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Qt Object Model

The standard C++ Object Model provides very efficient runtime support of the object paradigm. On the negative side, its static nature shows inflexibility in certain problem domains. Graphical User Interface programming is one example that requires both runtime efficiency and a high level of flexibility. Qt provides this, by combining the speed of C++ with the flexibility of the Qt Object Model.

Qt adds these features to C++:

Many of these Qt features are implemented with standard C++ techniques, based on inheritance from QObject. Others, like the object communication mechanism and the dynamic property system, require the Meta Object System provided by Qt's own Meta Object Compiler (moc).

The Meta Object System is a C++ extension that makes the language better suited for true component GUI programming. Although templates can be used to extend C++, the Meta Object System provides benefits using standard C++ that cannot be achieved with templates; see Why doesn't Qt use templates for signals and slots?.


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Qt version 3.0.0-beta3