RE: About dialog api

[martyn 2 russell bt com]

> I didn't include these in the list, since
> 
> a) I don't know how they would be integrated in the current 
> dialog layout.

Assuming you're using the same look that the gnome about box offers, I think
the only place you could put it (without reworking the whole gui) would be
in the credits window.  - Perhaps as a separate tab, which would be the
default shown upon loading the credits.  If there is no commercial
information, you could just hide that tab.  The other thing to perhaps
consider is having a website for the commercial company as well as a website
for the application which you mention below.

This should be a quick addition to make to the about box.

> b) Most of them are only relevant for commercial products, which are
> unlikely to use the stock about dialog anyway. 

It is true that come companies would like to design their own about dialogs,
and that is fine, but I think we should offer applications a generic about
box with commercial aspects considered.  Not providing these extras is IMO
forcing commercial products to create their own about dialogs.

My latest open source application has an about box like this:
http://gnome-jabber.sourceforge.net/screenshot-about.png

I have used this template for my commercial applications using the left side
for images representing the companies the product is being developed for /
by.  Company name and serial numbers, etc are all squeezed in there
somewhere, but I generally think that the gnome / gtk about box would be
much better than this and would rather use it. 

> 
> But if you can make a good proposal for a), then b) is certainly not a
> hindrance to their inclusion.
> 
> Personally, I think the most likely candidate for further 
> properties would
> be
> 
>  website (char*)
> 
> where the sticky point is what to do if the user clicks on 
> it. Maybe we
> should just add a signal,
> "website_activated", and let apps connect gnome_url_show to it...

I definitely think the website inclusion needs to be there somewhere EVEN if
you can not click on it to start it up in a browser.  I have implemented
launching a browser on Windows and Linux.  This is quite a common
requirement in my current application, and I know this is slighly off thread
but shouldnt GTK have a method of doing this?

Regards,
Martyn