Re: question about design

[faboo <faboo ellf net>]

apatruduque wrote:
> I have 2 questions:
>
> 1- I don't know what is the best thing to do when I
> want to close the second window: hide it with
> gtk_widget_hide or destroy it with gtk_widget_destroy.
> May be in this example is not very important but what
> would it happen in a program like gimp? There, you can
> finish with a lot of windows in your screen and  if
> every time you close and open a window you have to
> create from scratch, it takes some time. On the other
> hand, if  you keep all the windows hide, you might be
> wasting resources...I guess the answer is "It depends
> on your application."
What I'd do in this case, instead of creating a whole new window for 
your second type of view, put all of your "extra" buttons in their own 
container (a GtkBox or what have you), whether created on the fly as 
Havoc suggests or kept around for the duration of the program (the less 
efficient, but quicker solution). Then when you need it, add it in along 
side your normals, which also have their own container, like this:
(cheesy ascii art ahead)

/--------------------------------\
| Main Calc Window               |
|/------------------------------\|
|| GtkHBox for button containers||
||/-------------\/-------------\||
||| Normal      || Extra       |||
||| Button Bin  || Button Bin  |||
||\-------------/\-------------/||
|\------------------------------/|
\--------------------------------/

> 2- What to do when it is not only a label but some
> more complicated data structure what two windows or
> widgets share? Is using global variables and data
> structures a solution?
It depends. In a case like this (or even more compicated ones) you can 
just go ahead and plop in a new window and gtk+ takes care of the rest. 
You could also call gtk_widget_set_parent() to change the parent of the 
offending widgets. If you keep all of the widgets you plan on reusing in 
one big outer container this isn't all the combersome. Just don't keep 
around a bunch of widgets just chillin' doing nothing - it takes up too 
much memory.

> Thanks again,
>
> Alfonso Alba García
faboo
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