About This Reference

Ab ¦ Al ¦ Ap ¦ mbstr ¦ Pd ¦ Pf ¦ Pg ¦ Ph ¦ Pi ¦ Pm ¦ Pp ¦ Pt ¦ Px ¦ Rt ¦ utf8 ¦ wc

The Photon Library Reference accompanies the Photon Development System and is intended for application developers. It describes the data types, structures, and functions that are defined in the Photon API.

This reference contains the following chapters:

For functions that deal with specific widgets, see the Widget Reference.
For functions that deal with creating widget classes, see Building Custom Widgets.
In general, the Photon libraries aren't thread-safe. For information on using Photon and threads, see “Threads” in the Parallel Operations chapter of the Photon Programmer's Guide.

To use the datatypes and functions in an application:

If you're using the Photon Application Builder (PhAB), the appropriate header files are automatically included in your application.
If you aren't using PhAB but your application uses widgets, include <Pt.h>.
If you aren't using PhAB or widgets, include <Ph.h>.

Typographical conventions

Throughout this manual, we use certain typographical conventions to distinguish technical terms. In general, the conventions we use conform to those found in IEEE POSIX publications. The following table summarizes our conventions:

Reference	Example
Code examples	`if( stream == NULL )`
Command options	`-lR`
Commands	`make`
Environment variables	PATH
File and pathnames	`/dev/null`
Function names	exit()
Keyboard chords	Ctrl-Alt-Delete
Keyboard input	`something you type`
Keyboard keys	Enter
Program output	`login:`
Programming constants	NULL
Programming data types	`unsigned short`
Programming literals	`0xFF`, `"message string"`
Variable names	stdin
User-interface components	Cancel

We use an arrow (→) in directions for accessing menu items, like this:

You'll find the Other... menu item under Perspective-->Show View.

We use notes, cautions, and warnings to highlight important messages:

Notes point out something important or useful.

Cautions tell you about commands or procedures that may have unwanted or undesirable side effects.

Warnings tell you about commands or procedures that could be dangerous to your files, your hardware, or even yourself.

Note to Windows users

In our documentation, we use a forward slash (/) as a delimiter in all pathnames, including those pointing to Windows files.

We also generally follow POSIX/UNIX filesystem conventions.

Navigation buttons

At the top and bottom of our HTML docs, you'll see some or all of these buttons:

Use this button:	To move:
	To the previous part of the document.
	“Up” in the document: In a prose book, this typically takes you to About This Guide. In a reference book, it takes you to the listing of items that start with a given letter. For example, if you're looking at the docs for abs(), this button takes you to the listing of the functions that start with `A`.
	To the keyword index.
	To the next part of the document.

Technical support

To obtain technical support for any QNX product, visit the Support + Services area on our website (www.qnx.com). You'll find a wide range of support options, including community forums.