A Qt Blog

A new book on Qt 4 programming, Object-Oriented Programming and Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4 is available on the Suffolk University website (free registration required). Unlike many colleges, Suffolk still teaches object-oriented programming through the medium of C++ rather than Java, and Qt adds many of the advantages you gain by using Java (like cross-platform development). The book has much material on OOP concepts and covers the Qt container class library rather than the STL; it also covers Qt-specific topics like QObject, MOC, and the GUI classes. The text is to be published by Prentice Hall and this version is "in development". (Hat tip: Jacek at the Qt Centre Forum.)

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From KDE Dot News:

K.N has published a write-up of their appearance at the FOSDEM (Free & Open Source Developers' European Meeting) in Belgium over the weekend. Summaries of the talks (including one by RMS and several on Kubuntu and KOffice. Several links to photos of the event. (More: Raphael Langerhorst, Bram Schoenmakers, Sebastian Kuegler, Pascal Bleser.)

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From KDE Apps:

Version 0.5 of Piklab, an IDE for the PIC and dsPIC microcontrollers, has been released. This version adds a new XML-based project file format, support for the Small Device C Compiler (sdcc), a whole load of new supported devices, and more (changelog on KDE Apps page). Download location and instructions here, screenshots on homepage. Requires KDE 3.2 (according to home page; KDE 3.3 according to KDE Apps); for other requirements see download page.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 0.3 of Komparator, a KDE app for comparing and synchronising directories, has been released. This version adds a Russian translation and presets; there are also several bug fixes and user-interface improvements. A full Changelog file is in the source bundle. Requires KDE 3.4. Screenshots are on the KDE Apps page; downloads at Sourceforge here.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 1.1 of RLPlot, "a plotting program to create high quality graphs from data", has been released. It uses Qt 3 and can export SVG, WMG and EPS graphics. There is a screenshot on the KDE Apps site and a gallery of graphs produced here. Downloads (source, RPM, SRPM and Windows executable) here at SourceForge.

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At the QDevBlog, Brad Hughes writes of how he got Qt running on top of the event loop of GLib, the base library of GTK+, with the result that Qt and KDE apps may be able to make use of plugins for GTK/GNOME as well as Qt/KDE:

Yesterday, I got Qt running on top of the Glib main loop. By using the QAbstractEventDispatcher API, I was able to completely replace the entire event dispatching mechanism of a Qt 4 application with less than 600 lines of code. What does this mean? No integration; the scenario above is now possible, since Qt would already be running a Glib main loop. I can now write an extension to my programs with any toolkit I want. Even more attractive is the idea that I can now write a Qt based extension to any GTK+ or GNOME program. Just think… I could write a plugin for the GIMP or for Eclipse, I could use the asynchronous GNOME VFS API. I’m sure there are possibilities I haven’t even thought of yet. And that’s the whole point: the possibilities are endless.

Discussion at OSNews.

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From KDE Apps:

A new version of KRename, a KDE app for renaming a whole batch of files in one go, has been released (see announcement). This release "cleans up all makefiles and desktop files, updates the build system to the build system of KDE 3.5 and updates some translations (Swedish and Italian)"; it also fixes a bug which appeared when asterisks or curly braces were returned by plugins. The app integrates into Konqueror and Krusader and requires KDE 3.1. Source bundles (and SUSE 10 and FC3 RPMs) here. Three screenshots are on the KDE Apps page.

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From KDE Apps:

A first beta of version 0.3 of QTM, a MT / Wordpress blog management app (using XML-RPC) by the same author as the Catkin Blosxom client (and this blog), has been released. The app uses Qt 4.1 and enables the composition, formatting, previewing, saving to disk and retrieving, and posting of blog entries. Three screenshots, and a source .gz download, are available at the KDE Apps link above.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Fred Emmott has released version 0.3 of MKBot, an IRC bot (a channel management app which masquerades on an IRC channel as a member) which uses Qt4 for its GUI. It has a plug-in architecture, allowing plug-ins to be loaded and unloaded using .so files, and supports networks using the hybrid-ircd (like Freenode) and the unreal3 IRC daemon. Download (tar.bz2 bundle) and instructions are available on the home page.

