[Glade-users] Glade and Python

Tristan Van Berkom tristan.van.berkom at gmail.com
Thu Sep 9 11:18:17 EDT 2010 

On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 9:59 PM, Arthur Shats <ashats at hotmail.com> wrote:
> The problem with Decorated property seems to come from the use of Xmanager,
> not Glade-2, so never mind this.
> I will inform my manager about GtkBuilder, he is the one making decisions on
> what to use. But we are looking for ways to minimize code writing, that's
> why he went with idea of pre-generate the code (a skeleton). Non of us here
> are experienced Gtk people, so with generated code, at least we know which
> handlers/signals to use.

Please remember to reply-all and keep things on the list.

I understand the misconception, some things to keep in mind when
considering generated code vs. using GtkBuilder directly:

   - First off, using GtkBuilder is a very very small API, creating an interface
     (meaning creating all the heirarchy of widgets for your
application) is just
     a matter of calling gtk_builder_add_from_file() once.

   - If hiding the dynamic xml that creates the interface is a problem, you can
     always escape the xml and store it as a string constant instead and use
     gtk_builder_add_from_string() instead.

   - To get a pointer to any widget in the file, you only have to call
     gtk_builder_get_object() with the name you specified in Glade

   - Over time its been noted that people generally tend to mess with
     the generated code or somehow have to patch it into their application,
     sometimes changing something simple with Glade in the future becomes
     near impossible unless very special care is taken to isolate the generated
     code from the rest of the project code... while using GtkBuilder and xml
     format, you only ever need to edit and install the new Glade file with
     your application without modifying any of your code or patching anything
     (unless ofcourse your new UI includes some new feature... in which
     case you will have new signal callbacks in place for that etc).

   - Even worse, its been noted that when handing people generated code;
     no matter how much we tell them not to look at it, people invariably look
     at the generated code and use it as an example (the generated code is
     obviously *not* a good tutorial or example, its old old old, uses
long time
     deprecated apis and is not an example of good coding practices).

   - Generated code from Glade-2 will definitely not be easily portable to
     GTK+ 3.0 apis when they come out, if you use an xml format there is
     a good chance we can provide a conversion script for your xml to work
     with GTK+ 3.0... or even a conversion routine provided from the Glade tool
     (Glade-3 includes a conversion process to convert libglade format files
     to the new GtkBuilder api).

Some food for thought.

Cheers,
         -Tristan

>
> Thanks,
> Arthur.
>
>> Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 11:06:10 +0900
>> Subject: Re: [Glade-users] Glade and Python
>> From: tristan.van.berkom at gmail.com
>> To: ashats at hotmail.com
>>
>> On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 3:40 AM, Arthur Shats <ashats at hotmail.com> wrote:
>> > I was told to use Glade-2 because Glade-3 doesn't generate C code (don't
>> > know if it's true or not). Anyway, I am using Glade-2 to create a window
>> > with few entry fields. I set decorated property of that window to 'No',
>> > so
>> > it doesn't display borders of the window (you would not see the toolbar
>> > with
>> > minimize/maximize/close buttons). Then I use Gladex to generate Python
>> > code.
>> > When I run .py, my window comes up all right, but I can not type
>> > anything
>> > into any entry fields on the window. When I set Decortated property to
>> > Yes,
>> > so I would see the toolbar with minimize/maximize/close buttons, I am
>> > able
>> > to enter data into the entry fields. So, my question is why when
>> > Decorated
>> > property is set to No, I can't type anything into the entry fields.
>> > I don't know if the same problem exists in Glade-3, I am using Glade-2.
>>
>> Right, except I don't maintain Glade-2 and if there's a bug... it wont get
>> fixed
>> (and if there's a bug in the code it generates... that wont get fixed
>> either).
>>
>> Why do you have to use generated code ? Have you looked at the GtkBuilder
>> apis ? (GtkBuilder is a part of GTK+ and so is also available in the
>> python
>> bindings and just as easily usable as calling a create_window1() function
>> as
>> I read you were doing in a previous mail).
>>
>> Also... about GtkWindow:decorated property, I dont know exactly what is
>> the problem, its possible you ran into a bug in GTK+
>>
>> I would advise you might ask about the problem in detail on
>> gtk-app-devel-list at gnome.org
>> (a list on the topic of the widget... not it's interface designer).
>>
>> You might also try to reproduce the problem in a very small test case in
>> Python
>> (create a non-decorated window and add an entry to it and see if its
>> broken).
>>
>> Then you could go ahead and file a bug and attach your test case...
>>
>> Cheers,
>> -Tristan
>>
>> >
>> > Thanks,
>> > Arthur.
>> >
>> >> Date: Thu, 9 Sep 2010 02:42:16 +0900
>> >> Subject: Re: [Glade-users] Glade and Python
>> >> From: tristan.van.berkom at gmail.com
>> >> To: ashats at hotmail.com
>> >> CC: glade-users at lists.ximian.com
>> >>
>> >> On Thu, Sep 9, 2010 at 1:30 AM, Arthur Shats <ashats at hotmail.com>
>> >> wrote:
>> >> > I have a .glade file created in Glade-2 and I am using Gladex to
>> >> > generate
>> >> > Python code. All seems OK, but if in Glade I set Decorated property
>> >> > to
>> >> > 'No',
>> >> > I can not type into any entry fields on my screen. I am able to do so
>> >> > with Decorated set to Yes. Any idea how to make it work with
>> >> > Decorated
>> >> > set
>> >> > to 'No'?
>> >>
>> >> Arthur,
>> >> Glade-2 is old and unmaintained, can you please explain to me what is
>> >> broken with Glade-3/GtkBuilder that makes Glade unusable for you ?
>> >>
>> >> Thankyou,
>> >> -Tristan
>> >>
>> >> > Thanks,
>> >> > Arthur.
>> >> >
>> >> > _______________________________________________
>> >> > Glade-users maillist  -  Glade-users at lists.ximian.com
>> >> > http://lists.ximian.com/mailman/listinfo/glade-users
>> >> >
>> >> >
>> >
>

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