An Introduction to Design Patterns in C++ with Qt 4

This book fills a void between the many syntax-oriented programming texts that teach readers how to program in C++ with standard I/O (e.g., Deitel) and the relatively few books that assume a knowledge of OOP/C++ and emphasize GUI programming using higher-level frameworks (e.g., Blanchette). There are plenty of books on C++ programming but, with few exceptions, the user interface is constrained to either primitive terminal I/O, or closed-source, non-portable libraries (e.g., Microsoft Foundation Classes).

This book makes extensive use of Nokia's excellent Qt system.Originally developed by Trolltech, Qt is a cross-platform C++ application framework developers can use to write single-source applications that run natively on Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X and embedded Linux. Qt has been used to build thousands of successful commercial applications worldwide, and is the basis of the open source KDE desktop environment. Most Linux distributions include a non-commercial version of Qt. In addition Qt is the basis for the standard Linux desktop, KDE and is used by more than an estimated 150,000 open source developers worldwide.

List of contents

Foreword     xv
Preface     xix
Preface to the Second Edition     xxii
Acknowledgments     xxv
About the Authors     xxx
Part I: Design Patterns and Qt 4     1
Chapter 1: C++ Introduction     3
1.1 Overview of C++     3
1.2 A Brief History of C++     4
1.3 C++ First Example     5
1.4 Standard Input and Output     8
1.5 Introduction to Functions     11
1.6 qmake, Project Files, and Makefile     17
1.7 Getting Help Online     24
1.8 Strings     24
1.9 Streams     26
1.10 File Streams     29
1.11 Qt Dialogs for User Input/Output     34
1.12 Identifiers, Types, and Literals     37
1.13 C++ Simple Types     40
1.14 The Keyword const     52
1.15 Pointers and Memory Access     54
1.16 Reference Variables     60
1.17 const* and *const     61
1.18 Review Questions     64
Chapter 2: Top of the class     67
2.1 First, There Was struct     67
2.2 Class Definitions     69
2.3 Member Access Specifiers     71
2.4 Encapsulation     74
2.5 Introduction to UML     75
2.6 Friends of a Class     76
2.7 Constructors     77
2.8 Destructors     80
2.9 The Keyword static     81
2.10 Class Declarations and Definitions     86
2.11 Copy Constructors and Assignment Operators     88
2.12 Conversions     92
2.13 const Member Functions     95
2.14 Subobjects     97
2.15 Exercise: Classes     98
2.16 Review Questions     108
Chapter 3: Introduction to Qt     113
3.1 Style Guidelines, Naming Conventions     114
3.2 The Qt Core Module     116
3.3 QtCreator-An IDE for Qt Programming     119
3.4 Exercises: Introduction to Qt     120
3.5 Review Questions     121
Chapter 4: Lists     122
4.1 Introduction to Containers     122
4.2 Iterators     123
4.3 Relationships     129
4.4 Exercise: Relationships     132
4.5 Review Questions     134
Chapter 5: Functions     135
5.1 Overloading Functions     135
5.2 Optional Arguments     138
5.3 Operator Overloading     141
5.4 Parameter Passing by Value     146
5.5 Parameter Passing by Reference     148
5.6 References to const     152
5.7 Function Return Values     154
5.8 Returning References from Functions     154
5.9 Overloading on const     155
5.10 inline Functions     158
5.11 Functions with Variable-Length Argument Lists     162
5.12 Exercise: Encryption     164
5.13 Review Questions     167
Chapter 6: Inheritance and Polymorphism     168
6.1 Simple Derivation     168
6.2 Derivation with Polymorphism     177
6.3 Derivation from an Abstract Base Class     184
6.4 Inheritance Design     189
6.5 Overloading, Hiding, and Overriding     191
6.6 Constructors, Destructors, and Copy Assignment Operators     193
6.7 Processing Command-Line Arguments     198
6.8 Containers     204
6.9 Managed Containers, Composites, and Aggregates     206
6.10 Containers of Pointers     210
6.11 Review Questions     228
Chapter 7: Libraries and Design Patterns     234
7.1 Building and Reusing Libraries     236
7.2 Exercise: Installing Libraries     244
7.3 Frameworks and Components     247
7.4 Design Patterns     248
7.5 Review Questions     257
Chapter 8: QObject, QApplication, Signals, and Slots     259
8.1 Values and Objects     263
8.2 Composite Pattern: Parents and Children     264
8.3 QApplication and the Event Loop     272
8.4 Q_OBJECT and moc: A checklist     274
8.5 Signals and Slots     275
8.6 QObject Lifecycle     277
8.7 QTestLib     277
8.8 Exercises: QObject, QApplication, Signals, and Slots     282
8.9 Review Questions     282
Chapter 9: Widgets and Designer     283
9.1 Widget Categories     284
9.2 Designer Introduction     286
9.3 Dialogs     290
9.4 Form Layout     292
9.5 Icons, Images, and Resources     295
