Re: Starting an X-application seems to block the GUI

[Paolo Molaro <lupus ximian com>]

On 01/30/01 ws wrote:
> I see some strange looking things in my application:
>
> -Starting X-applications (e.g. gv and xedit) out of glade/perl pressing
> the 'OK' button the GUI is not refreshed (to test send gv to 'Back')
> until the child has died.
> -The 'Refresh' command sent to the windowmanager works on all tools
> (also on Glade's builder) but not on the GUI.
> -Pressing GUIs 'Cancel' button does'nt work but will be memorized (GUI
> disappears after the child has died).
>
> I can demonstrate this in a mini-app 'tst', consisting of a GtkWindow, a
> GtkHBox and the buttons OK and Cancel.
> All code in Tst.pm is generated except the sub 'OK_bt_clicked' used to
> start the X-applications using back ticks.
>
> The X-application seems to block the GUI, how can I avoid that?
>
> What I really want ist to start a application and read back immediatly
> all things going in earlier times to the console.
> Optional giving up this guidance after a second (applic has then checked
> some things) and have the GUI and the application separated.
> Is this possible?

Uhm, I can't undestand exactly what you want to do, but:

        `xedit tst.glade &`;

is not the right way to run an external application from a GUI.

        system("xedit tst.glade &");

is one correct solution to the problem.
backticks in perl are used to collect the standard output of an application:
to do that in a Gtk app without blocking the user interface, you need to
open a pipe to the app and setup an I/O callback with:

        Gtk::Gdk->input_add(fileno(PIPE), 'read', sub {...});

lupus

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