C++, gtkmm and Glade

frankh · **Joined:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:35 pm **Posts:** 24

Is anyone using this combo? And with C++ I mean OOP, not just C on steroids :-)

I've been writing in C and using Glade and GtkBuilder. Which is ok. However, I've decided to move to C++ since it solves some of the hassles with plain C (imo). But I'm not really sure how to design the gui programming code. It seems kind of a half-solution to write the GUI code using C++ if all the GTK code is kept in a main function, as in C.

Is anyone doing this? If so, how are you solving it and what tools do you use? (Tools, as in libglade, gtkmm etc.)

errol · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 7:25 am

Hi,

I use C++ Glade and Gtkmm. It is a combination that I like. One thing that you can not use is the C GtkBuilder signal auto connect system. So you have to write all of your signal connects in your code. Also I now do not use libglade or libglademm any more as these are now deprecated in preference to GtkBuilder.

One thing to note about Gtkmm is that not every thing has a C++ equivalent to the C functions. So sometimes you may need to use a C function, but this is rare.

frankh · **Joined:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:35 pm **Posts:** 24

Hi, thanks for your answer.

Could you give me a couple of pointers? In this simple test example I'm using libglade - how can I change this code to use GtkBuilder?

File elevator.cpp:

Code:

#include <gtkmm.h>
#include <libglademm/xml.h>
#include "Egui.h"

using namespace std;

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
     Glib::RefPtr<Gnome::Glade::Xml>elevator;
     Gtk::Main kit(argc, argv);
   
     // load the interface
     elevator = Gnome::Glade::Xml::create("src/Egui.glade");
   
     // Get the main window:
     Egui *mwindow;
     elevator->get_widget_derived("mwindow", mwindow);

     // start the event loop
     Gtk::Main::run(*mwindow );
   
     return 0;
}

File Egui.cpp:

Code:

#include "Egui.h"
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

Egui::Egui (BaseObjectType* base_object, const Glib::RefPtr<Gnome::Glade::Xml>& glade_xml):Gtk::Window(base_object) {

     glade_xml->get_widget("mwindow", mwindow);
     glade_xml->get_widget("f5bttn", f5bttn);

   // Connect the appropriate callbacks...
     f5bttn->signal_clicked().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this, &Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked));   // signal_clicked -> in the glade file: clicked
 
}

Egui::~Egui () {}

// Signal handler methods:
void Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked () {
   cout << "Mmmmm.....5......" <<endl;
}

File Egui.h:

Code:

class Egui:public Gtk::Window {
   public:
     Egui (BaseObjectType* cobject, const Glib::RefPtr<Gnome::Glade::Xml>& glade_xml);
     virtual ~Egui ();

   protected:
   Gtk::Window *mwindow;
   Gtk::Button *f5bttn;   

   void on_f5bttn_clicked ();
};

I'm using gcc/g++, and compiling/linking like this:
$ g++ -c src/Egui.cpp -export-dynamic `pkg-config gtkmm-2.4 libglademm-2.4 --cflags --libs`
g++ -c src/elevator.cpp -export-dynamic `pkg-config gtkmm-2.4 libglademm-2.4 --cflags --libs`
g++ -o testrun elevator.o Egui.o -export-dynamic `pkg-config gtkmm-2.4 libglademm-2.4 --cflags --libs`

wisuzu · **Joined:** Tue Nov 29, 2011 6:19 pm **Posts:** 9

I'm quite noob at GUI's but i did something similar yesterday. I think changing all the references of Gnome::Glade::Xml to Gtk::Builder

try something like this:

File elevator.cpp:

Code:

#include <gtkmm.h>
#include <libglademm/xml.h>
#include "Egui.h"

using namespace std;

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
     Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder> elevator;
     Gtk::Main kit(argc, argv);
   
     // load the interface
     elevator = Gtk::Builder::create("src/Egui.glade");
   
     // Get the main window:
     Egui *mwindow;
     elevator->get_widget_derived("mwindow", mwindow);

