Re: [Pcmanfm-develop] [Lubuntu-desktop] About GTK2 -> GTK3 Migration, a critical issue

[Julien L. <gi...@ub...>]

On Sun, 14 Aug 2011 19:52:14 +0800
PCMan <pcm...@gm...> wrote:

> I'm not sure what Lubuntu devs will (...)
Ubuntu 11.10 will begin to use many programs build with GTK3. So, we will have to deal with GTK3, and it will be installed by default, and used.
The original plan was to begin the port to GTK3 as many LXDE components as possible, to be able to build with GTK3 if necessary (the case of mixed GTK2 and GTK3). For now, fortunately, it will not be necessary (LXDE GTK2 works nice on Lubuntu 11.10).

> The problems we will have after the migration:
> 1. PCManFM: desptop icons will be broken and this part needs some sort of
> rewrite for gtk3. In addition, some theming stuff uses gtk2 only features.
> 2. LibFM: this part still uses much GTK2 APIs. Though I already started the
> preperation for migration, this won't happen recently. As gtk3 now changed
> its user input handling and the change is not backward compatible, I'm not
> sure what bugs this will bring.
Thanks for the information.

> 3. The XSettings daemon inside LXSession doesn't seem to be working for both
> gtk2 and gtk3 at the same time.
Last time I tried, it was working. But you need a theme which is configured for GTK2 and GTK3.

> 4. LXAppearance cannot configure gtk2/gtk3 at the same time. Technically
> it's not possible to make it work for both of them at the same time.
The only problem I saw when working on Lxappearance port to GTK3, is that it used deprecated API to reload windows. It should be solved by using Dbus for lxsession, with a call to reload the theme manager. I planned to work on this soon.

> 5. LXPanel is completely broken under gtk3. The work needs to fix the panel
> and port it to gtk3 is even more than developing a new panel. Hence, I plan
> to develop a new one based on gtk3 from scratch later. I will use libwnck at
> that time to avoid some low level X11 hacks. Some new widgets provided in
> gtk3 are useful for the new desktop panel. This could decrease much
> maintaince load and many unresolved bugs. I'll also do some UI redesign
> then. For now, migration to gtk3 for this one is 100% impossible and nobody
> is going to do it.
Yes, LXpanel will be very difficult to port, and also, nobody want to maintain it.
However, before starting to write a panel from scratch, maybe we should look at other panel applications. Many applications of this type exist, it's like music player, many people like to write one :)

Regards,
Julien Lavergne

-- 
Julien Lavergne <gi...@ub...>