PySide

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Revision as of 03:04, 12 May 2020 by Vocx (talk | contribs) (→‎Real examples of PySide use: Documentation section. The PySide documentation refers to the Python-style classes; however, since Qt is originally a C++ library, the same information should be available in the corresponding C++ reference.)
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Introduction

PySide is a Python binding of the cross-platform graphical user interface (GUI) toolkit Qt. FreeCAD uses PySide for all GUI purposes inside of Python.

In the past, FreeCAD used PyQt as its binding, but in 2013 (1dc122dc9a) the project eventually migrated to PySide because it has a more permissible licence. See Differences Between PySide and PyQt for more information on these two bindings.

Examples created with PySide. Left: a simple dialog. Right: a more complex dialog with graphs.

PySide in FreeCAD with Qt5

FreeCAD was developed to be used with Python 2 and Qt4. As these two libraries became obsolete, FreeCAD transitioned to Python 3 and Qt5. In most cases this transition was done without needing to break backwards compatibility.

Normally, the PySide module provides support for Qt4, while PySide2 provides support for Qt5. However, in FreeCAD, there is no need to use PySide2 directly, as a special PySide module is included to handle Qt5.

This PySide module is located in the Ext/ directory of an installation of FreeCAD compiled for Qt5.

/usr/share/freecad/Ext/PySide

This module just imports the necessary classes from PySide2, but places them in the PySide namespace. This means that in most cases the same code can be used with both Qt4 and Qt5, as long as it imports PySide.

PySide2.QtCore -> PySide.QtCore
PySide2.QtGui -> PySide.QtGui
PySide2.QtSvg -> PySide.QtSvg
PySide2.QtUiTools -> PySide.QtUiTools

The only unusual aspect is that the PySide2.QtWidgets classes are placed in the PySide.QtGui namespace.

PySide2.QtWidgets.QCheckBox -> PySide.QtGui.QCheckBox

Real examples of PySide use

The examples of PySide are divided into 3 parts, differentiated by level of exposure to PySide, Python and the FreeCAD internals. The first page has an overview on PySide; the second and third pages are mostly code examples at different levels.

It is expected that these examples are useful to get started, and afterwards the user can consult other resources online, or the official documentation.

Documentation

There are some differences in handling of widgets in Qt4 (PySide) and Qt5 (PySide2). The programmer should be aware of these incompatibilities, and should consult the official documentation if something doesn't seem to work as expected in a given platform. Nevertheless, Qt4 is considered obsolete, so most development should target Qt5 and Python 3.

The PySide documentation refers to the Python-style classes; however, since Qt is originally a C++ library, the same information should be available in the corresponding C++ reference.

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