I have seen references to all three of these applications on various parts of the Qt website but am completely unclear as to the exact differences between them and whether they are actually separate things or just different names for the same thing, or the name changed over time? Or is one no longer supported? What's the deal with these?
Qt Creator is Qt's IDE. You don't have to use it, but it greatly simplifies Qt development.
Qt Designer is a graphical tool that lets you build QWidget GUIs. Qt Quick Designer is similar, but for building QML GUIs. Both are built in to Qt Creator.
This is explained in a little more detail over at Wikipedia.
I will explain to you the difference between these tools by the approach for what they are used:
Qt Designer: Sub tool used to create/edit widget files (.ui). You can use it to create the graphical layouts (.ui files only). The most use is to design the graphical stuff in PyQt apps. It is installed always when you install Qt, for example it is in the path: Qt5.13.1\5.13.1\mingw73_64\bin\designer.exe. It also be used to edit any .ui file of a Qt C++ application, however it is very limited since only allows to edit the graphical stuff (not C++ logic).
Qt Quick Designer (it refers to Qt Creator): It does not exist, it is integrated in Qt Creator (see below). Is normal to say that Qt Quick Designer allows to edit QML files (.qml), however it is integrated in Qt Creator now.
Qt Creator: This is the so defacto and most powerfull IDE to create QT applications natively (C++ with Qt engine). It allows you to create, edit source code, debug applications, etc. In addition to that, yo can open a .ui file or a .qml file in Qt Creator and it will open and allow you to edit. For example if you open an .ui file it will show you the Qt Designer app embedded in the full integrated Qt Creator IDE. In summary, you can use Qt Creator to open/edit any .ui or .qml file and create Qt/C++ applications. Of course, if the file is .ui then Qt Creator will show you the Qt Designer tool, if it is .qml then it will allow you to edit the QML.
Qt Creator is just an IDE used to build QT applications; both Qt Widgets and Qt Quick can be composed. When writing Qt Widgets applications you can edit your GUI in Qt Designer but in case of Qt Quick applications you use Qt Quick Designer, both integrated into Qt Creator.
Also there is this new tool name Qt Design Studio which uses QML too and can integrate with Photoshop.
Easy way : Qt Creator (Editor with intellisence, autocomplete and Manual, etc + Graphical designer + Debug symbols + templates.) all for you...
Medium way : Qt Creator (Editor without designer, handcoding, intellisence, autocomplete, etc).
Medium-hard way : Any plain text editor + Qt Designer (to prototype your interface). This is my favorite way, I like Vim
Hard way : Any plain text editor..... you know.
Related
I need to add some huge classes (non-GUI) that use CString, CArray etc. to my Qt project on Windows, but I am not sure how to use MFC outside of Visual Studio, via Qt Creator QMake (with VS 2017 compiler).
What libraries do I need to link for that?
I found some examples for CMake that use built-in CMAKE_MFC_FLAG but not much information about QMake.
I want to ask if there are any good GUI designers for Qt that work with PySide beside QtCreator because it's huge. But I think that every will work with PySide, as it don't have to generate python3 code but just .ui file.
Yes, there is Qt Designer, which is part of the Qt toolkit itself.
(NB: Depending on your platform, you may need to install some extra packages to use it).
I am new in Qt framework and now, I want to create an app which supports multi-language display. I known there is a way to do: Qt Linguist. I searched, and archieved some information about lupdate, lrelease ... But I just have Qt Creator IDE, how can I run or compile lupdate, lrelease ???
How can I create *.ts file ?
Please give me some code example or guide to do. (I often use Qt Designer to create GUI)
As far as i know, there is no option in QtCreator to use QtLinguist - you have to do it manually. Here you have an excellent documentation about how to do it. I have learned from there also.
Questions:
Is Qt Creator built with Qt Creator?
Similarly, is Qt Designer built with Qt Designer?
BTW, why are there two Qt IDEs? Are they competitors? Which one should I use? I am using Creator.
What is Qt SDK? I am asking this because the Qt Designer & Creator 2.2.1 and Qtmake 4.7.4 that I installed thro ubuntu 11.10 s/w centre does not work. The build menu is all greyed out.
When I downloaded the latest QtSDK (2.3.1/4.7.4) into a separate installation into /opt/QtSDK, both the ubuntu sanctioned installation and the /opt/QtSDK would work as expected.
Why did my ubuntu sanctioned installation not work without the SDK? What does the SDK do?
This one is for Ubuntu enthusiasts - Qt IDE requires the SDK to work, and yet ubuntu released both Creator/Designer without checking if they work first? There is no QtSDK installation item in s/w centre. Is that intentional, or a procedural bug?
After I build my desktop app (I am building a tabbed file explorer) on Linux, what steps do I need to make to have it running on Windows 7/Vista? Will I rebuild on a windows version of Qt Creator?
I also notice that Qt Creator code generation is not perfect. It would forget to include some Qt library files in the auto-generated code, and I had to correct that manually.
Is Qt Creator built with Qt Creator?
I believe so.
That doesn't mean that everyone who works on Qt has to use it - just that I believe that lots of people do.
I don't work for any of the companies that have produced Qt, but my reasoning is:
A Google search for "dogfooding qt creator" brings up plenty of hits, including this comment from November 2010:
We’re also “dogfooding” by releasing complex apps like Qt Creator and the Ovi Suite on the desktop ports of Qt
They've put a massive amount of effort into Qt Creator over the last few years. It's hard to imagine that being worthwhile, unless they used it themselves
At recent Qt Developer Days, Qt Developers have spoken really enthusiastically about Qt Creator
Similarly, is Qt Designer built with Qt Designer?
Yes. A look at the Qt Designer source code shows plenty of .ui (Designer) files.
Why are there two Qt IDEs? Are they competitors? Which one should I use? I am using Creator.
When you edit .ui files insiide Qt Creator, you are still running Qt Designer: it's simply showing the Designer window inside Creator, for convenience.
What is Qt SDK? ... What does the SDK do?
Qt SDK is just a convenient way to download all the Qt tools in one go. You don't have to use it.
This one is for Ubuntu enthusiasts ... Is that intentional, or a procedural bug?
Sorry - no idea. It's hard to imagine it being intentional though.
After I build my desktop app (I am building a tabbed file explorer) on Linux, what steps do I need to make to have it running on Windows 7/Vista? Will I rebuild on a windows version of Qt Creator?
You will need to install Qt on a Windows PC, and then build your source code in it.
You can either do that by using Qt Creator and the Windows compiler it includes (mingw) or you can use another compiler, if you have one, e.g. Visual Studio.
I also notice that Qt Creator code generation is not perfect. It would forget to include some Qt library files in the auto-generated code, and I had to correct that manually.
If you've used any non-Qt classes in arguments to signals and slots, then this answer may help you there.
I want to create a gui, if it means implementing the code, where do I implement the code? And how to run the qtdesigener?
You can use Qt Designer, or Qt Creator which is a full developement environment (IDE) not just a GUI designer. Visit this site http://qt.nokia.com/products/developer-tools
Each window or widget in Qt generally is defined in 3 files:
some_name.ui - this file is generated by Qt Designer or Qt creator.
some_name.h - this is the C++ header file that contains Class declaration
some_name.cpp - this file contains C++ class implementation
some_name ofourse is the name of your widget/window.
When You add new windows/widgets to your Qt project you have to modify Your *.pro file which contains information on how to build your project.
The following tutorial shows a hello world in qt creator:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLT7oEt6gLE
I hope this is what you were looking for.