Re: detachable toolbars

[Gus Koppel <gtk spamkiller bytechase cx>]

Bernhard Rumpler tttech com wrote:

> HandleBoxes can be used to make toolbars (and other widgets) 
> detachable. This means a HandleBox can be 'torn off' to be
> displayed in a separate window and then reattached to it's
> original location.
>
> My questions: 
>
> 1.) Is it somehow possible to reattach a handle box to 
> different locations, not only to the original one?

To my knowledge: no. handleboxes can only be reattached at the same
locations where they were detached from. So they are a bit limited.

However, you can offer the user to chose the desired locations of the
handleboxes + contents at least indirectly. This is how I have solved
it, using standard GTK+ handleboxes only:

I created submenus of GtkRadioMenuItems, offering "Top", "Left", "Right"
and "Bottom" for the positions of the handleboxes and their contents
(usually toolbars). I prepared 4 versions of the handlebox + content, 2
vertical and 2 horizontal ones, and placed each of them at their
respective edge. Only one of them is visible at any moment. The menu
allows the user to select his prefered toolbar (and handlebox) position.
The user still can't freely reattach handleboxes at arbitrary positions
+ orientations but at least he can select the base position +
orientation via menu. This could of course also be put into a GUI
configuration dialog instead of a menu.

> 2.) Is there any good mechanism to reorder toolbar portions
> like it can be done in many MS-Windows-Applications, where 
> there are handles on various toolbars? Is this the functionality
> implemented in the new toolbar for gtk-2.4? (Are there only 
> sliding toolbar buttons or can whole toolbars be moved and 
> reordered?)

To my knowledge in GTK+ 2.2 there is no way to provide the same amount
of flexibility in allowing the user to layout the application controls
as there is in Windows. I don't know about 2.4 yet but I think there are
some improvements planned.