Re: GtkAlignment makes things smaller, but surrouning don't get bigger

[Ben Johnson <ben blarg net>]

On Tue, Mar 08, 2005 at 12:12:53PM -0500, Owen Taylor wrote:
...
> > - If I set expand on *any* widgets to FALSE, they end up too small.
> 
> Then either add padding to them (or set a minimum size with
> gtk_widget_set_size_request()). If a widget is to small when not
> set to expand, then it will be too small when the user resizes
> the window to it's minimum size.

What is padding?  how do I add it?  do I add it to buttons or to
containers?  does it create space between widgets?  (sorry for these
questions.  but, please just give me the name of a function or a
property that I can read about.)

What I'm shooting for is a constant aspect ratio.  I know I can achieve
the aspect ratio I'm looking for at my particular screen size using
gtk_widget_set_size_request().  I'm not just developing for my screen
size though.  I would like these buttons to shrink if they need to.

maybe there's some mathematical principal  I'm missing about the
geometry of screen size vs. the number of widgets on a page.  maybe my
app will be useless on a tiny screen anyway simply because of the the
large number of widgets?  (...no I don't think I'm missing something....
I know my app should be able to work on a Zaurus, for instance, because
of the "pencil" tip is small enough to select tiny widgets.)  If I use
gtk_widget_set_size_request() will it be possible for my app to work on
a tiny screen without re-compiling it?

Thanks for your patience and help Owen.

- Ben