John Margaglione wrote:
>
> > I think we've agreed on an integrated IDE via Corba & Bonobo.
> > Of course this won't be available in the GTK+ version, but we can't do
> > everything.
>
> Any work been done as to the interfaces between elements of the IDE?
I don't think so. The gnome-dev-tools list may know more.
There has been a text editor IDL file around for a while but I think it is
only in the early stages of development. It's probably better to add pieces
as you need them and refactor it to a nice API later.
> > We can try to use the GtkArg/GParam stuff in GTK+/GLib, and also the
> > BonoboPropertyBag stuff which we partially support now.
> >
> > An extra customization API may be useful. I'm not sure if Bonobo has that.
>
> I'm assuming that this discussion related only to GTK2.0, right? And
> when you
> say customization API, do you mean a general API to be applied to custom
> widgets, or an API specifically for Glade?
GTK+ 2.0 isn't too far away so it would probably be better to target that than
1.2. Unless it is easy to support both.
> > > 3. Should the XML format be overhauled? (As a code generation author, I
> > > can tell you first hand that it needs work).
> >
> > Maybe, once we know exactly what the final format should be.
> > (But there are many other things to do and this is a religious issue, so
> > forget you even mentioned it!)
>
> Never! :)
>
> Something you mentioned hit me a while ago. The idea of using small
> Glade XML
> files for dialogs (as in Evolution) can be extrapolated.
>
> Consider each top-level widget having its own XML file, and one XML file
> for
> the project itself. Widget XML files have no project-specific info,
> just
> widget structures and property tags. The project XML file has flags for
> gnome support, directory locations, etc.
>
> This would go a long way to creating a component development environment
> with
> GUI tools like Glade. Right now, if you develop a dialog box under
> Glade,
> and you want to use it in another project, you have to either a) load
> the other
> project's glade file using libglade, then request the dialog, or b) do a
> copy/
> paste from the old glade file to the new glade file. It would be much
> nicer
> to keep the glade files in the gnome share directories, then load it
> using
> libglade on demand, or add it to a project as a read-only widget. I
> suppose
> bonobo will also fix that problem, however.
Yes, a separate XML file for each toplevel may be a good way to go.
It scales better. But you need more code to keep track of projects.
> As for the Glade XML files, I'm not looking for a massive overhaul. It
> would
> make my life easier, though, if labels for attributes in glade's XML
> matched
> up with the GtkArg name. Examples would be shadow_type (shadow) and
> columns
> (n_columns). The <child> tag causes a few complications as well. Most
> importantly, though, I would make widget attributes XML attributes.
> That
> way I know immediately if I'm dealing with a subwidget or an attribute.
>
> I understand that a small change in glade's XML can cause a lot of
> rework for
> for code generator authors, so if this change is to be made, I would
> suggest
> making the change at the same time as the switch to GTK2.0. When it
> rains
> it pours, something like that :)
Maybe if you use GParams everywhere I'll consider changing the tag names.
What's wrong with the <child> tag? I should have called it 'packing' but
I thought the properties used there were OK. Maybe you mean '<child_name>',
which is a lot more awkward, but difficult to avoid.
> > > 4. Should glade be a tool for entry-level programmers, exposing only the
> > > most basic features of Gtk/Gnome, or should it be a power-user tool,
> > > allowing endless customizability and flexibility?
> >
> > It should be the best that we can make it, with our limited time.
>
> Thats pretty vague... if we truly have limited time, it would only make
> sense
> that we should have a better game plan. Knowing what type of tool Glade
> should be would help focus the developers who still work on Glade.
But noone ever works on things that I suggest!
Damon
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