[Glade-devel] Glade topics

[kouhia nic funet fi (Juhana Sadeharju)]

Hello.
How about adding a graph network editor to Glade?
Here are some ideas:

1. The GUI would be built with a graph editor. User would grab and
drag widget icons on the graph canvas, and connect the icons with
wires. Example:

     window -- vbox -- menubar
                    -- hbox

Check "galan.sourceforge.net" for a screenshot of such editor.
Galan does not use icons as the graph nodes but you should get
the idea.

2. It would be possible to save the graphs/subgraphs and reuse in
another project. This way user could make an extensive library of
"widgets" without writing widgets with C. All kind of "widgets":
complete menus or partial menus, photo display with contrast and
brightness knobs, color selectors.

3. Because wires connects the graph nodes, it is easy to experiment
with various different choises simply by re-wiring. Example:

                   window
                     |
                    vbox
                   /  
               menu1    menu2

Menu1 and menu2 can be switched simply by deleting the wire <vbox-menu1>
and add wire <vbox-menu2>. As soon as the switch is done the content of
the window changes.

4. After making a graph such as

     window -- vbox -- <100 widgets here>

user may delete the vbox and add more containers between
the window and the precious subgraph without loosing the
subgraph of 100 widgets built in three months, say.

Regards,
Juhana