Writing GNOME Applications

Writing GNOME Applications will help Linux programmers learn the basics of GNOME and understand how to write real-world applications using this important programming environment. Focusing on the essentials, this book guides you through GNOME's fundamental elements and explains how and why these elements function as they do. Rather than serving as an exhaustive reference, the book offers detailed discussion on the most important function calls, demonstrating how to put them to work in application development.

You will also find important background on UNIX and the X Window System, upon which GNOME is based. Writing GNOME Applications also presents the essentials of GTK+, GNOME's GUI toolkit. Featuring GNOME 1.2, the latest version, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the GNOME development environment and then discusses in detail such vital GNOME programming topics as:

• Menus and toolbars, focusing on the GTK+ and GNOME menu systems
  
• Dialogs, featuring the GnomeDialog Widget
  
• GNOME MDI
  
• Session management
  
• Graphics, including X Window graphics, GdkRGB, Libart, and GdkPixbuf
  
• The GNOME canvas for scrolling, mouse control, and grabbing, dragging, and dropping
  
• Documentation, focusing on HTML help systems for applications
  

Contents

• Figures ... xiii
  
• Tables ... xv
  
• Listings ... xvii
  
• Preface ... xxi
  
• Chapter 1: The UNIX Experience ... 1
  
• Chapter 2: The GTK+/GNOME System ... 21
  
• Chapter 3: The GNOME Build Environment ... 57
  
• Chapter 4: Internationalization ... 117
  
• Chapter 5: The GNOME Application ... 133
  
• Chapter 6: Menus and Toolbars ... 155
  
• Chapter 7: Dialogs ... 187
  
• Chapter 8: Using GnomeMDI ... 213
  
• Chapter 9: Session Management ... 245
  
• Chapter 10: Graphics ... 259
  
• Chapter 11: The GNOME Canvas ... 313
  
• Chapter 12: Documentation ... 367
  
• Appendix ... 391