9.6 Layout of Widgets     298
9.7 Designer Integration with Code     306
9.8 Exercise: Input Forms     313
9.9 The Event Loop: Revisited     314
9.10 Paint Events, Drawing Images     323
9.11 Review Questions     325
Chapter 10: Main Windows and Actions     326
10.1 QActions, QMenus, and QMenuBars     327
10.2 Regions and QDockWidgets     337
10.3 QSettings: Saving and Restoring Application State     339
10.4 Clipboard and Data Transfer Operations     341
10.5 The Command Pattern     343
10.6 tr() and Internationalization     351
10.7 Exercises: Main Windows and Actions     352
10.8 Review Questions     353
Chapter 11: Generics and Containers     355
11.1 Generics and Templates     355
11.2 Generics, Algorithms, and Operators     362
11.3 Sorted Map Example     365
11.4 Function Pointers and Functors     368
11.5 Flyweight Pattern: Implicitly Shared Classes     371
11.6 Exercise: Generics     375
11.7 Review Questions     376
Chapter 12: Meta Objects, Properties, and Reflective Programming     378
12.1 QMetaObject-The MetaObject Pattern     378
12.2 Type Identification and qobject_cast     380
12.3 Q_PROPERTY Macro-Describing QObject Properties     383
12.4 QVariant Class: Accessing Properties     386
12.5 Dynamic Properties     389
12.6 MetaTypes, Declaring, and Registering     394
12.7 invokeMethod()     396
12.8 Exercises: Reflection     397
12.9 Review Questions     397
Chapter 13: Models and Views     399
13.1 Model-View-Controller (MVC)     400
13.2 Qt Models and Views     402
13.3 Table Models     414
13.4 Tree Models     424
13.5 Smarter Pointers     429
13.6 Exercises: Models and Views     431
13.7 Review Questions     433
Chapter 14: Validation and Regular Expressions     434
14.1 Input Masks     435
14.2 Validators     438
14.3 Regular Expressions     440
14.4 Regular Expression Validation     449
14.5 Subclassing QValidator     451
14.6 Exercises: Validation and Regular Expressions     454
14.7 Review Questions     456
Chapter 15: Parsing XML     457
15.1 The Qt XML Parsers     460
15.2 SAX Parsing     462
15.3 XML, Tree Structures, and DOM     466
15.4 XML Streams     476
15.5 Review Questions     479
Chapter 16: More Design Patterns     481
16.1 Creational Patterns     481
16.2 Memento Pattern     491
16.3 Façade Pattern     498
16.4 Review Questions     505
Chapter 17: Concurrency     506
17.1 QProcess and Process Control     506
17.2 QThread and QtConcurrent     522
17.3 Exercises: QThread and QtConcurrent     536
17.4 Review Questions     537
Chapter 18: Database Programming     539
18.1 QSqlDatabase: Connecting to SQL from Qt     541
18.2 Queries and Result Sets     546
18.3 Database Models     548
18.4 Review Questions     549
Part II: C++ Language Reference     550
Chapter 19: Types and Expressions      552
19.1 Operators     553
19.2 Statements and Control Structures     557
19.3 Evaluation of Logical Expressions     564
19.4 Enumerations     565
19.5 Signed and Unsigned Integral Types     567
19.6 Standard Expression Conversions     570
19.7 Explicit Conversions     574
19.8 Safer Typecasting Using ANSI C++ Typecasts     574
19.9 Overloading Special Operators     581
19.10 Runtime Type Identification     587
19.11 Member Selection Operators     590
19.12 Exercises: Types and Expressions     592
19.13 Review Questions     594
Chapter 20: Scope and Storage Class     595
20.1 Declarations and Definitions     595
20.2 Identifier Scope     597
20.3 Storage Class     606
20.4 Namespaces     610
20.5 Review Questions     615
Chapter 21: Memory Access     617
21.1 Pointer Pathology     618
21.2 Further Pointer Pathology with Heap Memory     620
21.3 Memory Access Summary     623
21.4 Introduction to Arrays     624
21.5 Pointer Arithmetic     626
21.6 Arrays, Functions, and Return Values     627
21.7 Different Kinds of Arrays     629
21.8 Valid Pointer Operations     629
21.9 Arrays and Memory: Important Points     632
21.10 Exercises: Memory Access     633
21.11 Review Questions     634
Chapter 22: Inheritance in Detail     635
22.1 virtual Pointers, virtual Tables     635
22.2 Polymorphism and virtual Destructors     638
22.3 Multiple Inheritance     642
22.4 public, protected, and private Derivation     650
22.5 Review Questions     652
Part III: Programming Assignments     653
Chapter 23: MP3 Jukebox Assignments     655
23.1 Phonon/MultiMediaKit Setup     657
23.2 Playlist     657
23.3 Playlists     658
23.4 Source Selector     659
23.5 Database Playlists     661
23.6 Star Delegates     661
23.7 Sorting, Filtering, and Editing Playlists     661
Appendix A: C++ Reserved Keywords     662
Appendix B: Standard Headers     664
Appendix C: Development Tools     666
Appendix D: Alan's Quick Start Guide to Debian for Programmers     691
Appendix E: C++/Qt Setup     698
Bibliography     706
Index     709

