Re: Advice / Tutorials on Glib programming

[Ryan McDougall <ryan mcdougall telusplanet net>]

On Mon, 2003-12-22 at 03:59, Gus Koppel wrote:
> Ryan McDougall wrote:
>
> >     I am designing a non-gui app using Glib, but there is no similar
> > tutorial on the GTK website so explain what the API means and does.
> > Reading through the entire source code should never be required, and I
> > am perfectly willing to write tutorials and API docs for GTK et al.,
> > but I need to learn the stuff first.
> >
> >     Basically, can anyone point me to some good resources, or
> >     willing to sit on IRC and be asked some stupid questions? Ive
> >     got Christmas break to get some work in before next semester, so
> >     please let me know if your interested in helping me out. 
>
> To me, mentioning "reading through the entire source code" sounds a bit
> like you might not have seen documentations like
> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/glib/glib-utilities.html or
> http://developer.gnome.org/doc/API/2.0/glib/glib-core.html before? I
> believe these *are* rather good resources (not always complete though).
>
> I think, at first you should know what you want to program, i.e. what
> your application should accomplish. You should have (at least) basic
> ideas about what functionality you will need for it. Then you should
> have a look to see whether GLib provides functions to assist you in
> that. You can (should) do that before starting to write your program.
> Without doubt, GLib can be helpful on many issues but still you will
> have to write most of your application by yourself.
>
> Just starting with the goal "I write a program using GLib" but maybe not
> understanding GLib's fundamentals or what GLib offers and what not
> likely isn't a useful approach.
>
> However, if you don't understand terms like "memory allocation", "I/O
> channels", "date and time funtions" or "file utilities" mentioned at the
> pages given above, or if you don't know how to deal with the issues
> behind them, then you should probably (re?)start with *very* fundamental
> tutorials about programming in general. Issues like these are not
> GLib-/GTK-specific. Explaining these likely isn't the objective of the
> GLib docs, just like explaining the traffic rules isn't the objective of
> your cars' technical manual.

Thank you for taking the time to give a detailed response -- I
appreciate it when comments are more than two sentances. ;)

I have already found the API docs but while they almost answer What Glib
does, they dont come close to the Whys and Hows. I find that I
understand a system when I understand the reason for its existence, if
thats not too philosophical. Basically tutorials explaining rational for
actions are more helpful than API docs.

The app itself will be a prototype for a redesigned Unix shell. Making
use of some ideas Ive been mulling around it will probably no look like
the shells people are most used to. My goals are tighter integration
into the (GNOME) desktop by using GNOME and freedesktop.org
technologies. Basically things like hooking into MIME database, GConf,
Seth's Storage project, etc and better integration with existing
scripting languages using a more universal piping/redirection mechanism.

I hope this give you some more ideas about what Im up to. Also, when Ive
learnt a bit more about Glib, et al, I will be up to writing a tutorial
about what Ive done!

Cheers,
Ryan