Who will be buying this?

[ComplexNumber]

a new GTK book is going to released today(april 23rd), and will include the complete(it says so anyway) GTK 2.10 documentation as well as being a tutorial to get you up and running writing your own gtk applications.
http://www.gtkbook.com/release.php



way back sometime last century when i was a kde user, i wanted to get properly into linux programming. i hunted around Borders Books, but there were no kde or qt books available, but i did find one about gtk, so i bought it. its very outdated now because its all about the gtk1 toolkit, but it is a good book.

i think i may well the above book, but not sure yet. but i think this is really something that gtk and gnome developers badly need. as far as i'm aware, there aren't any decent (and up to date) gtk2 books.

[simonn]

If the profit was being donated back to the GTK/Gnome community I might consider buying it, but all you need to learn and write GTK applications is free on the web - and it never really gets outdated on the web.

[ComplexNumber]

If the profit was being donated back to the GTK/Gnome community I might consider buying it, but all you need to learn and write GTK applications is free on the web - and it never really gets outdated on the web.
hmmm it doesn't seem to say anything about a proportion of the profits going back into gtk or the gnome foundation. i would like to think so, but it looks doubtful.

this book seems to be more of a tutorial than a reference, and there aren't any decent gtk tutorials on the web. i can find (partially incomplete) gtk documentation, but thats about it. i think this is something that can really help, gtk, gnome, and ultimately, ubuntu.

[tbroderick]

Not me as I don't know C. I really need to start learning a language though. Either perl or python. Both have GTK bindings too. Most likely I'll learn python cause I already have a book and I want to make console apps with curses.

[simonn]

there aren't any decent gtk tutorials on the web.

http://www.gtk.org/tutorial/

It does not tell you everything, but it there is enough to get started. You do have access to the source of pretty much every single peice of code written for GTK, not to mention the source of the library itself - what else do you need? How do you think every other GTK using programmer learned?


i can find (partially incomplete) gtk documentation, but thats about it.

You did not look very hard, the complete API doco is here:

http://www.gtk.org/api/

[ComplexNumber]

simonn
yes, but its old, horribly outdated, and incomplete. the above book is based on gtk 2.10. much of the documentation in those links still harks back to the days when gtk2 was first released. thats just no good at all :(. have you ever wondered why (for example) easy gtk theming has not happened yet? this (http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials) is the most up to date documentation. geez, it still has the crux engine there, and that is OLD. most of them aren't even used anymore. where's murrina, candido, aurura, and other more modern engines? even clearlooks(ie default theme and engine for gnome) isn't there. thats sad.
although qt is inherently hideously ugly(IMO) and is hopelessly tied to the C++ language only(despite there being some half-hearted bindings available), one plus point has got to be said is that qt documentation is leaps and bounds above the online documentation for gtk.

[simonn]

the above book is based on gtk 2.10.

The current API doco I linked to is for gtk 2.11.



have you ever wondered why (for example) easy gtk theming has not happened yet? this (http://live.gnome.org/GnomeArt/Tutorials) is the most up to date documentation. geez, it still has the crux engine there, and that is OLD. most of them aren't even used anymore. where's murrina, candido, aurura, and other more modern engines? even clearlooks(ie default theme and engine for gnome) isn't there. thats sad.


To be honest I have not, but looking at the TOC of the book,
http://www.gtkbook.com/toc.php, it is not covered in the book either.



although qt is inherently hideously ugly(IMO) and is hopelessly tied to the C++ language only(despite there being some half-hearted bindings available), one plus point has got to be said is that qt documentation is leaps and bounds above the online documentation for gtk.

Considering the number of GTK applications available the quality of the documentation would seem to be not that relevant. And, perhaps bindings are.

How do you think all the developers of all the gtk applications learned to use gtk?

[ComplexNumber]

How do you think all the developers of all the gtk applications learned to use gtk?
in the same way that themers write themes for engines where there is no documentation available (eg clearlooks, murrina, rezlooks, candido, etc).

[simonn]

And do you think that GTK suffers from a lack of themes?

http://www.gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=100&PHPSESSID=a33f5246050e74e81253d261e82304d2

[ComplexNumber]

And do you think that GTK suffers from a lack of themes?

http://www.gnome-look.org/index.php?xcontentmode=100&PHPSESSID=a33f5246050e74e81253d261e82304d2
exactly my point. tons of murrina themes abound. and i get my theming knowledge from looking at other people's themes, then work backwards.....same as most people do. but thats the harder way, and the only (current) way. it shouldn't be like that.