Re: gtk2-perl / easily accessing objects properties

[muppet <scott asofyet org>]

Dermot Musgrove wrote:

> I agree with this - I am always attaching hash keys/values to objects
> that I have constructed.
>
> This brings up another question - why is a widget held as a blessed do{}
> rather than a hash as was done in Gtk-Perl? Data::Dumper outputs a
> widget as  
>    bless( do{\(my $o = 137539536)}, 'Gtk2::Button' )
>
> and I cannot add hash keys/values to this as I used to do when the
> widget refs were held as
>    bless( { '_gtk' => 137252624 }, 'Gtk::Button' );
>  

the "bless( do{\(my $o = 137539536)}, 'Gtk2::Button' )" is how 
Data::Dumper represents a blessed pointer value stored as a reference. 
that is, the typemap turns the actual pointer value into a reference 
via sv_setref_pv, as described in perlxstut (i believe).  (i use this 
method on another project...)

the original GtkPerl uses a special bit of code to create a hash.  it's 
a bit more work to get the value in and out of XS, but you have the 
advantage of being able to tie arbitrary perl structures into the hash.

i won't speak for the original gtkperl authors, but i think one 
motivation for using the hash method might be to avoid some of the 
DESTROY funkiness that gc and i were debating before.


i had another point, but it's late and it has slipped my mind.  sorry.