Re: [gtk-list] Re: GtkText

[Bradford Hovinen <hovinen udel edu>]

On Wed, 15 Dec 1999, Andy Kahn wrote:

> On Wed, Dec 15, 1999 at 11:42:41PM +1100, Neil Hodgson wrote:
> > 
> > > Are there any replacement for GtkText?
> > > I need a text widget with working scrollbars and better syntax
> > > highlightign
> > 
> >    There are several GTK+ text editing widgets that you may wish to look at:
> > 
> >    GtkEditor http://www.daimi.au.dk/~mailund/gtk.html
> >    GtkExText http://www.bahnhof.se/~mikeh/linux_software.html
> >    Scintilla http://www.scintilla.org
> 
> Unfortunately, the first two are still based on the original GTK text
> widget, so they also inherit all the problems associated with it.  The
> last one (Scintilla), is written in C++ and in it's current form, is
> more of an application as opposed to a reusable widget.

Hmmm... I just downloaded and took a look at Scintilla. It looks like its
text edit widget is far in advance of GtkText in many ways (especially in
that it supports horizontal scrolling). Since the Gtk+ project needs a new
text edit widget, why not just take that, port it to C (shouldn't be too
hard since all the Gtk+ stuff is written in C) and patch it into Gtk+ as a
GtkText replacement? It would eliminate the necessity of reinventing the
wheel by writing a new text edit widget from scratch. It still needs a bit
of work, most noteably in the area of reducing flicker and improving
selection support, but to do so would be far easier than a completely new
widget.

I would be happy to take on that effort if the idea is to the satisfaction
of all involved.

> regards,
> --andy

-Bradford Hovinen

"Prudence is a rich, ugly old maid courted by Incapacity."

        - William Blake, "Proverbs of Hell," 1793