Run a GTK application without desktop environment

[Anatol Pomozov <anatol pomozov gmail com>]

Hi

I am trying to implement a simple Kiosk-like web application. The
application will run fullscreen all the time and show web pages. I my
case it will be project's build status. I want to use a simple
computer like a RaspberryPi. And I want to avoid starting heavy
environments like KDE or Gnome.

Is there any good example/tutorial on this topic?

In fact I already have a simple GTK application that uses WebKit
engine. I can run it both in Gnome and without it by using xinit. I
have a few questions about it:

- gtk_window_fullscreen() works fine with Gnome but with xinit it does
not expand the window. Does it mean that fullscreen is actually a DE
feature? What is the best way to make fullscreen app in XWindow? Right
now I use gdk_screen_get_width/height and then set default size.

- If I run webkit in XWindows it shows pages with horrible fonts. How
to make the browser fonts similar to what I see in my Gnome desktop?
Where to start reading about font handling in the modern Linux
graphical stack?

- It looks like Kodi player at RaspberryPi does not not use xinit at
all. It looks like RaspberryPi has a direct framebuffer feature. Is it
possible to do it with my webkit-centric application? I can't find any
details on this topic.

Did anybody make something similar? I would love to hear the
experience in making DE-less applications.