Re: breaking libgnomeui API

[Anders Carlsson <andersca gnome org>]

On ons, 2004-01-28 at 01:17 +0100, Carlos Garnacho wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Seeing that the gnome-file-entry, gnome-icon-entry and
> gnome-pixmap-entry from libgnomeui HEAD still use the GtkFileSelection
> API, I wrote a patch that replaces it with GtkFileChooser, as seen in
> the bug #132043, where's the problem? that it "slightly" breaks the API,
> currently in the public API there is a GtkWidget *fsw that's a reference
> of the GtkFileSelection, in the patch I've replaced it by a GtkWidget
> *fcw (the name is the less important issue here, and could be replaced
> again with *fsw IMHO) that's a reference to the GtkFileChooserDialog.
> 
> So the problem is here, the file selection dialog is exposed in the
> public API, and changing it will break all the programs that access it
> directly (which is indeed evil), but keeping the old file selector for
> gnome 2.6 is a little ugly. Should we break in some way the API or leave
> it as is for 2.6? What do people think about this?
> 

Hello,

we can't do this at all. I bet there's lots of code out there that
expects fsw to be a GtkFileSelector, which means they'll be poking
around inside that widget; connecting signals, setting sensitivity etc.

What really should be done is that we should:

* See what entry widgets that are actually usable

* Port them over to gtk+ and put them there (IIRC Jim Cape started
hacking on a really cool icon chooser that supported icon themes)

* Deprecate the old libgnomeui widgets and eventually get rid of them

* Profit!

So sorry, but changing widgets that I know people rely on being of a
certain type is a no-no.

Anders