Speed of Gdk-Pixbuf Vs. GdkRGB

["David J. Singer" <doc deadvirgins org uk>]

In Gtk-1.2, when rendering custom graphics into a drawing-area, I would basically
malloc a chunk of memory, read the raw RGB data in from a file (using a bespoke
loading routine) and then draw the graphic using 'gdk_draw_rgb_image'.

I notice that Gdk-Pixbuf can basically do the same sort of thing as this using
'gdk_pixbuf_new_from_file' to read the data and  'gdk_pixbuf_render_to_drawable'
to put it in a drawing-area.  (Incidently, a pointer to an example of how to do this
would be great. I can't find one in the docs or via google...)

My question is, if drawing speed is an issue, is it faster to use the slightly lower-level
GdkRGB method rather than the Gdk-Pixbuf one?  More generally, how does the 
Gdk-Pixbuf stuff rate in terms of drawing speed compared to GkdRGB?

On a related point, I usually define a backing pixmap in a 'configure' callback, draw the
graphical content into the pixmap, then copy it to the drawing-area in one go in an
 'expose' callback.   (based loosely on the "simple example program using GdkRGB" in 
the Gdk docs).  Is this still the best way to go for fast, flicker-free graphic updates?

-- 
David J. Singer
doc deadvirgins org uk
"Time flies like an arrow, fruit flies like a banana"