class citizen it means that
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it can interact with specific components of the Mac OS X experience:
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\list
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\i <b>The global menubar</b><br>
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Qt/Mac does this via the QMenuBar abstraction. Mac users expect to
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have a menubar at the top of the screen and Qt/Mac honors this.
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Additionally, users expect certain conventions to be respected, for
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example the application menu should contain About, Preferences,
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Quit, etc. Qt/Mac handles this automatically, although it does not
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provide a means of interacting directly with the application menu.
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(By doing this automatically, Qt/Mac makes it easier to port Qt/Mac
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applications to other platforms.)
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\i <b>Aqua</b><br>
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This is a critical piece of Mac OS X (documentation can be found at
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\l{http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/index.html}).
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It is a huge topic, but the most important guidelines for GUI
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design are probably these:
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\list
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\i \e{Aqua look}<br>
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As with Cocoa/Carbon Qt/Mac provides widgets that look like
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those described in the Human Interface Descriptions. Qt/Mac's
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widgets use the Appearance Manager to implement the look, so
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Apple's own API's are doing the rendering (Qt/Mac \<3.1 used an
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emulation style with pixmaps, however this quickly proved to be
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cumbersome, and unable to keep up with style changes at Apple).
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\i \e{Aqua feel}<br>
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This is a bit more subjective, but certainly Qt/Mac strives to
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provide the same feel as any Mac OS X application (and we
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consider situations where it doesn't achieve this to be bugs).
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Of course TQt has other concerns to bear in mind, especially
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remaining multiplatform. Some "baggage" that TQt carries is in
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an effort to provide a widget on a platform for which an
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equivelant doesn't exist, or so that a single API can be used to
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do something, even if the API doesn't make entire sense for a
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specific widget (for example pushbuttons with a popup menu are
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really bevel buttons in Mac OS X, but Qt/Mac cannot guess that
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this bevel button is right next to other real pushbuttons).
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\i \e{Aqua guides}<br>
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This is the most subjective, but there are many suggestions and
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guidelines in the Aqua style guidelines. This is the area where
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Qt/Mac is of least assistance. The decisions that must be made
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to conform (widget sizes, widget layouts with respect to other
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widgets, window margins, etc) must be made based on the user
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experience demanded by your application. If your user base is
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small or mostly comes from the Windows or Unix worlds, these are
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minor issues much less important than trying to make a mass
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market product. Qt/Mac is fully API compatible with Qt/Windows
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and Qt/X11, but Mac OS X is a significantly different platform
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to Windows and some special considerations must be made based on
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your audience.
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\endlist
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\i <b>Dock</b><br>
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Interaction with the dock is limited, but at the very least the icon
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should be able to be interacted with. This can be achieved with
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QWidget::setIcon(). The setIcon() call can be made as often as
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necessary, so can be used to provide a constantly updating pixmap
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that works as expected.
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\i <b>Accessiblity</b><br>
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Although many users never use this, some users will only interact
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with your applications via assistive devices. With TQt the aim is to
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make this automatic in your application so that it conforms to
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accepted practice on its platform (X11 accessiblity support is
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still in the works due to the developing nature of its
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accessibility design). With TQt 3.3 Qt/Mac will support
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accessiblity, and hopefully a host of assistive devices.
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\i <b>Build tools</b><br>
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Mac OS X developers expect a certain level of interopability
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between their development toolkit and the platform's developer
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tools (for example MSVC, gmake, etc). Qt/Mac supports both Unix
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style Makefiles, and ProjectBuilder/Xcode project files by using
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the qmake tool. For example:
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\code
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qmake -spec macx-pbuilder project.pro
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\endcode
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will generate an Xcode project file from project.pro. With qmake
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you do not have to worry about rules for Qt's preprocessors (moc
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and uic) since qmake automatically handles them and ensures that
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everything necessary is linked into your application.
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TQt does not entirely interact with the development environment (for
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example plugins to set a file to 'mocable' from within the Xcode
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user interface). Trolltech is actively working on improving Qt's
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interoperability with various IDEs, so hopefully this will be
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supported soon.
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\endlist
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*/
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