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Qt 3.2 introduces new features as well as many improvements over the
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3.1.x series. This file gives an overview of the main changes since
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version 3.1.2. For more details, see the online documentation which
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is included in this distribution. The documentation is also available
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at http://qt.nokia.com/doc/
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The Qt version 3.2 series is binary compatible with the 3.1.x series.
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Applications compiled for 3.1 will continue to run with 3.2.
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New classes have been added to the Qt Library including a
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class to add splash screens to applications (QSplashScreen), a toolbox
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widget that provides a column of tabbed widgets (QToolBox), and a
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class to manage per-thread data storage (QThreadStorage).
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The SQL module received a fair bit of attention this time. The most
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notable improvements include a native IBM DB2 driver, complete support
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for stored procedures including the possibility to access
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out-parameters, and native support for 64 bit fields without having to
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convert to or from strings. We also added support for setting
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connection parameters. This way you can, for example, conveniently
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open an SSL connection to a MySQL or PostgreSQL database. If you need
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even more customization, e.g. for an Oracle database, you can set up
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the connection yourself and instantiate a Qt driver object on top of
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it. An extended SQL cursor class has been added that makes it more
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convenient to display result sets from general SQL queries
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(QSqlSelectCursor). QSqlDatabase::tables() is now capable to return
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tables, views and/or system tables. In addition, you can add custom
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database drivers without compiling them as plugins
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(see QSqlDatabase::registerSqlDriver()).
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QLineEdit, the one-line text editor, now supports validation input
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masks. The feature complements the previous QValidator concept and
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allows e.g. restriction of input to the IP address format (mask
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"990.990.990.990;_"), or to ISO date format (mask "0000-90-90;0").
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Qt's unicode code support has been extended. Most notably, full
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support for Indic scripts has been added, covering writing systems
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such as Devanagari, Tamil and Bengali. The group of right to left
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writing systems has been extended with support for Syriac. Both
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improvements are available on both Windows with Uniscribe installed,
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and on Unix/X11 when using XFT with OpenType fonts.
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All tool classes that support STL-like iterators with begin() and
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end(), contain two extra functions constBegin() and constEnd(). The
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const versions always return const iterators, and thus can be a little
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bit faster with Qt's implicitly shared containers.
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QPainter's complex drawText() function has been highly
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optimized. Despite its support for complex unicode scripts, it now
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performs better than its less unicode-capable counterpart in Qt 2.3.
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QPixmap now supports pixmaps with alpha channel (semi transparency) on
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all Windows versions except Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0.
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The print dialog now supports "selection" as a print range as well as
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the possibility to enable/disable all different printer options
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On Windows, the Qt installation includes a toolbar for Visual Studio.NET
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that provides an integration of the Qt tools (ie. Qt Designer) with the
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Many classes were improved; see the detailed overview that follows.
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Dialog handling has matured and has been extended since the
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extension's introduction in Qt 3.1. The documentation and code
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examples have been improved, including a walkthrough that covers the
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complete migration of a real-world Motif example to Qt. The process
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contains four intermediate steps where the application utilizes both
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Type handling has been extended on both the container and the server
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side. The new supported types are byte arrays and 64bit integers. The
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QAxServer module supports aggregation, as well as QObject subclasses as
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return and parameter types of slots, and allows error reporting through
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The Designer integration has been extended to support property dialogs
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implemented by the control server.
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Controls developed with ActiveQt support aggregation, which makes it
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possible to use them in containers that require this form of containment to
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be supported. ActiveQt also supports masked controls in containers that
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support this for window'ed controls.
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The popup menu editor has been rewritten. The new editor provides the
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the ability to add, edit and remove menus and menu items directly in
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the menubar and in the popup menu. Navigation and editing can be done
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using either the mouse or the keyboard.
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The property editor now allows editing of properties with or'd values
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Designer also supports the new QToolBox widget in a similar fashion to
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Profiles have been introduced to allow applications to extend the use
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of Qt Assistant as a help system. Profiles describe the documentation
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to use so that only application specific documentation will be
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referenced in an end user installation. Profiles also allow some
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customization of the look in Qt Assistant. For detailed information,
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see the helpdemo example in $QTDIR/examples/helpdemo.
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Profiles replace the content files and categories system. The
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following command line options are removed since they no longer serve
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any purpose: addContentFile, removeContentFile, category, and
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Qt Assistant has multiple tabs for browsing, therefore enabling
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multiple pages to be browsed without opening a new window.
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It is possible to specify a default home page.
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It is possible to specify a PDF reader so that urls to PDF files can
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be opened from Qt Assistant.
