Re: [Java-gnome-developer] Thank you - Great work

[Ben B. <lin...@bu...>]

On 13.11.2008 07:28, Andrew Cowie wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-11-12 at 20:00 +0100, Ben Bucksch wrote:
>    
>> I just want to thank you for this great API to GTK.
>>      
>
> Now that's just the sort of thing that really makes your day. People in
> the #java-gnome IRC channel were very happy this morning.
>    

Great! :-) You guys deserve it.

>> It feels entirely natural in Java, is very comfortable and very
>> approachable.
>>      
>
> That doesn't happen by accident. It is the result of the hard work
>    

As some scientist said: "Sorry for the long letter, but I had no time 
for a short one."
The time you guys spend is saved (usually many times) by all the people 
who use the API. :-)

It shows.

> All I can say to that is that the writing there is the result of 
> experience [...]
> That usually occurs as we're trying to _use_ something

That's pretty obvious. Including the hair-tearing and head-banging. I 
liked the notes about the TreeSelection.Changed signal emission 
<http://java-gnome.sourceforge.net/4.0/doc/api/org/gnome/gtk/TreeSelection.Changed.html>, 
not just because of the funny language, but because it shows your 
fundamental attitude to a proper, clean API.

> So hey. As you experiment and learn, I encourage you to note places
> where a question you had in your mind *wasn't* answered as you were
>    

OK, here's one: How do I make a deck? Basically a |Notebook| without 
tabs. I need it when I want to display two different kinds of UI, one at 
a time, in the same UI space, because they are mutually exclusive or the 
selection is triggered by something else, e.g. a tree node selection.

For now, I implemented it myself, by adding and removing children from a 
HBox, and setting setSizeRequest(), calculated based on maxima of 
getRequisition() of the children.

Ben