* Install [Qt Creator](https://www.qt.io/offline-installers). You don't need the entire Qt setup, just click 'Qt Creator' on the left side, and install that.
* Open Qt Creator, select `File -> New File or Project...`
* Wait for the file list to generate. This can take a minute or two!
* Ignore the file list, we will overwrite it later. Click Next.
* Set `Add to version control` to `<None>`. Click Finish.
* In your shell, go to your SerenityOS project directory, and invoke the `Meta/refresh-serenity-qtcreator.sh` script to regenerate the `serenity.files` file. You will also have to do this every time you delete or add a new file to the project.
* Edit the `serenity.config` file (In Qt Creator, hit ^K or CMD+K on a Mac to open the search dialog, type the name of the file and hit return to open it)
* Add the following `#define`s to the file: `SANITIZE_PTRS`, and `KERNEL`. Depending on what you are working on, you need to have that last define commented out. If you're planning on working in the userland, comment out `#define KERNEL`. If you're working on the Kernel, then uncomment `#define KERNEL`.
You can use `clang-format` to help you with the [style guide](CodingStyle.md). Before you proceed, check that you're actually using clang-format version 11, as some OSes still ship clang-format version 9 or 10 by default.
- Select the tool "ClangFormat" if not already selected, and click "OK"
Note that not the entire project is clang-format-clean (yet), so sometimes you will see large diffs.
Use your own judgement whether you want to include such changes. Generally speaking, if it's a few lines then it's a good idea; if it's the entire file then maybe there's a better way to do it, like doing a separate commit, or just ignoring the clang-format changes.
You may want to read up what `git add -p` does (or `git checkout -p`, to undo).
QtCreator tends to interpret IPC definitions as C++ headers, and then tries to format them. This is not useful. One way to avoid that is telling QtCreator that IPC definitions are not C++ headers.
- In QtCreator, go to "Tools > Options…"
- Type "beau" in the search box, go to "Environment > MIME Types"
- In the little search box, type "plain", and select "text/plain"
- In the "details" section, you should now see the list of Patterns, something like `*.txt;*.asc;*,v`. Extend it in the following way: `*.txt;*.asc;*,v;*.ipc;*.gml`
- Click "OK" to close the dialog.
- Maybe you need to close and open again the IPC files. You can check what QtCreator is doing by right-clicking the filename in the editor tab, and clicking "Properties...". In the third line, you should see `MIME type: text/plain`.
For that you will need to reference the compilers at `Toolchain/Local/i686/bin/i686-pc-serenity-gcc` and `Toolchain/Local/i686/bin/i686-pc-serenity-g++`.
