Sophie: libgnome32-devel-1.4.2-22mdv2009.1 i586

libgnome32-devel-1.4.2-22mdv2009.1.i586.rpm

<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN">
<HTML
><HEAD
><TITLE
>Talking to the user: GnomeDialog, GnomeMessageBox,
    GnomeAppBar, and utility functions.</TITLE
><META
NAME="GENERATOR"
CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.74b"><LINK
REL="HOME"
TITLE="Gnome Developers' Information"
HREF="book1.html"><LINK
REL="PREVIOUS"
TITLE="Getting started with the canvas"
HREF="gnome-canvas-getting-started.html"><LINK
REL="NEXT"
TITLE="Using GnomeAppBar directly"
HREF="gnomeappbar.html"></HEAD
><BODY
CLASS="CHAPTER"
BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"
TEXT="#000000"
LINK="#0000FF"
VLINK="#840084"
ALINK="#0000FF"
><DIV
CLASS="NAVHEADER"
><TABLE
SUMMARY="Header navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TH
COLSPAN="3"
ALIGN="center"
>Gnome Developers' Information</TH
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="gnome-canvas-getting-started.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>&#60;&#60;&#60; Previous</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="80%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="bottom"
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="10%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="bottom"
><A
HREF="gnomeappbar.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next &#62;&#62;&#62;</A
></TD
></TR
></TABLE
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="CHAPTER"
><H1
><A
NAME="DIALOGAPPUTIL-DOCS"
>Talking to the user: <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeDialog</SPAN
>, <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeMessageBox</SPAN
>,
    <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeAppBar</SPAN
>, and utility functions.</A
></H1
><DIV
CLASS="SECT1"
><H1
CLASS="SECT1"
><A
NAME="INTRODUCTION"
>Introduction</A
></H1
><P
>      Gnome strives to provide the user with a maximum level of
      configurability, and the programmer with a maximum level of
      convenience. Happily, these two goals tend to go hand in hand:
      fewer decisions for the programmer means more decisions for the
      user.
    </P
><P
>      This section describes Gnome's facilities for communicating
      simple messages or questions to the user, and retrieving a
      response. The main widgets involved are <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeDialog</SPAN
>
      and <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeAppBar</SPAN
> (a statusbar, but that name was
      taken). Gnome also provides convenience functions which give the
      user greater choice as a side effect. For example, if you call
      <TT
CLASS="FUNCTION"
>gnome_app_message()</TT
> instead of creating a
      dialog directly, the user can request that messages appear in
      the app bar instead.
    </P
><P
>      Some functionality is missing, and some of the API is
      suboptimal. Hopefully this will be fixed eventually. In
      particular:
    </P
><P
></P
><UL
><LI
><P
>	  <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeAppBar</SPAN
> does not work in interactive mode,
	  so all questions must be asked via dialog. Full
	  Emacs-minibuffer-style functionality needs to be added.
	</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>	  <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeAppBar</SPAN
> should use
	  <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomePreferencesType</SPAN
> for its has_progress
	  parameter, and not use a progress bar if the user wants
	  progress dialogs instead.
	</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>	  Nonstandard function pointer callbacks are a poor substitute
	  for Gtk signals and unpleasant in non-C bindings.  One
	  possible solution is to create a <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GtkObject</SPAN
> to
	  represent the user interaction, complete with
	  signals. <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeQuestion</SPAN
>, for example, with a
	  "answered" and "cancelled" signal. More complex, but more
	  flexible.
	</P
></LI
><LI
><P
>	  It is all sort of clunky feeling. Perhaps convenience
	  functions are inherently inelegant?
	</P
></LI
></UL
><P
>      Patches and suggestions are always welcome. Please think about
      how the API could be improved as you read this and use the
      facilities, then send along your thoughts.
    </P
></DIV
></DIV
><DIV
CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
><HR
ALIGN="LEFT"
WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
WIDTH="100%"
BORDER="0"
CELLPADDING="0"
CELLSPACING="0"
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="gnome-canvas-getting-started.html"
ACCESSKEY="P"
>&#60;&#60;&#60; Previous</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="book1.html"
ACCESSKEY="H"
>Home</A
></TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
><A
HREF="gnomeappbar.html"
ACCESSKEY="N"
>Next &#62;&#62;&#62;</A
></TD
></TR
><TR
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="left"
VALIGN="top"
>Getting started with the canvas</TD
><TD
WIDTH="34%"
ALIGN="center"
VALIGN="top"
>&nbsp;</TD
><TD
WIDTH="33%"
ALIGN="right"
VALIGN="top"
>Using <SPAN
CLASS="TYPE"
>GnomeAppBar</SPAN
> directly</TD
></TR
></TABLE
></DIV
></BODY
></HTML
>