Re: GtkText 1.2.8 bug list

["J. Ali Harlow" <gtk-list avrc city ac uk>]

Hi Havoc,

Thanks for getting back to me so fast.

On Tue, 02 Jan 2001, Havoc Pennington wrote:
> "J. Ali Harlow" <gtk-list avrc city ac uk> writes: 
> > Ok, so for those of us who already have a "product" shipping, and have used
> > GtkText, what options do we have available to us?
> 
> If you aren't having GtkText problems, then just leave it as-is;
> GtkText works fine for simple stuff.

Unfortunately, I am having GtkText problems. These are no doubt partly because
I'm trying to support both UNIX and MS-Windows and so I have to find solutions
that work both under Gtk stable and gimpwin, which I gather uses GTK+ devel
code from around April 1999.

> > GtkExText, which I don't think I can use, because it is under the GPL
> > (incompatible with the NetHack General Public License,
> > http://www.nethack.org/v331/license.html).
> 
> Is it really? Ugh. I didn't know that. :-(

Nor did I until I went and looked at it after it was mentioned here a few days
ago. It was stated at the time that it was mainly a bug-fixed GtkText. My brief
look suggests that this isn't the case. It looks like a major re-write to me.

> > Put up with the existing bugs in GtkText.
> > 
> > Code for 2.0? Is it available for anywhere? Is it even written yet?
> 
> Yeah, it's written, but the text widget from there can't very easily
> be backported to 1.2, so you'd have to use the whole unstable
> GTK. Which will be out early this year, we certainly hope.

Well, it might solve my problems. I can stay with GtkText for my UNIX ports,
and assume that it's a stable GTK+ out there but use the new code under
MS-Windows. If you would be prepared to publish it, I for one would be grateful.

> > Roll our own. Since I only need a read-only solution, this might be possible.
> > I admit, however, that while I'm an acomplished C programmer, my skills don't  
> > lie in this area.
> 
> It's not that hard, if you are just displaying text not editing it
> it's almost trivial. Though I would guess that GtkText works in that
> case too.

I've got problems with line wrap symbols being displayed that shouldn't be
which look bad and with text being overwritten transiently during insertion.

Neither of these are really major problems, however our users tend to be a
fussy lot! Not that I'm complaining; that's how quality software is produced.

It looks as though I may have to consider writing my own widget. Is there any
documentation or code examples available that I can use without licensing
problems?

Many thanks,

-- 
Ali Harlow                              Email: ali avrc city ac uk
Research programmer                     Tel:   (020) 7477 8000 X 4348
Applied Vision Research Centre          Intl: +44 20 7477 8000 X 4348
City University                         Fax:   (020) 7505 5515
London                                  Intl: +44 20 7505 5515