Re: GNOME GTK-- Projects

[John R Sheets <dusk smsi-roman com>]

Tero Pulkkinen wrote:
> 
> John R Sheets <dusk@smsi-roman.com> writes:
> > Would it be practical to add a quick (boolean) check to the
> > Gtk_Text (or whichever objects need it) to see if the object has
> > been realized yet, and to auto-realize it if the code tries to
> > insert text into an un-realized object?  For example,
> 
> Hmm, I think this issue has been coming up many times before -- I wonder
> why we didnt do it last time... I'll implement it now and will look if
> it makes some problems. (though I think it should be implemented inside
> gtk+, not inside gtk--!!)

A good idea, on both counts (gtk+ & gtk--).
 
> > I'm definitely a fan of exception handling.  Granted, I'm
> > somewhat new to the UNIX end of things, but would there be any
> > way to write a class to attach to stderr and parse its output,
> > looking for errors?  Or is GTK+ consistent enough in its
> > reporting formats to make this feasible?  Perhaps a virtual
> > exception scheme would be possible, where a GTK+ error string
> > would trigger an exception throw that GTK-- could pick up?  I
> > don't know.  I'm just tossing ideas out like playing cards right
> > now...
> 
> Oh no, something that plays with output is evil. :) Much easier to
> change gtk. Thank god we have the choice to change gtk :)

I agree.  I suppose I'm not used to thinking in terms of
publicly-developed toolkits/API's.  Much better to fix the
problem at a core level (when you can), rather than use such a
brutal parsing hack.  (c:  Actually, I was equally curious if
this would even be possible.  I've found that often a good
measure of a well-designed library is how well it accomodates
people who want to do crazy things with it.  The crazy action
itself may not be very practical, but it may point out a weakness
in the library that could become a real issue later on.  Better
to fix it sooner, than later....

John