Re: [Bug-gv] gv GUI

[Hans Fredrik Nordhaug]

On Wed, Nov 24, 2004 at 02:30:59PM +0100, address@hidden wrote:
> 
> I would like to get some feedback from all of you about the gv
> graphical user interface.
> 
> I find the actual graphic interface comfortable, but its use of Xaw3d
> (little more than a bunch of xlib widgets designed for teaching
> purposes) greatly limits the scalability of the tool.

I don't know how bad Xaw3d is - it seems to be update on freshmest.
 
> Examples of such limitations: suppose we want to implement a tree-view
> of a PDF document (a very nice feature). We should get one of two
> options: a) To use the Xaw3d `table' widget to "simulate" the
> appearance of the tree (Xaw3d do not provide any tree widget) or b) To
> write a native xlib widget for drawing trees. Where (a) is ugly (b) is
> embarrassing and time-consuming. Another problem comes to mind when
> thinking about the application menus: Xaw3d do not support the notion
> of a `submenu'.

I agree that neither a nor b is an real option.
 
> So i think we should decide now the future of gv graphical user
> interface:
> 
> - Should we change the widget toolkit used by gv? 
> - Should we provide support for more than one toolkit?
> - Ok, more toolkits but... which toolkit (tk, gtk+, ...)? 

I think I prefer gtk+. I don't think we should waste time on more toolkits.

Hans

PS! We should focus on fixing the bugs in 3.6.0 before we start this (major)
task.

Disclaimer: I have done no real work using tk, gtk+ or qt... (I have down
some development in wxWidgets/wxWindows, but using gtk+ directly is probably
as easy.)