Forcing first exposure

[Gravis Zero <gtk-app-devel-list adaptivetime com>]

--------the (lengthy) bottom line---------

so i ask, how can force an expose signal to a widget(drawingarea) that
has never been exposed?  ive tried various things they mention in
documentation like invalidating a region or sending "expose_event" via
g_signal_emit_by_name() which all fail.  the closest ive come is by just
calling the callback directly but it segfaults as the widget "window"
has not been allocated memory(joy).  im kind of stuck and ill take a
clean or dirty answer about now.  if you are thinking "redesign the app"
please read the details as to why that isnt happening.

--------application details below-----------

so here is a the deal, i have application that loads graphics from a
file.  the graphics are in a foriegn format and are decoded to a drawing
area.  the sum of the graphic contents is 64MB(32bit 4096x4096) which
loads very quickly on linux.  however, not so much on win32 due to being
so large and win32 being slower.  i have no problem with longer load
times when loading the file but the problem is that the drawing area is
not exposed until after you load the file.  needless to say i would like
to be able to load the image into the drawing area when loaded instead
of when it is exposed as it make the app look slugish or frozen.  i have
checked the archive only to find solutions like "use a buffer and blit
it" which isnt an option as that would double the data to 128MB which is
far more than rediculous.

--------------------------------

ok, so if you are that guy going "oh... that's easy" please share your
ultimate wisdom of gtk+ with me.  one more thing... figure it out or the
kitten gets it!


Gravis