RE: 2.4 features - Indenting container

[Owen Taylor <otaylor redhat com>]

On Thu, 2003-03-13 at 10:05, Murray Cumming Comneon com wrote:

> > The only API proposal I remember seeing was a proposal for
> > a separate container widget that allowed for padding on
> > exactly one side of it's child.
> > 
> > This didn't seem like a great idea to me ... it's a little 
> > clunky to have to nest containers if you need padding on two 
> > sides, and I don't see a need for a new container type.
> > 
> > Something like:
> > 
> >  gtk_alignment_set_padding (left, right, top, bottom)
> 
> Yes. Are you suggesting that it should be part of GtkAligment instead of a
> new widget?
> Actually, that's Gregory Merchan has already implemented:
> http://mail.gnome.org/archives/gtk-devel-list/2002-December/msg00090.html
> I think a new widget might be more appropriate, but it doesn't bother me
> greatly as long as we have one or the other.

Well, the difference is that in theatpatch there is padding on
one side, while I think you are right that you want independent
padding on all four sides.

If we add it as something extra to GtkAlignment, I think
there will be a natural concept of:

 "I want to tweak the whitespace around this widget, let
  me add a GtkAlignment and fool with the properties 
  until things look right"

On the other hand, if we had a separate widget, and 
glade's right click menu had:
 
 Add alignment
 Add spacer

I think people would pick the wrong one a lot of the time.
Plus, you need both a good portion of the time, and having
two levels of containership just makes things more complicated
to handle.

GtkAlignment won't be the greatest *name* for such widget,
GtkSpacer would be a lot better. But I think a bad name
is better than having two widgets.

Regards,
                                        Owen