Label widgets

[Mike Aubury <mike aubit com>]

I've got an application written using GTK - but I have hit some issues with 
the creation of display of labels..

Basically, the application needs to represent something like the display on an 
old VT style terminal, so I have up to 80x24 labels (each within a 
GtkEventBox so I can set a background) to create and update when displaying 
to the 'screen' (I'm using a GtkFixed to put them on)..


This runs fine (but slowly)....

Also - when I update the screen, it tends to 'flow' across rather slowly as 
each cell gets updated..

1) Is there a better way to do this?
I can't do much to remove the old cell mechanism - its the way the application 
needs to run. Also - I need to be able to set foreground and background 
attributes for any 'cell', so its difficult to even try to use a single label 
for the whole line (using fixed width fonts)...

2) Is there anyway to speed up the create ?

3) Is there anyway to remove the flickering/flowing (eg  by suspending redraws 
on the gtkfixed so the fixed is only redrawn after all cells have been 
updated). ?


I've looked into using something like a 80x24 table widget - but thats even 
slower. And I can't even use something like the zvt library - as I want to 
intermix the GUI components (like entry fields and buttons) in between the 
labels, as well as embed frames for further old style 'windows'..


TIA

(Application is for use by Aubit4GL - http://aubit4gl.sourceforge.net)