Re: GtkBuilder Public API - Last call

[Yevgen Muntyan <muntyan tamu edu>]

Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> 2007/6/14, Yevgen Muntyan <muntyan tamu edu>:
> > Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> > > 2007/6/13, Yevgen Muntyan <muntyan tamu edu>:
> > >> Kalle Vahlman wrote:
> > >> > 2007/6/13, Matthias Clasen <matthias clasen gmail com>:
> > >> >> GtkBuilder is just setting the name that was specified in the 
> > xml, so
> > >> >> it is not violating the principle that the widget name belongs 
> > to the
> > >> >> app/user, since
> > >> >> the xml is part of the app.
> > >> >>
> > >>
> > >> And widget isn't part of the app? Such separation is meaningless for
> > >> purpose of answering the question "should we change code of given
> > >> widget if we want the widget to be usable with GtkBuider?"
> > >>
> > >> So, if a widget sets its name to modify its style, then
> > >> it's broken? Even if the style is essential part of its 
> > functionality?
> > >> E.g. text cursor color is not something fancy, it's an essential part
> > >> of text widget and it rather sucks if cursor is invisible because of
> > >> wrong styles. Saying "it's broken because it is somehow
> > >> not a part of application" just doesn't make sense.
> > >
> > > So let's see, the things that make up a "style" in gtkrc are colors
> > > and style properties. Any special-casing above (or rather below) that
> > > is up to the theme engine and thus can't really be trusted. Colors are
> > > grouped by functionality into fg, bg, base and text (as well as the
> > > various computed colors from those). Those have clear meanings, and
> > > should provide enough distinct colors for most widgets. If not, you
> > > must rely on custom style properties and accept that it might not
> > > match the theme. There is no way around this (other than calculating
> > > the color, but that might be less than pleasing visually).
> > >
> > > If a widget goes bonkers because a style property had the default
> > > value, maybe the default value should be made more sensible?
> >
> > Until gtk-2.12 there was no API to set cursor color. Try a textview
> > with black background and black cursor and you'll see what I'm
> > talking about ;)
>
> But I don't understand why this has anything to do with widget names?
> If you set black on black, it'll be black on black even if you widget
> is named "GreyOnWhite".
>
> > Try to get tooltips yellow color from a theme, without using
> > "gtk-tooltips" name.
>
> But GtkBuilder doesn't touch that name? So why would it break?
>
> > And of course those custom style properties won't match theme,
> > why would one change them otherwise? Thing is, sometimes you
> > do need to change those style properties, and it is *not* something
> > wrong or evil.
>
> Let me see if I can list the cases where this is neccessary:
> - You implemented your custom widget and it needs style
>    -> match by *.class
> - You implemented a custom container and wish to give style to the 
> children
>    -> match by *.class.child_class
> - You implemented a custom widget with internal children and they need 
> style
>    -> name the internal child whatever and match by name
> - You need to set style to it here but not there
>    -> name the widget you get from GtkBuilder and match by name
>
> Is there other cases, and why do they break down if GtkBuilder sets 
> the name?
>
> > > You said that matching the widgets in gtkrc would be a problem and in
> > > the part that you didn't include here I told you it's not:
> > >
> > > "A quick test shows that I can indeed match my widget by the fancy 
> > name
> > > I gave it in the code in a gtkrc, while the lookup returns the correct
> > > object with the xml id."
> > >
> > > Did I miss something obvious here? Or did you?
> > >
> >
> > Set widget name in constructor or init(), then create this widget with
> > GtkBuilder.
> > Yeah, "semi-broken".
>
> Why is that preferrable over matching by the widget class name?
See
http://svn.gnome.org/viewcvs/gtksourceview/trunk/gtksourceview/gtksourcestylescheme.c?view=markup
for cursor color thing, set_cursor_colors() function. For non-unique 
name, try
to get tooltips color on your widget without "gtk-tooltips" name.