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Trolltech has released version 4.1.1 of the Qt toolkit, a maintenance release which keeps backward compatibility with version 4.1.0. This release introduces support for embedding fonts in PDFs, resulting in smaller PDF file sizes; Qt-generated PDFs are also now readable by Ghostscript. There is a substantial number of minor improvements and bug fixes to all or nearly all aspects of the Qt system; full changelog here. Open source downloads: [Windows], [X11], [Mac]. Trolltech announcement here.

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KDE Dot News has posted an interview with Valgrind Author Julian Seward. The interview discusses (mostly) Valgrind's functionality and usefulness, OpenOffice's and KDE's use of it, and how the name was chosen.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:02 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.5.3 of cb2Bib, a tool for extracting bibliographic references from emails, journal websites and PDFs and is aimed at scientists and students, has been released. This version now features support for preparsing by external, user-defined scripts, and "a contributed regexp has been included". Single screenshot on homepage; downloads (source, Windows binary, source RPM, SUSE 10 RPM, FC4 RPM) here. Requires Qt 3. A

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A first release candidate of KBarcode version 2 has been released. KBarcode is a barcode printing app for KDE. I can't find any changelog for this release and the SF projects pages are down for maintenance, but SF downloads are open here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 6.2.18 of Maxemum TV-Guide, a KDE app for displaying TV schedules using the XMLTV format, has been released. This adds custom channel icons and a number of minor bug fixes. Can get listings for Australia, North America, Reunion, South Africa and several countries in Europe. Screenshots here, downloads at SourceForge here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:23 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A new version of wwWidgets, a set of widgets for Qt 3 which can be used in Qt Designer and are developed by Witold Wysota of Qt Centre fame, has been released. Version 0.3 adds wwCanvasView and wwListBoxNav, extensions to QCanvasView and QListBox respectively. Source bundle here.

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From KDE Apps:

A new development release of the KDE-based Basic development tool Gambas has been released. Version 1.9.25 adds two new modules, "gb.image" for "various effects on image objects" and gb.db.form, for displaying and editing database records automatically. Full changelog here. A link to screenshots (last one taken last July) is on the homepage; downloads for both stable (1.0.14) and development versions here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Newsforge has an article by Stephen Feller on the development of KDE 4, giving late 2006 as a likely time of release "though internal debate could push the release back to early 2007". The article discusses the new technologies being developed for KDE 4 (like Akonadi for PIM and Solid for hardware integration) and the rise in importance of SuperKaramba and widgets. (Discussion at OSNews.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The KDE project have just released their new localisation site, replacing their old internationalisation site (i18n.kde.org), now using the default KDE layout. The site contains instructions for localising KDE applications and documentation, and software for translators such as KDE's standard localisation app KBabel.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.14.1 of TreeLine, an app for storing any kind of information in a tree structure, has been released. New features include support for field prefixes and suffixes in exported XSLT files, and plugins now being able to open and close nodes. There are also two bug fixes and updated French and German translations. Screenshots here, download instructions here. Requires Qt 3 and PyQt (detailed requirements here).

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From KDE Dot News:

KDE e.V. has released its second quarterly report [PDF] covering the activities of KDE's legal body for the last three months. This quarter saw the first meeting of the new KDE e.V. board and of course the creation of the Technical Working Group. You can also find the first quarterly report [PDF] from October 2005 which includes a financial report. All long term contributors to KDE are encouraged to become a KDE e.V. member.

Also from K.N, the Mandriva Polish department has contributed over 100 files of documentation translations to the KDE Polish team.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A new version of Krusader, a Commander-style twin-pane file manager for KDE, has been released. New features include the viewer/editor being tabbed, support for writing to zip and tar archives, and new and updated translations. For full change list, screenshots, and a link to the source download, see KDE Apps link above. (Krusader home page may load for you; it won't for me at the moment.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.2.0 of Kst, a "real-time data viewing and plotting tool with basic data analysis functionality", has been released. This is a major release, featuring KstScript, an ECMAScript-based language (ie. similar to JavaScript) "capable of interacting with and extending Kst in virtually every way"; this version adds support for various new data formats including HEALPix. Download instructions here, screenshots here. Requires KDE/Qt 3.1.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 8:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.8.5 of kdbus, a D-BUS service browser for KDE, has been released. A preliminary user manual has been started, and the app "now listens for services joining or leaving the bus, and updates the GUI accordingly". Source bundle here, and a single screenshot can be found on the home page.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 12:17 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The SUSE Linux 10 Bible has been released (in the UK at least). It merits mention here because SUSE is the leading KDE-oriented Linux distro; it has, however, no material on Qt or KDE programming, or any other software development other than using vi and emacs and RPM package building. It contains detailed instructions on installing, using the YaST installer/configurator, working with files and at the bash prompt, and the RPM package system; there is a 220-page section on setting up network services, and a section on enterprise packages. It does not have much on desktop applications like OpenOffice.org, the GIMP and the like; it is a guide to using GNU/Linux itself for SUSE users.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 7:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.3.0 of QSvn, a Qt4-based Subversion client, has been released. This version adds the ability to cancel all SVN actions, context menus in the working-copy and file list views, and a switch to Qt 4.1 from 4.0. Three bug fixes are also listed. Full release notes here along with a link to a Windows installer; screenshots here; download instructions here.

