Auto hide docking windows, VS-like window docking (docking targets)

**burn2themax** · 14th August 2006, 15:55

Is there any Qt4 implementation for auto-hiding tool windows and the window-docking mechanisms introduced in Visual Studio 2005?

So that everybody knows what I mean, here are a few links:
- Codejock DockingPane (implementation for MFC)
http://www.codejock.com/products/dockingpane/tour_3.asp
- "Tool Window Docking" (msdn blog)
https://blogs.msdn.com/saraford/arch...14/132065.aspx

Will such features be integrated in forthcoming versions of Qt?

Hope to get valuable suggestions.

**e8johan** · 15th August 2006, 11:39

Something like this you mean? http://www.kdedevelopers.org/node/2202

**burn2themax** · 16th August 2006, 09:52

Yes, partly.

As far as I understand this preview, only the "toolbox" functionality is already available. The missing parts are "auto hiding" and the "window docking" feature as seen in Visual Studio 2005.

Do you know, whether these cool things will be implemented in Qt4.2, too?
Or, are there any extensions/toolkits, where such functionality is ready to use?

**gfunk** · 16th August 2006, 18:39

Not a spokesperson for Qt, but I highly doubt it. Until more than one platform starts to support it, they won't have much instantly native code to rely on, and so they'd have to come up with a lot of code from scratch. But really it's probably more that it's a waste of time for them -- there's probably a zillion different GUI widgets that they could try to pursue on each of the various platforms, where do you draw the line? Their focus has mostly been to be cross platform, and find elements in common between platforms and facilitate those.

**Chicken Blood Machine** · 16th August 2006, 18:54

Originally Posted by gfunk

Not a spokesperson for Qt, but I highly doubt it. Until more than one platform starts to support it, they won't have much instantly native code to rely on, and so they'd have to come up with a lot of code from scratch. But really it's probably more that it's a waste of time for them -- there's probably a zillion different GUI widgets that they could try to pursue on each of the various platforms, where do you draw the line? Their focus has mostly been to be cross platform, and find elements in common between platforms and facilitate those.

You're kind of right in that Trolltech focus on providing a good selection of common platform widgets. However, as for relying on 'instantly native code', Qt is mostly an emulation toolkit and therefore implements all of the controls that it provides from scratch. The only real exceptions are file/directory dialogs and font and color dialogs (on some platforms).

The current Qt docking architecture is implemented solely in Qt and does not make use of any native APIs. If the new MS docking model proves to be popular, there's every chance that a third party _may_ implement it in Qt (there's no technical reason that it's wouldn't be possible).

**gfunk** · 16th August 2006, 19:00

If the new MS docking model proves to be popular, there's every chance that a third party _may_ implement it in Qt (there's no technical reason that it's wouldn't be possible).

And at least they'd already have a customer in burn2themax. And looks like codejock even charges $200 just for one license of that docking pane code. This wouldn't be a bad sidejob...!!