Re: [gtk-list] Re: Window manager window placement and X modifiers/states

[Paul Barton-Davis <pbd op net>]

>> and growing of windows/widgets. however, this model doesn't work well
>> when the size of a widget is critical for its operation, and it works
>> even less well when this size may need to change during the course of
>> the widget's lifetime.
>> 
>
>I think the widgets are just broken. :-)
>
>You do have a fundamental problem if a widget is going to be changing
>sizes - interface elements "bouncing around." Here I guess you want to
>be able to set a "default size" that approximates the maximum size
>you're predicting.

heh. even i agree that the elements-bouncing-around model is pretty
broken. but i still think that deep within GTK is the notion that any
widget can given any size and it will be basically OK. this simply
isn't true for widgets that display (textual) information in a way
that requires a given height and/or width to be usefully
legible. buttons can shrink to about 2x2 pixels before they become
totally useless - many text display widgets are useless at anything
other than their "intended" size (where "intended" is a combination of
the style's font and the text to be displayed).

that why i think that gtk_widget_set_usize_to_display_given_text() is
a pretty useful function to have, and why i use it a lot.

--p