Why use * ?

[brcain]

The Qt Tutorial address memory management issues ... concerning Qt widgets.

From the Qt Tutorial -- Chapter 4

"Note that quit is a local variable in the constructor. MyWidget does not keep track of it; Qt does, and will automatically delete it when the MyWidget object is deleted. This is why MyWidget doesn't need a destructor. (On the other hand, there is no harm in deleting a child when you choose to. The child will automatically tell Qt about its imminent death.)"

MyWidget::MyWidget(QWidget *parent)
        : QWidget(parent)
{
   ...
   QPushButton *quit = new QPushButton(tr("Quit"), this);
   quit->setGeometry(62, 40, 75, 30);
   quit->setFont(QFont("Times", 18, QFont::Bold));
   ...
}

MyWidget::MyWidget(QWidget *parent)
        : QWidget(parent)
{
   ...
   QPushButton *quit = new QPushButton(tr("Quit"), this);
   quit->setGeometry(62, 40, 75, 30);
   quit->setFont(QFont("Times", 18, QFont::Bold));
   ...
}

To copy to clipboard, switch view to plain text mode 

[dublet]

Simple, use pointers when you need the object to stay in memory. Regular objects are created on the stack, and thus destroyed quite quickly.