     // start the event loop
     Gtk::Main::run(*mwindow );
   
     return 0;
}

File Egui.cpp:

Code:

#include "Egui.h"
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

Egui::Egui (BaseObjectType* base_object, const Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder>& m_refBuiler):Gtk::Window(base_object) {

     m_refBuiler->get_widget("mwindow", mwindow);
     m_refBuiler->get_widget("f5bttn", f5bttn);

   // Connect the appropriate callbacks...
     f5bttn->signal_clicked().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this, &Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked));   // signal_clicked -> in the glade file: clicked

}

Egui::~Egui () {}

// Signal handler methods:
void Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked () {
   cout << "Mmmmm.....5......" <<endl;
}

File Egui.cpp:

Code:

class Egui:public Gtk::Window {
   public:
     Egui (BaseObjectType* cobject, const Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder>& m_refBuilder);
     virtual ~Egui ();

   protected:
   Gtk::Window *mwindow;
   Gtk::Button *f5bttn;   

   void on_f5bttn_clicked ();
};

frankh · **Joined:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:35 pm **Posts:** 24

Hm, that seemed to work. Is that all the difference there is?

Here's the new working example:
elevator.cpp:

Code:

#include <gtkmm.h>
#include "Egui.h"

using namespace std;

int main (int argc, char *argv[]) {
   Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder> builder;
     Gtk::Main kit(argc, argv);
   
     // load the interface
   builder = Gtk::Builder::create();
   builder->add_from_file("src/Egui.glade");

     // Get the main window:
     Egui *mwindow;
     builder->get_widget_derived("mwindow", mwindow);
   
     // start the event loop
     Gtk::Main::run(*mwindow );
   
     return 0;
}

Egui.cpp:

Code:

#include "Egui.h"
#include <iostream>

using namespace std;

Egui::Egui (BaseObjectType* base_object, const Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder>& m_refBuiler):Gtk::Window(base_object) {
   m_refBuiler->get_widget("mwindow", mwindow);
   m_refBuiler->get_widget("f5bttn", f5bttn);
   
   // Connect the appropriate callbacks...
     f5bttn->signal_clicked().connect(sigc::mem_fun(*this, &Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked));   // signal_clicked -> in the glade file: clicked
 
}

Egui::~Egui () {}

// Signal handler methods:
void Egui::on_f5bttn_clicked () {
   cout << "Mmmmm.....5......" <<endl;
}

Egui.h:

Code:

#ifndef EGUI_WINDOW_H
#define EGUI_WINDOW_H

#include <gtkmm.h>

class Egui:public Gtk::Window {
   public:
   Egui (BaseObjectType* cobject, const Glib::RefPtr<Gtk::Builder>& m_refBuilder);
     virtual ~Egui ();

   protected:
   Gtk::Window *mwindow;
   Gtk::Button *f5bttn;   

   void on_f5bttn_clicked ();
};

#endif // EGUI_WINDOW_H

errol · **Posted:** Thu Dec 01, 2011 6:23 pm

Libglademm and Gtk::Builder are very similar, but there are some differences, but it is now better to use Gtk::Builder as that is all that is available for GTK version 3.

I would also avoid "using namespace" as this could cause problems for you in the future.

frankh · **Joined:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:35 pm **Posts:** 24

Hm, I should maybe use Glib instead? And just specify it directly if I need things from the standard library?

errol · **Posted:** Fri Dec 02, 2011 8:18 pm

What I mean is do not use this

Code:

using namespace std;
...
  cout << "Hello world\n";
...

but use

Code:

...
   std::cout << "Hello world\n";
...

Suppose you have another library called DataObjectLib and that contained a class called list. If you used

Code:

using namespace std;
using namespace DataObjectLib;

Your compiler will not be able to know which list class to use std::list or DataObjectLib::list.

frankh · **Joined:** Tue Mar 16, 2010 9:35 pm **Posts:** 24

Yah, that's what I meant by "specify it directly". Thanks - good point :-)

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