newbie questions: keyboard grabbing and empty space in panel...

["Sergey V. Udaltsov" <svu pop convey ru>]

Hello GNOME hackers!

I've just started my life in GNOME development. I'd like to implement
some simple applet reacting on global Xkb events - locking keyboard
groups (in Xkb it is masked by XkbGroupLockMask). Is this possible in
GNOME (GTK/GDK)?
Should I apply gtk_keyboard_grab here? How?

Another question.
I've created the simplest "Hello World" applet. It works OK. It
correctly installs itself to panel and removes from it but... After
removing it, some narrow empty space is remaining in the place where the
applet was. If I add/remove it again, this space doubles etc. I could
not find this in FAQ... Moreover, this effect exists if I add/remove
_installed_ applet (from menu). But when I add/remove from terminal
(just executing it), I do not see this effect. This is really strange
for me...:( No core, no error messages...

Sorry for stupid questions... I've read some docs (starting from GGAD)
but I could not find any anwers...

Platform: RH6.0/GNOME1.53(RPMs from gurulabs)

Thank you in advance,

Sergey V. Udaltsov