[Help-smalltalk] Re: A few comments on the Gtk+ bindings

[Robert Collins]

On Sat, 2004-09-18 at 15:15 +0200, Paolo Bonzini wrote:
> I've started integrating some of your stuff.  It's cool.

Thank you. I realise its very rough :). I've been following the 'get it
working, get it working right, get it working fast' adage.

> Changes I'd like to see are:
> 
> 1) when you modify a method, please please change all occurrences of it. 
>   Blox has a lot of duplicated code, e.g. #font/#font: and the other 
> property settings.

Yeah, I'll keep that in mind. 

> 2) change gtkview to connected, gtkobject to container.  gtkobject 
> should answer "^self connected" (i.e. the gtkview) in all objects but 
> BViewports; and BViewports should get the implementation you have in 
> BList and BText (because even though there is duplicated code, existing 
> hierarchies are there for a purpose :-).

I suspect the existing hierarchy is wrong for gtk, that things should
move somewhat. Do you mean mean gtkview the method, or the instance
variable? Ditto for gtkobject.

> 3) rather than modifying the browser, you should as much as possible 
> disable code in BloxGTK and mark it with FIXMEs.  I want to integrate 
> your stuff with no changes to the browser, or as little as possible: 
> it's ok OTOH for me to give broken GTK bindings that work ok only for 
> the browser.

Right. I've been avoiding changing the browser as much as possible.
However there are a few changes required to make it work well under gtk,
that really cannot be done without changing the browsers use of the gtk
api.

I.e. the browser makes heavy use of Forms, which conflicts with the GTK
'gtk manages layout' concept: all the auto resizing and other widgets
are not designed for that. Changing the browser to use OrderedForm
rather than Form throughout makes this a lot easier: but you need to add
the OrderedForm>>horizontal: message to be able to layout the browser
windows properly.

> When you've done these, ring me a bell.  I'll see when I can do the arch 
> work to set up my repository, too.

Let me know if you need any help with the arch stuff. 

Whats in the patch you attached? An updated copy of my patch?

Rob


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