Porting a C++ Application to Python

Qt for Python lets you use Qt APIs in a Python application. So the next question is: What does it take to port an existing C++ application? Try porting a Qt C++ application to Python to understand this.

Before you start, ensure that all the prerequisites for Qt for Python are met. See Getting Started for more information. In addition, familiarize yourself with the basic differences between Qt in C++ and in Python.

Basic differences

This section highlights some of the basic differences between C++ and Python, and how Qt differs between these two contexts.

C++ vs Python

• In the interest of code reuse, both C++ and Python provide ways for one file of code to use facilities provided by another. In C++, this is done using the #include directive to access the API definition of the reused code. The Python equivalent is an import statement.

• The constructor of a C++ class shares the name of its class and automatically calls the constructor of any base-classes (in a predefined order) before it runs. In Python, the __init__() method is the constructor of the class, and it can explicitly call base-class constructors in any order.

• C++ uses the keyword, this, to implicitly refer to the current object. In python, you need to explicitly mention the current object as the first parameter to each instance method of the class; it is conventionally named self.

• And more importantly, forget about curly braces, {}, and semi-colon, ;.

• Precede variable definitions with the global keyword, only if they need global scope.

var = None
def func(key, value = None):
  """Does stuff with a key and an optional value.

  If value is omitted or None, the value from func()'s
  last call is reused.
  """
  global var
  if value is None:
      if var is None:
          raise ValueError("Must pass a value on first call", key, value)
      value = var
  else:
      var = value
  doStuff(key, value)

In this example, func() would treat var as a local name without the global statement. This would lead to a NameError in the value is None handling, on accessing var. For more information about this, see Python refernce documentation.

Tip

Python being an interpreted language, most often the easiest way is to try your idea in the interperter. You could call the help() function in the interpreter on any built-in function or keyword in Python. For example, a call to help(import) should provide documentation about the import statment

Last but not the least, try out a few examples to familiarize yourself with the Python coding style and follow the guidelines outlined in the PEP8 - Style Guide.

import sys

from PySide6.QtWidgets import QApplication, QLabel

app = QApplication(sys.argv)
label = QLabel("Hello World")
label.show()
sys.exit(app.exec())

Note

Qt provides classes that are meant to manage the application-specific requirements depending on whether the application is console-only (QCoreApplication), GUI with QtWidgets (QApplication), or GUI without QtWidgets (QGuiApplication). These classes load necessary plugins, such as the GUI libraries required by an application. In this case, it is QApplication that is initialized first as the application has a GUI with QtWidgets.

Qt in the C++ and Python context

Qt behaves the same irrespective of whether it is used in a C++ or a Python application. Considering that C++ and Python use different language semantics, some differences between the two variants of Qt are inevitable. Here are a few important ones that you must be aware of:

• Qt Properties: Q_PROPERTY macros are used in C++ to add a public member variable with getter and setter functions. Python’s alternative for this is the @property decorator before the getter and setter function definitions.

• Qt Signals and Slots: Qt offers a unique callback mechanism, where a signal is emitted to notify the occurrence of an event, so that slots connected to this signal can react to it. In C++, the class definition must define the slots under the public Q_SLOTS: and signals under Q_SIGNALS: access specifier. You connect these two using one of the several variants of the QObject::connect() function. Python’s equivalent for this is the @Slot` decorator just before the function definition. This is necessary to register the slots with the QtMetaObject.

• QString, QVariant, and other types

  • Qt for Python does not provide access to QString and QVariant. You must use Python’s native types instead.

  • QChar and QStringRef are represented as Python strings, and QStringList is converted to a list of strings.

  • QDate, QDateTime, QTime, and QUrl’s __hash__() methods return a string representation so that identical dates (and identical date/times or times or URLs) have identical hash values.

  • QTextStream’s bin(), hex(), and oct() functions are renamed to bin_(), hex_(), and oct_() respectively. This should avoid name conflicts with Python’s built-in functions.

• QByteArray: A QByteArray is treated as a list of bytes without encoding. Python 3 uses “bytes”. QString is represented as an encoded human readable string, which means it is a “str”.

Here is the improved version of the Hello World example, demonstrating some of these differences:

import sys
import random

from PySide6.QtWidgets import (QApplication, QLabel,
     QPushButton, QVBoxLayout, QWidget)
from PySide6.QtCore import Qt, Slot

class MyWidget(QWidget):
    def __init__(self):
        super().__init__()

        self.hello = ["Hallo Welt", "Hei maailma", "Hola Mundo", "Привет мир"]

        self.button = QPushButton("Click me!")
        self.text = QLabel("Hello World")
        self.text.setAlignment(Qt.AlignCenter)

        self.layout = QVBoxLayout()
        self.layout.addWidget(self.text)
        self.layout.addWidget(self.button)
        self.setLayout(self.layout)

        self.button.clicked.connect(self.magic)

    @Slot()
    def magic(self):
        self.text.setText(random.choice(self.hello))

if __name__ == "__main__":
    app = QApplication(sys.argv)

    widget = MyWidget()
    widget.resize(800, 600)
    widget.show()

    sys.exit(app.exec())

Note

The if block is just a good practice when developing a Python application. It lets the Python file behave differently depending on whether it is imported as a module in another file or run directly. The __name__ variable will have different values in these two scenarios. It is __main__ when the file is run directly, and the module’s file name (hello_world_ex in this case) when imported as a module. In the later case, everything defined in the module except the if block is available to the importing file.

Notice that the QPushButton’s clicked signal is connected to the magic function to randomly change the QLabel’s text property. The @Slot` decorator marks the methods that are slots and informs the QtMetaObject about them.

Porting a Qt C++ example

Qt offers several C++ examples to showcase its features and help beginners learn. You can try porting one of these C++ examples to Python. The books SQL example is a good starting point as it does not require you to write UI-specific code in Python, but can use its .ui file instead.

The following chapters guides you through the porting process:

• Chapter 1: initDb.h to createDb.py
• Chapter 2: bookdelegate.cpp to bookdelegate.py
• Chapter 3: Port bookdwindow.cpp to bookwindow.py