About the author

Alan Ezust received his M.Sc in computer science from McGill University in Montreal. He currently works as a Nokia Certifi ed Qt Specialist for ICS (www.ics.com), a company that specializes in delivering training and professional services onQt software. He honed his teaching and courseware development skills at Learnix, and later at Objectivity, where he taught and/or wrote courses in Python, UNIX, C, C++, Java, Perl, Design Patterns, Froglogic Squish, and Object Oriented Databases. He lives in Victoria, BC, Canada.
 
Paul Ezust (Cambridge, Massachusetts) chaired Suffolk University's Department of Mathematics and Computer Science for more than 30 years, leading development of computer science curricula based on Association for Computing Machinery guidelines. He has done extensive outside consulting, contract programming, and research in computational mathematics.

Summary

This book fills a void between the many syntax-oriented programming texts that teach readers how to program in C++ with standard I/O (e.g., Deitel) and the relatively few books that assume a knowledge of OOP/C++ and emphasize GUI programming using higher-level frameworks (e.g., Blanchette). There are plenty of books on C++ programming but, with few exceptions, the user interface is constrained to either primitive terminal I/O, or closed-source, non-portable libraries (e.g., Microsoft Foundation Classes). 
 
This book makes extensive use of Nokia's excellent Qt system.Originally developed by Trolltech, "Qt is a cross-platform C++ application framework developers can use to write single-source applications that run natively on Windows, Linux, Unix, Mac OS X and embedded Linux. Qt has been used to build thousands of successful commercial applications worldwide, and is the basis of the open source KDE desktop environment." Most Linux distributions include a non-commercial version of Qt. In addition Qt is the basis for the standard Linux desktop, KDE and is used by more than an estimated 150,000 open source developers worldwide. 

Product details

• Authors: Ezust, Alan Ezust, Paul Ezust
• Publisher: Pearson Education
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 01.09.2011
• EAN: 9780132826457
• ISBN: 978-0-13-282645-7
• No. of pages: 768
• Dimensions: 182 mm x 238 mm x 44 mm
• Weight: 1364 g
• Series: Prentice Hall; Prentice Hall
• Subject: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > IT, data processing > Programming languages