[Qt-interest] best approach for a tool window

[Brad Howes]

On Sep 13, 2009, at 10:49 AM, Martin Schröer wrote:

> I was wondering what would be the best approach to implement a
> tool window in a fashion like seen in inkscape for example.
>
> ( Having a tool window being part of the main window,
> able to hide / show it - when it's shown, it occupies some
> space of the main area displaying the tools, if hidden, it is
> minimized to a kind of title bar using which it can be
> expanded )


I like the QToolBar and QMainWindow management of QToolButton objects,  
though it is somewhat limited when you try to use other QWidget  
widgets -- I have with sliders and checkboxes and regular buttons. I  
have not played with QDockWidget, but I think that that would get you  
closest to the Inkscape way of managing tool windows. For my own tool  
windows, I use the Qt::Tool  window attribute which looks great on Mac  
OS X, but has selection issues on Gnome/X11, so I just use  
Qt::WindowStaysOnTopHint instead. I use a QToolButton to toggle the  
visibility of the QDialog tool window, and my users appear to be happy  
with this approach.

I personally do not like the docking of Inkscape; I'd rather have the  
tool window float above the document, like Adobe. I also don't agree  
with multiple tool windows, one for each document. This makes the  
screen too cluttered. Perhaps I'm too biased towards Apple, Adobe way  
of doing things, but I find it the most productive for me.

Brad

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Brad Howes
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