Writing characters to the screen

["Andy T. Beckenbach" <abeck menten mbb sfu ca>]

Hi all,

   In order to make the transition from Windows to Linux, I have
to port one of my most important tools, a molecular sequence editor
(DNA, RNA, and amino acid) that I have been developing and using
for the past decade.  
   I have chosen gtk+/Gnome to make the port, for a variety of
reasons, and in my initial efforts it is obvious that gtk+ is a
much simpler and cleaner programming environment than the Windows
API--with perhaps one exception: writing characters and strings to
the screen.
   Virtually all of my screen writing, outside of dialog boxes, 
requires placing a single, mono-spaced ASCII character on the 
screen at specific x,y coordinates, in a particular color.  I have
spent some time with the gtk+ tutorial, have consulted the gtk+
reference manual as well as a number of gtk+ books, but have been
unable to figure out how to put a single character on the screen.
I would note, that to re-draw the screen, it is necessary to do
this several thousand times.

   So my question is straight-forward: What is the best way to 
display a single character in a specified font (mono-spaced in my
application, since text columns have to align vertically), in a
specified color (since each residue will have an associated color),
at a specfic position withing an editing window?

Thanks, in advance,

  Andy Beckenbach
  beckenba sfu ca