On Mon, Mar 26, 2007 at 07:20:49PM +0200, Gustav Broberg wrote:
I have uploaded a patch to the tracker which is a first attempt to implement dockable dialogs/panels using gdl (Gnome development library).
The patch adds a dockable pane to the desktop on which any GTKmm:ified dialog can be docked. Here are some screenshots showing what it's all about: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Dock_patch_1.png http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php/Image:Inkscape_dock2.png
Very cool, this definitely looks like something we want.
To compile you'll need gdl >= 0.6.1, the latest version is available here: http://ftp.gnome.org/pub/GNOME/sources/gdl/0.7/gdl-0.7.2.tar.bz2
Gdl is a fairly small UI library developed for IDE:s such as Anjuta. The main thing it provides is a set of components to build dockable interfaces.
I realize that it would be better to do this without an additional library, but right now I think gdl is the best option assuming that we want a dockable interface.
If it works as a reasonably standalone library, with dependencies only on libraries we already depend on (gtkmm, glib, etc.) then this is probably a good choice. If it depends on libraries we don't already have in the codebase, then that could be a problem, as it increases our "weight" on windows, non-GNOME platforms, and so on.
This could be made optional in autoconf, as we do with inkboard, etc. However, this feature is something that probably should be implemented in a way that allows us to use it universally.
Can you please investigate the dependent libraries, and especially look for ways to "trim" the dependencies down? The nautilus dependency is especially worrisome.
The pros of using gdl, as I see it, are:
Thanks, this is a good analysis.
Bryce