Re: [gtk-list] Re: GNOME widgets --> GTK+ widgets

["Shawn T . Amundson" <amundson gimp org>]

On Fri, Aug 21, 1998 at 07:11:07PM -0500, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> 
> On Fri, 21 Aug 1998, Brett Viren wrote:
> > 
> > Maybe the answer is ``There is necessary GNOME-centric code that must
> > be in these widgets which you just haven't found out about yet''.
> > 
> 
> Yep. :-) Many of them require gdk_imlib, which is a fairly fundamental
> issue. Others just use random glib-like libgnome functions that could go
> in glib. Others depend on knowing the location of the Gnome data files, or
> the existence of Gnome user preferences choices, or they require i18n.
> Others impose too much policy to go in Gtk, others only work with Gnome
> stuff (e.g. the desktop entry editor), and a final category is too hacky
> and hideous to go in Gtk. Nonetheless some of them likely will end up
> getting moved.

Actually, the only real reason is that the people working on GNOME
want GNOME to gain in name recognition and also want everyone to use
GNOME and code for it.  Nothing wrong with it, but it's not technical.

If truely the only reason 'GnomeCanvas' isn't 'GtkCanvas' is because
of gdk_imlib not being integrated into the GTK+ dist, I think that could
be resolved somewhat easily.

Widgets that do require some gnome enhancements could be derived from
the base GTK+ widgets.  That would help generalize the widgets anyway.

> There is really no reason not to use Gnome though. Library dependencies
> are really not that bad. gnome-libs only requires imlib - also required
> for Gtk themes - and i18n. imlib in turn requires some image libraries.
> But you should use i18n anyway, and imlib has tons of handy functionality.
> Gnome also makes applications look consistent, and allows users to
> configure things like dialog behavior, menubar detachability, etc.
> globally for all apps. It saves you a lot of wheel reinvention.

There are lots of reasons that programmers may not want to code for
GNOME.  Widgets need not be the reason why people code for GNOME, but
instead it should be the session management, config file routines, and
general integration into the environment.  Or, they might not want to
just because people try to bully them into it. ;-)

Besides, above you imply that functions that should be in glib get
put into libgnome and we all know widgets in libgnomeui which would
be better placed in GTK+.  And eventually they might move around to 
where they should have been originally.  Well, that's the instability
the people are talking about.  (And if those things never get moved,
then GNOME is just a tad bit hackish.)

--
Shawn T. Amundson               
amundson@gimp.org               http://www.gimp.org/~amundson

"The assumption that the universe looks the same in every
 direction is clearly not true in reality." - Stephen Hawking