MDI In Gtk 2.0?

[Mark Jones <mark jones106 verizon net>]

I have read some of the previous discussion about this from the year 
2000.  I am one who seeks MDI support from Gtk (but do not have the 
technical know how yet to implement it, so please don't reply, "then why 
don't you write it," I'm very new to Gtk).

Whether MDI is a good or bad, apparently (and surprisingly to me) is 
hotly debated.  However, I think it would be good for Gtk to implement 
it, mostly for mainstream acceptance.  Now, there are those who say 
"eff" mainstream acceptance...but I am one who has been using Linux for 
7 years now, and see Gtk and Qt as the greatest things to happen for 
Linux since then (and I thank those who made it happen).  Gnome is good 
and all, but I don't see why it isn't in Gtk too.  My personal goal is 
to start a gnedit project, because the one thing I dislike about nedit 
the most is the lack of MDI, even though it is still my favorite editor 
(and I really can not think of any other thing I dislike, though I'd 
like it to have some features similar to some other *indows editors).  I 
want to convert it over to gtk instead of motif and have it be MDI or 
non-MDI (a user preference).  I'm not saying I can do it all myself, but 
that is why I say I want to start it (with help from other nedit fans) 
and not do it all by myself, among other reasons (like peer review, and 
being accomplishable withing a reasonable amount of time).  But anyway, 
to even start this, Gtk needs MDI support.  Does anyone know if that is 
planned for Gtk 2.0?

Personally, I think anything anyone wants (and _willingly_ contributes) 
that is useful to others should be a part of Gtk.  I don't think Gtk 
should be a base API, but rather a fully developed API to do everything 
under the sun eventually (even if that takes several years) as long as 
it remains portable.  I know another thing I'd like to see is 
TextEntries that are able to be set to only allow ASCII text, integers, 
floating point numbers, etc.  Java Swing doesn't have this, but with 
Symantec's Visual Cafe 3.x you got classes that did allow these kind of 
restrictions (and more).

Anyway, back to my point, is MDI in the future for Gtk?  :)

Mark

PS  What is the best book (if there is one) and most up to date for in 
depth Gtk programming (not just for creating simple apps, but creating 
your own widgets, etc.)?