Re: Autocompletion for GtkEntry

[Kristian Rietveld <kris gtk org>]

On Wed, 2002-10-09 at 16:50, Ricardo Fernández Pascual wrote:
> El mar, 08-10-2002 a las 22:43, Kristian Rietveld escribió:
> 
> > I didn't read the source, but I did a bit of browsing through the
> > document you attached to your mail to gnome-hackers. I have this feeling
> > wondering if this completion-thing is suitable for gtk+. I see your
> > point that having a general completion-thing would help consistency, but
> > I really wonder if such an advanced completion-thing belongs in gtk+.
> > It's advanced, big and complex, I wonder how many apps would need such
> > an advanced completion feature.
> > 
> 
> If you implement a simple autocompletion functionality in gtk+ that is
> not extensible enough for apps like galeon or evolution it will be
> useless. The apps that need the complexity are precisely the ones that
> will be more benefited by having consistent autocompletion.
> 
> Also, this is not really that complex. Specially for the user of the
> API. The public api is just: 
> 
>         - one class (EggAtucompletion): really easy to use: you just add
>         EggCompletionSources to it and pass it to a Egg/GtkEntry.
>         
>         - one interface (EggAutocompletionSource): easy to implement.
>         Certainly easier to implement than a GtkTreeModel[1]. 
> 
> 	- A few extra methods to GtkEntry, to enable autocompletion.
>

I think it's too complex for simple apps that just use completion for a
simple thing. You would have to implement an AutocompletionSource, which
isn't trivial imho. Though having some source for a simple list of
strings would help a bit.

 
> 
> > Note that I don't want to promote my own thing here, but I'm feeling
> > that having a small and simple completion-thing would be more suited for
> > gtk+. It would be good enough for most gnome apps (including nautilus),
> > but not galeon. Completion for internetbrowsers remains difficult and
> > very specific IMHO.
> 
> The most complex part is the UI, and it belongs to GTK+. The rest may
> not be trivial but it is certainly easier.
> 
> > So this is just how I feel about it, I know that I don't have any real
> > arguments. But I would love to know how others think about this.
> 
> Thanks for your comments, but I think that doing it too simple will be
> bad in the long term. GtkList was simpler than GtkCList and that was
> simpler than GtkTreeView....

True.

> 
> 
> [1]: It would be really easy to create a wrapper class that implements
> EggAutocompletionSource iterating thorough the items in a GtkTreeModel,
> if you think that GtkTreeModels will be used as completion sources
> usually.

Good idea.


> 
> 
> -- 
> Ricardo Fernández Pascual
> ric users sourceforge net
> Murcia. España.