[Mono-list] To draw or not to draw that is the question :)

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> I've explored GTK and I saw that drawing in Gtk.DrawingArea involves using 
> Gdk.Drawable which in turn requires learning some of Pango (?)... I guess 
> Pango implements what I think it is the functionality of System.Drawing, no?

Gdk implements the drawing primitives, it is fairly low-level.

Pango is a text-setting facility that you can use to render.

> Now, I'am confused what library I should use to "draw"...
> Should I use System.Windows.Forms (with Mono-wine or something?) or should I 
> use GTK and use that Pango thing?

Gdk for now.  I have a patch that lets you use Cairo (it was posted to
the gtk-sharp-list) to draw, which is simpler to use than Gdk.

In the future we will integrate System.Drawing and/or Cairo into Gtk# so
it will be a familiar API.

> I dont know what is being made in this direction so I dont know what to do....
> 
> Another question is what should I use to do image manipulation (resize, 
> chopping, do thumbnails, etc) in a server (in ASP.NET for example) without 
> installing the whole X package ?

Work is underway to have a complete System.Drawing implementation.  CVS
should let you do this.

Miguel.