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Trolltech have announced six dates for regional developer conferences this year, in cities across the US and Europe. The US cities listed are Chicago, Houston TX, Boston MA; in Europe: Cambridge, Paris and Hamburg. Pricing is $199 in the US and €199 in Europe. Speakers listed are Eirik Chambe-Eng, Matthias Ettrich, Andreas Hanssen, Marius Bugge-Monsen, Gunnar Sletta, Scott Collins, Jasmin Blanchette and Trenton Schulz. For full details, including schedule:

Trolltech - Trolltech Developer Days 2005

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:24 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A first beta of amaroK version 1.4 has been released. amaroK is a KDE-based media player which supports playlists and a number of different media formats. There is a massive number of changes and some bug fixes; see the KDE Apps page. Only source downloads are currently available; here is the bz2 source bundle (details here).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:29 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

The OpenOffice.org Quickstarter has been updated so that it works with version 2 of the free software office suite. The software works by loading parts of the suite into memory so that it starts faster when needed. The changelog says it has been completely rewritten. Requires KDE 3.1. GPL. Screenshots and downloads at the home page.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.2.0 of QSvn, a Qt-based client for Subversion, has been released. This version has been ported to Qt 4 and is now a standalone client which does not require the Subversion binary. Screenshots here, download location here. (Needless to say, this is not to be confused with KDEsvn which requires Qt 3 and KDE.)

Posted by Indigo Jo at 6:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

[Johan Thelin announces)[http://www.advogato.org/person/e8johan/diary.html?start=191) that the Independent Qt Tutorial has been updated for Qt 4. The new tutorial contains an introduction to C++ as used by Qt and to properties, signals and slots, and other Qt concepts, important Qt core classes, and to the Qt Designer tool and how to use objects produced with it.

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From KDE Dot News:

The first seven people to form a KDE technical working group have been elected by the members of the KDE e.V.. The names are David Faure (Konqueror author, currently at Klarälvdalens Datakonsult), Dirk Mueller (currently at SUSE/Novell), George Staikos, Gunnar Schmidt (of KDE Accessibility), Lubos Lunak (KWin maintainer), Stephan Kulow (works on KDE at SUSE) and Thiago Macieira (Troll). Full details and pictures at the link above.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 1.0.1 of KMyFirewall, a KDE app for setting up IPtables-based personal firewalls, has been released. This version fixes a number of bugs and adds support for several new protocols. Screenshots here and on the KDE Apps page; source download instructions and links here. Requires Qt and KDE 3.3, IPtables (at least) 1.2, and Linux 2.4 kernel or newer.

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Over at QDevBlog, Harald Fernengel has published an entry on distributing Qt-based Linux Standard Base 3.0-compliant binaries. This involves grabbing the LSB build environment from the LSB website; this includes a Qt-specific package. The entry includes instructions on building binaries and RPM packages.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:27 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.5.1 of Umbrello, a UML modelling app for KDE, has been released. The changelog (here, which is also the download location) lists ten bug fixes; one of them is the former lack of support for C++ "const" methods. Screenshots here. Requires KDE 3.4; comes with KDE 3.5.1.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Dot News:

Badopi, the Barcelona Linux user group, is organising a Spanish-language KDE event, "aKademy-es", which is to take place in the city, 3rd-5th March; full details here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:18 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.12.11 of K3b, the KDE app for burning CDs and DVDs, has been released. This version adds the ability to copy double-layer DVDs with less than 4.3Gb used to a single-layer DVD, and the use of .iso extensions instead of .img; there are also a number of bug fixes (see changelog on the KDE Apps page). Downloads here, screenshots here.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 1.1 of Tellico, a personal collections manager for KDE, has been released. A full list of feature updates since version 1.0.3, and fixes since the third pre-release, can be found here. Screenshots here, source download here, links to binaries are on the front of the home page. Requires Qt and KDE 3.2.

