gEDA-dev: Preview widget in File-Open (schem)

[Patrick Bernaud]

Hi,

Peter Clifton writes:
 > [...]
 > Do you have the preview functionality seperate as a patch? I'd like to
 > see such things get back into CVS, so I can continue my work in the
 > knowledge that its not going to cause major merging difficulties with
 > other people's development.

In theory it is possible to extract patches from the archive. However
it would be a little tricky since it is spread on a bunch of
revisions and rely on other previous revisions. But the most important
problem would be the switch to plain-c: my archive has not switched to
plain-c as the main CVS.

Anyway, I have no interest in keeping my changes for myself on a
confidential server: I will merge them with the current CVS soon. I am
first looking for testings, comments and suggestions on these changes.


 > I'm working at the moment to try and split out the file-chooser code
 > from the component picker, (seperate files), and wanted to get the
 > preview widget into a state where it can work well for both uses. (I'm
 > intending to rework the component selector, but wanted to get it into a
 > seperate file in CVS before I proceede further).

The two dialogs are already separated in my tree. BTW this morning I
played with your new layout (vertical for a possible sidebar). I have
adapted it to my own changes and it works pretty well. No commit yet
though, I will let you know when I do.


 > Not being that experienced at programming GTK, I'd appreciate your
 > input.. what is the benefit of creating a complete new "preview" widget
 > as a subclass of GtkDrawingArea, as opposed to just instantiating a
 > GtkDrawingArea, and connecting up the signals to paint it as necessary?
 > Is that just good Gtk coding practice, or a requirement of the
 > file-chooser?

Well, the GTK file selection dialog requires a GtkWidget for the
preview. And the preview is using a TOPLEVEL structure. Since TOPLEVEL
is not a GtkWidget, the TOPLEVEL has to be embedded in a GtkWidget
extending a GtkDrawingArea.

And it changes the preview into a nice independent/reusable component
that is easy to add to a dialog.

Regards,


Patrick