/** \page usage Usage * * This page provides general information on QuaZIP usage. See classes * QuaZip and QuaZipFile for the detailed documentation on what can * QuaZIP do and what it can not. Also, reading comments in the zip.h and * unzip.h files (taken from the original ZIP/UNZIP package) is always a * good idea too. After all, QuaZIP is just a wrapper with a few * convenience extensions and reimplementations. * * QuaZip is a class representing ZIP archive, QuaZipFile represents a * file inside archive and subclasses QIODevice as well. One limitation * is that there can be only one instance of QuaZipFile per QuaZip * instance, which kind of makes it confusing why there are two classes * instead of one. This is actually no more than an API design mistake. * * \section terminology Terminology * * "QuaZIP" means whole this library, while "QuaZip" (note the * lower case) is just one class in it. * * "ZIP/UNZIP API" or "minizip" means the original API of the Gilles * Vollant's ZIP/UNZIP package. It was slightly modified to better * integrate with Qt. These modifications are not source or binary * compatible with the official minizip release, which means you can't * just drop the newer minizip version into QuaZIP sources and make it * work. * * "ZIP", "ZIP archive" or "ZIP file" means any ZIP archive. Typically * this is a plain file with ".zip" (or ".ZIP") file name suffix, but it * can also be any seekable QIODevice (say, QBuffer, but not * QTcpSocket). * * "A file inside archive", "a file inside ZIP" or something like that * means file either being read or written from/to some ZIP archive. * * \section error-handling Error handling * * Almost any call to ZIP/UNZIP API return some error code. Most of the * original API's error checking could be done in this wrapper as well, * but it would cause unnecessary code bloating without any benefit. So, * QuaZIP only checks for situations that ZIP/UNZIP API can not check * for. For example, ZIP/UNZIP API has no "ZIP open mode" concept * because read and write modes are completely separated. On the other * hand, to avoid creating classes like "QuaZipReader", "QuaZipWriter" * or something like that, QuaZIP introduces "ZIP open mode" concept * instead, thus making it possible to use one class (QuaZip) for both * reading and writing. But this leads to additional open mode checks * which are not done in ZIP/UNZIP package. * * Therefore, error checking is two-level (QuaZIP's level and ZIP/UNZIP * API level), which sometimes can be confusing, so here are some * advices on how the error checking should be properly done: * * - Both QuaZip and QuaZipFile have getZipError() function, which return * error code of the last ZIP/UNZIP API call. Most function calls * reset error code to UNZ_OK on success and set error code on * failure. Some functions do not reset error code. Most of them are * \c const and do not access ZIP archive in any way. Some, on the * other hand, \em do access ZIP archive, but do not reset or set * error code. For example, QuaZipFile::pos() function. Such functions * are explicitly marked in the documentation. * - Most functions have their own way to report errors, by returning a * null string, negative value or \c false. If such a function returns * error value, call getZipError() to get more information about * error. See "zip.h" and "unzip.h" of the ZIP/UNZIP package for error * codes. * - If the function returns error-stating value (like \c false), but * getZipError() returns UNZ_OK, it means that you did something * obviously wrong. For example, tried to write in the archive open * for reading or not open at all. You better just not do that! * Most functions also issue a warning using qWarning() function in * such cases. See documentation for a specific function for details * on when it should not be called. * * I know that this is somewhat messy, but I could not find a better way * to do all the error handling. **/