
Frequently Asked Questions for SoQt
===================================

Last Updated:
$Date$

For answers to common questions about the Coin library, see the separate
FAQ in the Coin source archive.

For answers to common Open Inventor programming issues not covered in this
FAQ or the Coin FAQ, take a look at the FAQs directory in the SoGuiExamples
archive.

For answers to common questions regarding licensing, see the FAQ.legal
file in the Coin source archive.


Index
=====

0: Legal Issues
  Q1: SoQt is under the GNU General Public License ("GPL").
      Can I use it in my proprietary, commercially sold application?

  Q2: Is it possible to use the SoQt library without the restrictions
      of the GNU GPL?

  Q3: How can you sell a "Professional Edition License" when the
      library is released under the GNU GPL? Wouldn't that be
      disallowed by the GNU GPL?

1: Qt Versions
  Q1: Does SoQt work with Qt < 2.0?

  Q2: Does SoQt work with Qt 2.*?

  Q3: Does SoQt work with Qt >= 3.0?

  Q4: Where is the qt-mt230nc.dll file?

  Q5: Does SoQt work with the Qt port for Mac OS X/Darwin?


Section 0. Legal Issues
=======================

Q0.1: SoQt is under the GNU General Public License ("GPL").
      Can I use it in my proprietary, commercially sold application?

A:    No, the GNU GPL restricts the applications that can use SoQt to
      have to be Free Software, and otherwise compatible with the GNU
      GPL.

      The distribution and availability of the SoQt library under the
      GNU GPL is primarily meant to be a service for those who write
      other Free Software libraries or applications. If you write
      proprietary software and would like to use the SoQt library, see
      the next question.


Q0.2: Is it possible to use the SoQt library without the restrictions
      of the GNU GPL?

A:    Yes, as a service for those who would like to use the SoQt
      library in proprietary software, we at Kongsberg Oil & Gas
      Technologies offer the "Coin Professional Edition License" which
      buys developers that are license holders the option to use the
      library with no strings attached.  The "Coin Professional
      Edition License" covers all the Coin libraries, including all
      the GUI toolkits.

      By "no strings attached", we of course mean that you as a
      software developer would not have to obey the restrictions of
      the GNU GPL, as you would use the SoQt library under our
      "Professional Edition" license instead.

      Prioritized support services is also part of the package -- your
      support requests will be sent straight to the top of the
      todo-stack of our developers. The developers used as first-tier
      support for our Coin Professional Edition License holders are
      the same people who have written all the sourcecode of the
      library in the first place, so you will be in very good hands.

      We take pride in giving our customers excellent support, and
      since the Coin libraries are what our developers love to work with,
      it's given with a smile.  :-)

      Oh, and one additional benefit from being a Coin Professional
      Edition License holder: you are allowed to cut'n'paste from our
      sourcecode and use it in your own applications without having to
      worry about licensing issues. This is for instance very
      convenient when writing extensions components for SoQt, like new
      viewers.

      You may also cut'n'paste code from all our example programs in
      the same manner (these are also originally under the GNU GPL, by
      the way).


Q0.3: How can you sell a "Professional Edition License" when the
      library is released under the GNU GPL? Wouldn't that be
      disallowed by the GNU GPL?

A:    Kongsberg Oil & Gas Technologies can do this dual licensing
      "trick" with Coin because we are full copyright holders -- ie we
      own every single line of code written for the Coin
      library. Therefore we are able to license the Coin library both
      as Free Software aswell as under a special purpose license for
      proprietary software vendors.  TrollTech uses the same strategy
      for their Qt library.



Section 1. Qt Versions
======================

Q1.1: Does SoQt work with Qt < 2.0?

A:    We have basically dropped trying to support Qt 1.*, but if we can help
      it we will apply patches (within reason) to keep the Qt 1.x support
      alive.


Q1.2: Does SoQt work with Qt 2.*?

A:    Yes, the support for the Qt 2.* series is well tested.


Q1.3: Does SoQt work with Qt >= 3.0?

A:    There has been various reports about problems with Qt 3.0, particularly
      the Windows port.   We do use Qt 3.0 on Linux annd it seems to work
      well here.


Q1.4: Where is the qt-mt230nc.dll file?

A:    This file is the Windows Qt 2.3.0 NonCommercial Edition DLL, which
      you can fetch from the TrollTech web site (http://www.trolltech.com).


Q1.5: Does SoQt work with the Qt port for Mac OS X/Darwin?

A:    Yes, but we do not provide binary distributions for Mac OS X
      yet.  As with for MS Windows, library builders are expected to
      know their way around on their system and do a a minimum of
      troubleshooting yourself before contacting coin-support.  This
      situation will hopefully be fixed by the end of the year.

      SoQt is BTW not installed as a framework like Coin is.


--
