Re: Bonobo / Gtk Menu / Toolbars...

[Michael Meeks <michael ximian com>]

Hi Havoc,

On 20 Feb 2001, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> We do have fixing keybindings scheduled, as part of the menu API
> rework.

        Great news.

> (Incidentally, this is a big reason to do GUI work in GTK - because it
> frequently requires changes to or integration with the GTK core.

        This sounds like the big library argument again, as in what should
be where and why. So, I don't care much. I would suggest however, that
rather than fixing things internaly in Gtk+ APIs should be exposed that
allow each fixed problems to be worked around outside Gtk+ in future. Then
we're all happy.
        
> Another example is that stock icons couldn't be themed until we put     
> them in the core.)

        Was that not just a problem with Gtk+ talking to gnome-libs and a
lack of a theming feature in gnome-libs ?

> The reason we have to rewrite working code is that having this code in
> GTK itself is a significant feature, and you wrote it in such a way
> (use of libxml and CORBA) that it can't be used as-is.
        
        In fact, this is not the case now. Your great work on the
BonoboUINode interface abstracted the vast majority of the libxml specific
code out - leaving only an abstractish model type interface. As for the
CORBA dependence, if you examine bonobo-ui-engine.h, and the
synchronization objects you'll see that the CORBA dependency is now very
thin indeed.
  
> I told you when you started on bonobo-ui that we'd have to rewrite it
> and that we were planning to write such an API, and that remains true.

        I only learned of your plans having implemented the first pass at
the new UI code, either way - we badly needed this for GNOME, and even if
the current solution is re-written in Gtk+ I believe we can have a good go
at supporting the API. Also, as yet there is no new Gtk+ menu / dock /
toolbar API :-)

        Are there plans to write GtkDock as well ? and in this age of
planning 17 versions in advance, is there a blue-sky document somewhere
discussing what you want to do in Gtk+ in the future ? - I hear lots of
exciting rumours :-)

> But it doesn't change the facts that inevitably putting something
> outside GTK that is needed in GTK results in one extra API for that
> thing. Because GTK is and will continue to be enhanced as a standalone
> complete GUI solution.
          
        Well, whatever :-) I don't want to spark the 'what belongs in what
library' argument, I don't care much where it is, I just like it to work.

        Regards,

                Michael.

-- 
 mmeeks gnu org  <><, Pseudo Engineer, itinerant idiot