Re: GTK+ app using the GNOME help browser?

[Erik Mouw <J A K Mouw ITS TUDelft NL>]

On Mon, May 07, 2001 at 08:34:38AM -0600, teekay wrote:
> Hi Havoc;
>
> At 09:39 07-05-01 -0400, you wrote:
> > > Is there a way to add help menu item 
> > > callbacks for a GTK+ app (pure GTK+)
> > > to use a help system like the GNOME help browser?
> >
> > How about:
> > - open the file gnome-libs/libgnome/gnome-help.c
> > - copy the stuff in there
>
> Your participation and help is much appreciated by the 
> members of this list. But you ~must~ start thinking more
> like an application developer, instead of a technical 
> guru and acrobat user. 

IMHO Havoc does that. A good application developer is lazy and avoids
coding new stuff. He just searches for some code that does what he
wants and includes that into his program. Havoc only showed which code
to include.

> In real world, applications are written for users which 
> have neither the time, nor the technical capacity of 
> manipulating the operating system or its components. 
> If a particular functionality is worth having, the application 
> developer must provide it, without forcing the user to 
> intervene in the environment beyond the application 
> itself.

I think you're confusing users and developers here. Sure, you don't
want Joe User to copy the gnome-help.c code into some application
source code, but Joe User also doesn't compiles his own programs (he
just downloads precompiled rpm/debs). But I *do* expect developers to
be able to add a GTK+ button to a program that calls the help browsers
by reading some example code.

> There is a wider context to this: the success of Linux
> hinges on its ability to be usefull in the hands of
> a different (not better, not worse, just different)
> and entirely new class of users.

Again, you're confusing users and developers. We can expect developers
to understand the concept of "Open Source": if a developer sees a
certain piece of code he likes, he's free to use it in his own program
(if the license permits, of course).


Erik

PS: Linux already showed that it has success in different areas. Just
  look at what's happening right now in the embedded computing market.

-- 
J.A.K. (Erik) Mouw, Information and Communication Theory Group, Department
of Electrical Engineering, Faculty of Information Technology and Systems,
Delft University of Technology, PO BOX 5031,  2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands
Phone: +31-15-2783635  Fax: +31-15-2781843  Email: J A K Mouw its tudelft nl
WWW: http://www-ict.its.tudelft.nl/~erik/