[Qgis-user] Developing QGIS plugins on Windows

[Marco Hugentobler]

Hi René

The C++ and Python interfaces should be the same (possibly there may be a few 
exceptions). If your plugin is performance critical and you already know C++ 
then I'd recommend you to write the plugin in C++.
The development of a C++ plugin is the same on Unix and on windows. If you use 
the QGIS binary package for windows that is compiled with the mingw compiler, 
you need to use the mingw compiler too. Also, you need to install the Qt 
library for mingw (available at 
http://trolltech.com/developer/downloads/qt/windows). Then you compile your 
plugin as a dll that is linked with qgis_core.dll and qgis_gui.dll. 
The plugin documentations may be outdated. You may also have a look at the 
code of the existing plugins to get an idea how they work.

A final word on licensing: note that QGIS plugins must be under GPL license.

Regards,
Marco

Am Donnerstag 24 April 2008 16:32:31 schrieb René Estrella:
> Paolo Cavallini wrote:
> > René Estrella ha scritto:
> >> I am interested in developing a QGIS plugin using C++ and for the
> >> Windows platform.  I read some documentation in the QGIS website
> >> (including the blog
> >> and wiki) and found information that seems applicable only in Unix-like
> >> OSs.
> >> Is there any documentation in the web where I can learn from how to
> >> develop
> >> a plugin for the Windows version of QGIS?  Or can you give me an advice
> >> to
> >> start learning about plugin development on Windows?
> >
> > What are the reasons to write a C++ plugin instead of a python one?
> > All the best.
> > pc
> > --
> > Paolo Cavallini, see: http://www.faunalia.it/pc
> > Noi ci troviamo con parecchie difficoltà con NGI http://www.ngi.it/
> > _______________________________________________
> > Qgis-user mailing list
> > Qgis-user at lists.osgeo.org
> > http://lists.osgeo.org/mailman/listinfo/qgis-user
>
> Hello Paolo, thanks for your interest.  The plugin I'm thinking of is an
> application that deals with large amounts of data, so I thought in using
> C++ because I suppose C++ programs run faster than Python ones (is this
> right?), which is a desirable feature in this type of applications. 
> Anyway, I can't proof this at this time.  Also, I have a little more
> knowledge and experience on C++ programming.  Finally, I have a question:
> Is the complete QGIS API available for developers of Python plugins (as is
> the case for C++ plugins) or is there any restriction in the API for Python
> plugins?  I mean, the QGIS API that developers of QGIS plugins can use in
> the development process is the same API that is used by developers of C++
> plugins, or it is a restricted or limited version of it?
>
> Regards.



-- 
Dr. Marco Hugentobler
Institute of Cartography
ETH Zurich
Technical Advisor QGIS Project Steering Committee