Re: [gnome-db] Re: dwi and libgda

[Rodrigo Moya <rodrigo gnome-db org>]

On Wed, 2002-05-01 at 02:35, Linas Vepstas wrote:
> > So far, from what I've understood, we could (Linas, please correct me if
> > I'm wrong):
> > 
> > * integrate the non-UI form and report stuff in DWI into libgda, making
> > a GdaForm and GdaReport classes to manage them. There's a non-UI engine
> > for managing those forms/reports in DWI, so it's that part what I'm
> > talking about.
> > 
> > * integrate that form/report engine into the GNOME-DB widgets. On this,
> > Linas doesn't seem to agree, since he is doing DWI with plain GTK
> > widgets, not with specialized ones (like the ones we've got ->
> > GnomeDbGrid, GnomeDbList, etc)
> 
> Well,  I think the basic concept in DWI was 'no new graphical widgets',
> i.e. that glade should be enough to specify the visual layout.
> 
> What DWI does is to specify how to hook databases to widgets:
> 
> -- the "form" -- how to suck data out of a widget (e.g. GtkEntry)
>    and stick it into a database
> 
> -- the "report" -- how to loop over the rows & columns of a recordset
>    (the result of a query) and display them in a widget (e.g. GtkCTree)
> 
> I mostly choose this approach becuse it seemed easiest (no new widgets)
> and the best-looking (you are limited only by what you can do with
> glade, as opposed to being forced to use a particular grid/table
> widget).  DWI now supports about a dozen(?) gtk+ widgets, and about
> a half-dozen of the gnome widgets.   The core idea is to be able
> to hook a database to *any* widget, even those that haven't been
> designed yet.
> 
> New widgets are pretty easy to add; you just have to write a shim 
> between the widgets get/set and the dwi get/set routines.
>  I've been planning on adding the gtkExtra widget set.
> (and thereby get plotting "for free").
> 
> I know nothing about the gnomeDB grid/list widgets.
> anyone care to explain them?  
> 
well, they are just GtkTreeView widgets that understand GdaDataModel
(the way to read data in libgda), and which show the different values,
depending on their types, appropriately (a checkbox for BOOLEAN,
right-aligned for numbers, etc). That's the difference between
gnome-db-grid/list and normal GTK widgets.

Of course, that same work could be done with plain GTK widgets, but it's
already done.

cheers