new libxfcegui4 stuff

[Jasper Huijsmans]

Op ma 23-02-2004, om 20:05 schreef Brian J. Tarricone:
> hi all-
> 
> i just committed two things to libxfcegui4...  first is my 'backport' of 
> GtkIconTheme that i ripped out of gtk 2.3.2.  use it by including 
> libxfcegui4/xgtkicontheme.h.  the file name change is just to absolutely 
> be sure of avoiding problems with gtkicontheme.h in gtk 2.4.  i put 
> ifdefs in place to only enable the code if compiled against <=gtk-2.2.x 
> (and 2.3 as well, tho this perhaps should be changed).  if included on a 
> system with gtk 2.4, including libxfcegui4's copy of this include file 
> will include the 'real' version instead (though i'd suggest that anyone 
> who use it should do a gtk version check and include the appropriate 
> header).
> 
> i'm going to convert xfdesktop to use GtkIconTheme for its icon 
> searching needs, and jean-francois: i'd suggest you modify 
> xfce4-menueditor to use it as well.
> 

This is excellent. I'd like to try and implement the panel icon theme
code using this as well. Time permitting, naturally.

> second is a GtkImageMenuItem subclass i wrote, XfceAppMenuItem.  here's 
> the summary from my cvs commit message:
> 
> XfceAppMenuItem is a subclass of GtkImageMenuItem.  its purpose is to
> represent an application that is run by selecting the menu item.  it
> handles themed icons mostly automatically and can be generated manually
> from app name, command, icon name, etc., or automatically from an
> XfceDesktopEntry.
> 

Interesting. I wonder if I could use a similar representation for panel
launchers ...

> i tossed a really simple sample app at
> http://kelnos.homelinux.org/xfce4/files/xamitest.c
> which demonstrates both using the XfceDesktopEntry interface and 
> creating the item manually.
> 
> i'm not sure how general-use this is, but i'm planning on ditching 
> GtkItemFactory and the extra MenuItem struct in favor of this method, 
> since it handles it's own memory storage and is in general less annoying 
> to manage.
> 

I no fan of the itemfactory myself, so it sounds promising.

> i was thinking about the xfdesktop menu itself...  is this something 
> that should eventually be moved into libxfcegui4 as well?  i could 
> imagine some users wanting, e.g., a button on the panel that pops up the 
> system menu, so it makes sense to generate it in the same place.  
> 
> on the other hand, i'm wary of dumping lots of stuff into libxfcegui4 - 
> i doubt anyone wants to see it turn into something huge like one of the 
> gnome libs.  

Yeah, this is indeed a problem. Beside the panel and xfdesktop I don't
see much use for it, but code duplication sucks. Perhaps making it a
gmodule installed by xfdesktop could work...

> out of curiosity, what's with the inclusion of all the netk 
> stuff?  why hasn't anyone (meaning, anyone in the general desktop 
> developers community, not anyone xfce-related) put this into a 
> standalone library?  there certainly seems like there's enough there for 
> a general-purpose util lib.
> 

netk stuff is renamed libwnck from GNOME. Olivier decided to include it
in libxfcegui4 to reduce dependencies. At that time the library wasn't
all that stable, I believe. I'm not sure how it is now.

	Jasper