Well, just in time for WWDC, we have decided to put another alpha release of Cocoa out today. Even though we have had snapshots available for a while and we still are a long way from being complete, we thought it might be nice to let others give it a shot. In addition we also are providing a 64-bit binary version, we would have had 32-bit in as well, but ran into an issue when building, so there is only 64-bit available. These will replace any other Qt binary package, so handle with care.
Here’s what I can remember that has changed since the last alpha:
- QWidget::setMask() works
- Drag and drop now works
- support for sheets and drawers
- A new way of working with dialogs (QDialog::open()) that makes it easier to make
window-modal dialogs (sheets) on all platforms, specialized versions available for
QFileDialog, QColorDialog, and QFontDialog. - Contains changes that are part of Qt 4.4.0.
- QTKit backend for Phonon (partial support).
- Tablet support
- Preliminary support for unified toolbars.
- The package should build in run and both 32- and 64-bit.
- Fixes for mouse event handling and popups
- Fixes for positioning windows on screen
What’s not working and we are aware of them (some of these are still from the last alpha, but weren’t mentioned then, but they are still broken). Most we plan on fixing (or in the case of NSApplication, minimizing chances of that happening).
- Widgets that use QFocusFrame for displaying the focus halo will not be “clickable,” but you can still interact with them with the keyboard. This includes widgets like QLineEdit, QTreeView, QSpinBox, etc. If you need to test things, you can temporarily set the Qt::WA_MacShowFocusRect attribute
- Networking
- Accessibility
- Input Methods
- Most keyboard shortcuts do not work
- Designer will not run with all its plugins, even with plugins removed, it will not work properly. Please use a released version of Designer to edit your forms.
- Widgets that contain a QFontComboBox will currently take a long time to show the first time.
- We are using a NSApplication subclass for tablet events and a NSApplication delegate for handling some events. If combining this with an application that already has an NSApplication subclass, you will not get all tablet proximity events, if you are using an NSApplication delegate, Qt will not be able to use its delegate and some events like window activates may not be delivered as QEvents.
So, in between all the other Mac-related buzz, don’t be (too) afraid to give this alpha a download and see how it goes.
8 Responses to “Second Cocoa Alpha Released”
Waiting in line at WWDC… so I’m trying it now 
Thanks!
Heh. That is probably the best use of time I’ve heard :-D. Feel free to let me know if you find anything.
Thanks. Sounds great! I’ll give it a try this afternoon.
I submitted this as a feature request a while ago. Will there be any progress on using static QMessageBox methods (e.g., QMessageBox::warning) as sheets? I’m encouraged by the QDialog::open item above.
Geoff, I’m not sure if we are changing the static message Box methods. There are already enough parameters already. I was more upset we forgot to include informative text, which would have made for much nicer boxes. The new methods encourage objects over static functions in general. it really is a line or two more than the static functions, but is usually more readable.
Wonderful!
For source, do we continue to use the snapshots, or is there a source tarball for this alpha2 release?
Boyd: Hmm… there should have been source packages as well. But, you are right, the press release didn’t mention the sources. I’ll contact the powers that be and ask them what’s up. If you are in a hurry, the snapshot package should work too, they just don’t have the proper “preview” license.
Thanks much!
I see ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/snapshots/qt-mac-cocoa-opensource-src-4.4.1-snapshot-20080610.tar.gz is online now!
Boyd, Trenton: The source packages are up now.