Re: [Plplot-devel] Status of examples/c/extXdrawable_demo.c

[Alan W. I. <Ala...@gm...>]

On 2018-06-22 08:56+0930 Jonathan Woithe wrote:

> Hi Alan
>
> On Wed, Jun 20, 2018 at 04:51:04PM -0700, Alan W. Irwin wrote:
>> As far as I can tell from
>>
>> git log --follow examples/c/extXdrawable_demo.c
>>
>> Jonathan Woithe implemented that example a decade ago ...
>
> I did.  The purpose of the example was to show how the external X drawable
> device could be used to integrate into toolkits for which there was no
> native PLplot device.
>
>> This example is really dated because it contains calls to the GTK+ API
>> that were already deprecated for GTK+ version 2 and non-existent for
>> GTK+ version 3.  And it is not a good idea to mix this GTK+ version 2
>> example with a PLplot core library that can depend directly (in the
>> non-dynamic drivers case) on GTK+ version 3 which has long been the
>> standard version of GTK+.  So I have effectively disabled the build of
>> examples/c/extXdrawable_demo.c in my recent commit 9893349d1.
>
> These are all valid points, and disabling the build of the code seems like a
> sensible step at this point.  Although it hasn't been mentioned, I would be
> reluctant to see the example removed completely though, since it still
> serves to show one possible way that the External X Drawable device can be
> used.
>
> With that said, it would be good to update it for gtk3.
>
> I would be willing to take a look at this myself, but it might be a few
> months before I have the time to do so due to an elevated workload.  I am by
> no means an expert on gtk but I might be able to get something functional
> happening.
>
> It's also worth noting that there was nothing special about choosing gtk for
> this demo.  At the time I was working on an internal company tool which
> needed to plot data in a GUI context.  It was a simple program and it ended
> up using gtk (Qt wasn't an option at that point for various unrelated
> reasons).  Since the demo came out of that work, the demo ended up using
> gtk.
>
> Feel free to ping me in about 3 months if you haven't heard from me by then.

Hi Jonathan:

I was glad to see that you are still lurking on the PLplot devel list and also
willing to take a look at updating/replacing this example later on
when you anticipate more free time to work on this topic.

>From what you have said, it appears this "external X" method should
transcend individual toolkits.  So any toolkit (e.g., Qt5 or GTK+
version 3) you decide to use in an implementation of a modern
"external X" example would be fine and also feel free to implement
this example in whichever of the C or C++ languages you prefer for the
task.  When the time comes I encourage you to call on me for any
PLplot build/test system help that you might need to integrate your
work into PLplot.

Alan
__________________________
Alan W. Irwin

Programming affiliations with the FreeEOS equation-of-state
implementation for stellar interiors (freeeos.sf.net); the Time
Ephemerides project (timeephem.sf.net); PLplot scientific plotting
software package (plplot.sf.net); the libLASi project
(unifont.org/lasi); the Loads of Linux Links project (loll.sf.net);
and the Linux Brochure Project (lbproject.sf.net).
__________________________

Linux-powered Science
__________________________