Re: a broad question

["Craig S. Kaplan" <csk cs washington edu>]

> > looking at the API (its very well documented; the headers are
> > available and even contain some useful stuff) it appears that it
> > wouldn't be incredibly painful to use Xlib directly. but then again,
> > doing anything directly with Xlib tends to be fairly painful. it would
> > delightful to use GDK, but i have a strong feeling that GDK is
> > thoroughly rooted in the g_main_loop() abstraction, and so is not
> > suitable. doing it in Xlib would allow the library to be used by any
> > application using X, regarding of which toolkit it was based on.
> > 
> > if anyone has any thoughts on this, they would be very welcome.
> 
> <viewpoint you won't like>
> 
> Non-native pixmap GUIs are completely broken, for reasons such as i18n
> and accessibility. Plus you'll probably end up doing various ICCCM and
> other X stuff incorrectly. If you use at least GtkWindow you can get
> at least part of this right - you get proper WM hints setting,
> gdk-pixbuf, and the nice expose compression/anti-flicker. It'll still
> be a broken app of course.
> 
> </viewpoint you won't like>

And yet, pixmap GUIs are completely standard in the audio/music 
software world, for reasons that I don't fully comprehend.  I 
think the issue is that the tools are written to be familiar to
musicians coming from physical studios and not users coming from 
other apps on the same computer.  The lengths these tools go to
in replicating real-world controls like dials, which are awful
to use with a mouse, is both charming and repulsive.

Like Havoc, I understand the advantages of sticking to standard GTK 
widgets.  But doing so might be suicidal for a nascent standard in 
the music software world.  Still, I would stay inside a GTK framework
for the compliance and compatibility reasons Havoc gives.  For
this reason, Canvas seems like the way to go, since you should
be able to mix i18n widgets like text entry boxes together with
custom cutesy pixmap buttons.  And since I'm eagerly awaiting 
the announcement of a GNOME-based VST work-a-like, I don't object
to restricting plugin-using apps to the GTK main loop.

--
Craig.              http://www.cs.washington.edu/homes/csk/
Counterfactuals: what would the world be like without them?