Re: [gtk-list] Mouseless GTK+

[Olaf Klischat <olaf klischat tu-clausthal de>]

"Jon K. Hellan" wrote:
> 
> --
> I am slightly frustrated about trying to interact with GTK+
> applications without a mouse. Before blaming anybody, I would like to
> know how responsibility is divided between the widget set and
> applications.
> 
> To illustrate what I am talking about, you can run testgtk in gtk+
> 1.2.4 and select "entry". Now try to type into the dialog.
> Intuitively, I would expect to be able to type into the text entry
> field at the top. But the only keys which have effect are <Tab>, which
> navigates to the entry field, and Shift+<Tab>, which navigates to the
> close button.
> 
> I also like having <Esc> to make the dialog go away, like in Motif and
> Windows. It could just as well be Ctl+C, of course, but there should
> be a way and it should be standardized.
> 

Another thing are those Alt+letter shortcuts that focuse the dialog's
widgets (the label belonging to a particular widget usually has that
widget's shortcut letter underlined).
I recently used the following to achieve this behaviour:

/* extract accelerator key from label_text
 * (must contain a '_' before the desired letter),
 * set label text accordingly,
 * connect Alt+Key with the specified signal
 * on the specified target widget
 */

void connect_accelerator
    (const char* label_text,
     GtkLabel* label_widget,
     GtkWidget* target,
     const char* signal,
     GtkAccelGroup* accel_group)
{
    guint accel_key;
    accel_key = gtk_label_parse_uline (label_widget,label_text);
    gtk_widget_add_accelerator
            (target, signal,
             accel_group,
             accel_key,
             GDK_MOD1_MASK,
             GTK_ACCEL_LOCKED);
}


/* extract accelerator key from label_text
 * inscribe the button accordingly,
 * connect button's "clicked" event with Alt+key
 */

void connect_button_accelerator
    (GtkButton* button,
     const char* label_text,
     GtkAccelGroup* accel_group)
{
    guint accel_key;
    GtkWidget* btn_label = gtk_label_new ("");
    accel_key = gtk_label_parse_uline
        (GTK_LABEL(btn_label),label_text);
    gtk_container_add (GTK_CONTAINER(button), btn_label);
    gtk_widget_show (btn_label);
    gtk_widget_add_accelerator
            (GTK_WIDGET(button), "clicked",
             accel_group,
             accel_key,
             GDK_MOD1_MASK,
             GTK_ACCEL_LOCKED);
}



usage:

/* create dialog */
GtkWidget* dialog = gtk_dialog_new ();

/* create new accel group and connect it to the dialog */
GtkAccelGroup* accel_group = gtk_accel_group_new ();
gtk_accel_group_attach (accel_group, GTK_OBJECT (m_dialog));

/* create a text entry */
GtkWidget* text_entry = gtk_entry_new ();
gtk_widget_show (text_entry);

/* and its  label */
GtkWidget* label = gtk_label_new ("");
/* text entry will be activatable via Alt+t */
connect_accelerator
        ("Enter _Text:",
         GTK_LABEL(label),
         text_entry,
         "grab_focus",
         accel_group);

gtk_widget_show (label);

/* a button labelled "Click me", clickable via Alt+c*/
GtkWidget* button = gtk_button_new ();
connect_button_accelerator
    (GTK_BUTTON(button), "_Click me", accel_group);

gtk_widget_show (button);

...arrange everything inside the dialog here...



Olaf