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From KDE Apps:

Texmaker version 1.3 has been released. Texmaker (not to be confused with TextMaker, a commercial non-Qt-based WP package from Softmaker in Nuremberg, Germany) is a Qt-based application for producing LaTeX documents. The present version has been updated to use pure Qt 4.1, removing reliance on the Qt3 support module; it also adds bookmarks to speed up navigation. Screenshots here, downloads (source, static Linux and Mac OS X binaries and Windows executables) here.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 0.9.1 of KBoincSpy has been released. KBoincSpy is a KDE client for the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, a distributed computing platform which "enables organizations who oversee scientific projects requiring extensive computing resources to easily set up and maintain a distributed computing infrastructure". According to the announcement:

This release focuses on reaching almost feature-parity with the latest BOINC client from Berkeley (the 5.x series). Among the new features: attach-to-project wizard, host and user statistics graph, web links. This version also features new translations in 8 languages.

A changelog can be found on the KDE Apps page. Downloads (several Linux distros, NetBSD, FreeBSD) here, screenshots here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 5:08 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.6 of Twinkle, a Qt-based VoIP app using the SIP protocol, has been released. This version adds custom ring tones, a system of scripts to handle incoming calls, and a substantial number of bug-fixes and feature improvements. Downloads here, screenshots here. Requires Qt 3.3, with other requirements shown on the home page.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:56 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 1.11 of KPersonalTrainer (no home page link supplied), a KDE app for keeping track of heart-rate monitor data, has been released. The new version fixes a bug which manifests itself when deleting or editing a non-existent exercise; version 1.1, released on Wednesday, "made some changes to the weekly reports dialog". Screenshot and source download at KDE Apps link above. Requires KDE 3.5.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 0.6.6 of Smb4K, a Windows share browser for KDE which uses Samba, has been released. This is entirely a bug-fix release; details at KDE Apps and at the homepage. Screenshots here, source downloads here.

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From KDE Apps:

Version 2.0 of KchmViewer has been released. This is a Windows help file viewer which depends on Qt 3, with optional KDE support. This version includes vastly improved localisation, gcc 4.1 support, and a number of usability improvements and bug fixes. Source download here, screenshots here.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:16 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

A new development version of Gambas, version 1.9.24, has been released. This version adds support for "big-endian" CPUs and a new instruction, PIPE, for named pipes. There are a number of other improvements and bug fixes, and the byte-code has changed, necessitating recompilation of projects (full changelog here). Latest stable version is 1.0.14. Downloads here, screenshots here; the homepage also has documentation. Requires Qt3, KDE3, PostgreSQL and MySQL to compile (binary packages may require less than that, though).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 10:52 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

From KDE Apps:

Version 0.6.1 of yaBi, a Beagle search interface for KDE, has been released. The new version fixes "a crash in snippet retrieval which also fixes a memory leak", and denies documentation and IM queries as there is currently no means of displaying them. Requires PyQt and PyKDE. Download and three screenshots are on the KDE Apps page (there is no link to a home page).

Posted by Indigo Jo at 9:44 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

My subscriber copy of Linux Magazine arrived today, so it should be in the shops in the next couple of days (magazines tend to be available in central London a day earlier than everywhere else, including the London suburbs). There is a feature on Klik, the software download system for Linux similar to the Mac's disk images; this is the only major Qt/KDE content. Other features include several scripting-related articles, one on using Linux to load movies on the PSP, and a test of Linux compatibility on popular laptops.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:39 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The first maintenance release of KDE 3.5 was issued yesterday. Version 3.5.1 contains more than 150 bug fixes and many other minor improvements; KDE Dot News mentions Konqueror, KMail, KPDF, Juk, Kopete, Kalzium and Quanta as packages which have received major improvements (full changelog here). The whole system can be built from source with Konstruct, and binaries are available for Kubuntu and no doubt more will follow.

Posted by Indigo Jo at 11:31 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)