Qt Book Download: C++ GUI Programming with Qt 4 Second Edition by Jasmin Blanchette and Mark Summerfield (Prentice Hall)

Let me tell you, this is my kind of book.  On page 3 it has this listing:

#include <QApplication>
#include <QLabel>

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
QApplication app(argc, argv);
QLabel *label = new QLabel(“Hello Qt!”);
label->show();
return app.exec();
}

This opens a popup window with a label in it.

Then on page 5, it says to show bigger text with “Hello” in italics and Qt in red, replace

QLabel *label = new QLabel(“Hello Qt!”);

with

QLabel *label = new QLabel(“<h2><i>Hello</i> <font color=red>Qt!</font></h2>”);

That’s right.  Labels can have HTML formatted text in them!

The next page shows 11 lines of code to create a button that exits the app when pushed.

When I first started reading this book while waiting for my dinner to arrive, I thought to myself, this Qt thing is right up my alley.  And this book is also right up my alley, the pragmatic, no nonsense introduction to a pragmatic, no-nonsense C++ application framework.  There’s a reason why it is required reading for new hires at Nokia….

Best of all, it’s FREE! Published under the Open Publication License, it is perfectly legal to distribute.  It’s currently hosted on the dcsoft.com website here:  download, but no guarantees if I will have to take it down if my bandwidth gets used up!    You can always download the torrent. But it’s such a good read, I recommend you purchase a hard copy.

Edit April 25, 2009:  The book’s source code is available for download from InformIt.