Re: GTK+ brochure for FOSDEM

[Sébastien Wilmet <swilmet gnome org>]

On Fri, Jan 23, 2015 at 09:27:37AM -0800, Jasper St. Pierre wrote:
> > The learning path for writing a GTK+ application should be: GLib ->
> > GObject (at least the basis) -> a bit of GIO -> and finally GTK+. All
> > GTK+ widgets are GObject classes! we cannot ignore GObject… For me it's
> > important to explain what it is, at least briefly.
>
> I disagree. The learning path for writing a GTK+ app should start with GTK+
> and let them venture into the utility libraries of GLib and Gio when they
> need to. No need to start with "here's the library that seemingly reinvents
> all of C99 because people sometimes still use SunCC in TYOOL 2015".

It's all the debate between the bottom-up and top-down approaches. Maybe
a good compromise is a mix between the two, because it's more fun to
show a window with three buttons than learning how to create a signal.
But sooner or later a developer needs to know GLib and GObject.

For a potential book about GTK+, there can be a short chapter on GLib to
learn the basis, then an introduction to GTK+ with some basic
explanations on how to _use_ a GObject class, then a chapter to know how
to _write_ GObject classes. For what it's worth it was roughly the path
chosen in GGAD.

Sébastien