GTK+ For GNOME 3.20 Gets "Gadgets"

[phoronix]

Phoronix: GTK+ For GNOME 3.20 Gets "Gadgets"

The latest feature to be added to the GTK+ tool-kit in the path towards GNOME 3.20 is a new concept called Gadgets...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=GTK-Gets-Gadgets

[Candy]

Boahhh! A new concept! Hear Hear! A new 30 years old concept, which was already known and heavily used inside Intuition (and later on by Magic User Interface and Reaction). Phear all new concepts by Gnome!

[GraysonPeddie]

Boahhh! A new concept! Hear Hear! A new 30 years old concept, which was already known and heavily used inside Intuition (and later on by Magic User Interface and Reaction). Phear all new concepts by Gnome!

I'm not old enough to know about the Intuition Window Manager, so so what does that have to do with GNOME? Magic User Interface? I'm confused. I know as far back as Windows 3.1 and 95 when I was a teenager and that's about it.

[unixfan2001]

Here's a far better/more detailed explanation as to what a GTK3 gadget entails.

https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/diff/gtk/gtkcssgadget.c?id=ad349caa0013996c65b4263c808b0cc5437accfa

Gadgets are 'next-generation widgets' - they combine a CSS node
for style matching with geometry management and drawing. Each gadget
corresponds to 'CSS box'. Compared to traditional widgets, they are more
like building blocks - a typical GTK+ widget will have multiple gadgets,
for example a check button has its main gadget, and sub-gadgets for
the checkmark and the text.

Gadgets are not themselves hierarchically organized, but it is common
to have a 'main' gadget, which gets used by the widgets size_allocate,
get_preferred_width, etc. and draw callbacks, and which in turn calls out
to the sub-gadgets. This call tree might extend further if there are
sub-sub-gadgets that a allocated relative to sub-gadgets. In typical
situations, the callback chain will reflect the tree structure of the
gadgets CSS nodes.

Geometry management - Gadgets implement much of the CSS box model for you:
margins, border, padding, shadows, min-width/height are all applied automatically.

Drawing - Gadgets implement standardized CSS drawing for you: background,
shadows and border are drawn before any custom drawing, and the focus outline
is (optionally) drawn afterwards.

Invalidation - Gadgets sit 'between' widgets and CSS nodes, and connect
to the nodes ::style-changed signal and trigger appropriate invalidations
on the widget side.

[Marc Driftmeyer]

I'm not old enough to know about the Intuition Window Manager, so so what does that have to do with GNOME? Magic User Interface? I'm confused. I know as far back as Windows 3.1 and 95 when I was a teenager and that's about it.

Don't worry, you missed nothing and these aren't a new spin on an old concept.

[unixfan2001]

Yep. Completely different. But why educate oneself when you can just spew BS, as Candy is so valiantly ready to prove?

[Candy]

Yep. Completely different.

Is it so much differently ? 30 years ago there wasn't CSS3 but some of the stuff you mentioned earlier in the bigger quote seem to be quite similar:

1) Geometry management and positioning
2) Widgets can contain mutiple Gadgets such as a check mark button that has the check mark gadget and a text laben besides it
3) Standardized drawing for gadgets to give a unified look

Sure Intuition is 30 years old but had that Widget vs. Gadget mentality as well. As said, there was no CSS3 during that time. But the metaphor, as I understood it, still matches. I invite you to read more about that within' the link that I provide.

[hubick]

They should just cut to the chase and switch to FirefoxOS.

(Edit: i.e. Restrict GTK+ itself to strictly implementing just what's needed by Firefox, and rewrite Gnome as a webapp, ala FirefoxOS)

[Creak]

Candy if you look at the commit, you'll see that they never say it's a brand new concept that only GTK devs have ever thought of. No, it's simply a concept that have been integrated into GTK: https://git.gnome.org/browse/gtk+/co...e0d2f05fc69e0f
It's simply an abstraction between a widget and a CSS node.

But I assume that the true nature of your comment was to say that you don't like GNOME, don't worry, we got that...

[GraysonPeddie]

Is it so much differently ? 30 years ago there wasn't CSS3 but some of the stuff you mentioned earlier in the bigger quote seem to be quite similar:

1) Geometry management and positioning
2) Widgets can contain mutiple Gadgets such as a check mark button that has the check mark gadget and a text laben besides it
3) Standardized drawing for gadgets to give a unified look

Sure Intuition is 30 years old but had that Widget vs. Gadget mentality as well. As said, there was no CSS3 during that time. But the metaphor, as I understood it, still matches. I invite you to read more about that within' the link that I provide.

I take it you have never written a GTK+ 3.18 application, have you? How about modifying themes via means of CSS3? Plus, I don't think you are following the latest developments in GNOME/GTK.