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Note: Qt 3.2 is the last version to officially support IRIX MIPSpro
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o32 and Sun CC 5.0. A script, $QTDIR/bin/qt32castcompat, is provided
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for 3.2 which needs to be run for these compilers.
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Users of the 3.2.0 beta releases please note: The QWidgetContainerPlugin
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interfaces was removed from the final release due to some serious issues.
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- QAction / QActionGroup
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Simplified constructors so that it is no longer necessary to
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specify texts for buttons and menu items separately.
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For action groups, we fixed the enable/disable behavior. If
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an action inside an action group is explicitly disabled, it is
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no longer implicitly enabled together with the group.
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This is identical to enabling/disabling widgets and their
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Added the aboutQt() slot for convenience.
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Added the new function, setArguments(), that invokes Qt
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Assistant in different modes.
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Added the new function, asVariant(), that passes a COM
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object through dynamicCall().
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Added the new function, reportError(), that sends error
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information to the ActiveX client.
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Added the new static function, colorNames(), that retrieves a
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list of all color names known to Qt.
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Now also supports QDir, QFileInfo, and QStringList.
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Now has long and ulong support for setAttribute() and
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Added the new properties: stretch and overline. Added the new
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function, resolve(), that copies unspecified attributes from
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Added a new overload for families() that restricts the
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returned list to fonts supporting a specific QFont::Script,
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e.g. QFont::Greek, QFont::Devanagari or QFont::Arabic.
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- QFontInfo / QFontMetrics
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Added new constructors that force the info and metrics objects
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to use a given QFont::Script.
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Added a new constructor that takes a QGLContext
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parameter. Makes the undocumented setContext() obsolete.
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Added getters for the sort indicator (sortIndicatorSection()
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and sortIndicatorOrder() ).
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Added a new overload for save() that writes to a given
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Added tristate support to check list items
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(QCheckListItem::setTristate()). Added the new function,
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setSelectionAnchor(), to set the list view's selection anchor
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Added input masks: setInputMask(), inputMask(), and
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hasAcceptableInput(). Added new function selectionStart()
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which returns the index of the first selected character in the
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Added customizable focus rectangle policy.
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Added the new static function, question(), that complements
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the existing information(), warning() and fatal() functions.
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- QMotifDialog [Qt Motif Extension]
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Now has two distinct modes of operation: 1) it allows a Motif
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dialog to have a Qt parent, and 2) it allows a Qt dialog to have
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Better support for MySQL/embedded.
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Added the new function, remove(), to explicitly remove a
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pixmap from the cache.
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Added the new functions: setPrintRange(), printRange(),
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setOptionEnabled(), and optionEnabled(). For Windows only,
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added the new function, setWinPageSize(), that allows setting
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DEVMODE.dmPaperSize directly.
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Added STL-like iterators with begin(), end(), and erase().
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Maintains a user defined size policy when the direction
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- QSplashScreen [new]
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This new widget class provides a splash screen to be shown
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during application startup.
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Added the new properties: opaqueResize, childrenCollapsible,
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Added a couple of convenience functions: text(), which returns
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the concatenated database and driver texts. showMessage(),
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which will pop up a QMessageBox with the text that text()
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Added overloads for the bindValue() call which makes it
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possible to specifiy what role a bound value should have: In,
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- QSqlSelectCursor [new]
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This new QSqlCursor subclass provides browsing of general SQL
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Added overloaded tables() call which can return tables, views
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and/or system tables.
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Calling tables() with no arguments will only return table names,
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instead of table and view names as in Qt 3.1.
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The new tables() call in QSqlDatabase can be used to get
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table and/or view names.
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Added 64 bit support. Added the new functions: multiArg(),
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reserve(), capacity(), squeeze(). Added case insensitive
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overloads for startsWith() and endsWidth().
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Added the new function gres().
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Added support for toolbox, header, MDI frame, table grid line
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color, line edit password character, and message box question.
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Added the new function, currentParagraph().
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Added support for custom widgets to be placed beside
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the tab bar: setCornerWidget() and cornerWidget().
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In Log mode, added the new functions: setMaxLogLines() and
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maxLogLines(). Implemented insertAt() for LogText mode.
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- QThreadStorage [new]
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This new tool class provides per-thread data storage, also
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referred to as thread local storage or TLS.
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This new widget class provides a column of tabbed widgets, one
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above the other, with the current page displayed below the
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Added support for LongLong and ULongLong.
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Added a new widget flag, WNoAutoErase, that combines the now
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obsolete WResizeNoErase and WRepaintNoErase flags.