Re: SimpleList.pm and activation callbacks (patch)

["muppet" <scott asofyet org>]

Nathan Kurz said:
> I'm new to this list, and I thought I'd offer some thoughts on my
> experience of getting started with Gtk2.

welcome, and thanks for the input.


> Unfortunately, it wasn't sufficiently clear to me initially that
> Gtk-Perl was deprecated, that I really should be using Gtk2-Perl.
> Maybe the page at <http://www.gtkperl.org/> could be edited to include
> some forward mention of the existence of Gtk2-Perl?

at various times in the last year, i've sent messages requesting exactly that
to every email address i could find related to gtkperl.org; it appears to be
copmletely abandoned, as though it's running on a server drywalled into a
closet somewhere...


> Once I figured out that I wanted Gtk2-Perl, things got smoother.  The
> source install from CPAN worked perfectly, once I figured out that I
> needed to install the ExtUtils stuff first.

the various makefiles include code that should trigger cpan to install/offer
to install the missing dependencies for you -- did that not work?


> It took me a while to find the /example directory in the source
> distribution, and then even longer ... to find the /gtk-demo
> stuff.  It would help if these could be made more prominent:  in the
> README file, on the Documentation page, or even as a couple lines
> printed out at the end of the "make install" process.

will do.  btw, there's also a link from the website's documentation page to
http://gtk2-perl.sourceforge.net/doc/examples/ , which is in need of more love
and content (hint, hint, to all you developers).


> Since then, I've been going faster, but still in fits and starts.
> Lacking the proper Gtk terminology, I find it really hard to find out
> how to do simple things.

this is the purpose of the gtk+ tutorial, of course.

emmanuele and james, no pressure.  :-)


> Maybe there could be something like the "Object Browser" program (which
> I found when searching for examples) that could simply show all the
> possible methods for each widget, with a simple explanation of what
> each method does?

one of my pie-in-the-sky goals for the object browser is to have it list the
methods of available on each object, but this requires rather a lot of
infrastructure support, because, unlike signals and properties, there is no
runtime-queryable metadata about object methods.  i've considered trawling the
symbol table, but because there is no way to distinguish public from private
methods, and you wouldn't get any information about parameters and return
values.

so, currently, object browser shows you the generated pod page for each
object.    i've been thinking about how to use the metadata from which the pod
is generated to feed the object browser, but getting 1.040 stable and out
(along with work, and real life) has put that well down my the priority list.

of course, even at that, most of the methods in the pod have no descriptions,
largely because getting it working and correct has been more important than
copying and synchronizing the descriptions from the gtk+ api reference to
ours.  that's a post-1.040 project.  doc patches are warmly welcomed.


> The main thing I find myself wanting are more sample code, more sample
> programs, and more working examples.

what kinds of programs?  big, small, contrived illustrations or real-world
brain-benders?


> This patch adds a function to SimpleList that users
> can call from that callback function so they don't need to figure all
> that out.  It also gives an example of how it is used.

augh!  great patch, but about ten days too late for 1.040 -- our API is frozen.

is this important enough to try to get a freeze break approved?


-- 
muppet <scott at asofyet dot org>