[Mono-list] Using glade[sharp] in a mono project

[Miguel de Icaza]

Hello,

> Usually when we build a new form using winforms, we would subclass a 
> general form and add it some new features and initializations.
> In Glade on the contrary we have some "hardcoded" group of Gtk classes 
> an we cannot modify them for our purposes...(written in c). That way 
> suppse we want to build a special TreeView that will attach a popup menu 
> to each of it's nodes - and we just can't do it, without creating a new 
> instance of a class that inherits TreeView and copying the Glade given 
> values(size, color...) into it.

There are a number of things that you can do:

	* You can create the actual TreeView in your code and add it to
	  a container that you designate in your GUI.

	  This is a common pattern for custom widgets, something like:

		[Widget] Box some_box;
		...
		MyCoolWidget w = new MyCoolWidget ();
		some_box.Add (w);

	  In your case, you can do:

		class MyTreeView : TreeView {	
			...
		}

	  And override methods at will.

	* Use the signal connect mechanism.   If you only need to do 
	  some minor changes to the behavior of a widget, you can
	  connect to the signals (for every method you could override
	  in the OO-way of doing things, you have a signal you can just
	  hook up to).

	  For example, if you want a Button to do something specific
	  with Gtk# you do not write a special button subclass, say
	  "PrintHelloWorldButton", instead you use a regular button
	  and hook up to the signal "Clicked" where you print Hello
	  World.

Miguel.