[Interest] Any idea why QAbstractItemView::selectedIndexes() is protected?

[K. Frank]

Hi André!

Thank you for the reply and the pointer to QItemSelectionModel.

On Tue, Jul 3, 2012 at 2:06 AM, André Somers <andre at familiesomers.nl> wrote:
> Op 3-7-2012 1:17, K. Frank schreef:
>> Hi List!
>>
>> I'm wondering why QAbstractItemView::selectedIndexes() is protected,
>> rather than public.
>> ...
> I don't know exactly, but the public API for manipulating selections is
> QItemSelectionModel. I think the method is there for the convenience of
> view implementors, but I am not sure. I could imagine it being handy for
> normal users as well. On the other hand: it does not save you much over
> using the QItemSelectionModel.

Yes, QItemSelectionModel looks quite full-featured, so it's probably
the way to go in general.

I must admit, I'm not really getting the design philosophy behind Qt's
model / view framework.

For example, QItemSelectionModel gets attached to a model (not a
view) via its constructor:

   QItemSelectionModel ( QAbstractItemModel * model )

But from its documentation:

   The QItemSelectionModel class keeps track of a view's selected
   items.

   A QItemSelectionModel keeps track of the selected items in a view,
   or in several views onto the same model. It also keeps track of the
   currently selected item in a view.

To me the selection seems very view-ish, so I find myself a little
surprised that it's mixed up with the model.

Maybe I don't properly understand where Qt draws the boundary
between model and view.  This is not the first instance where my
intuition suggests that something is view-ish, but Qt puts it in the
model.

> André

Thanks for your insights.


K. Frank