Customer Reviews

GTK+ /Gnome Application Development

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I suppose this is another example of why the people who actually write a piece of software shouldn't handle its documentation. This is a somewhat haphazard reference to GTK+; it doesn't have nearly enough information to act as a tutorial, even to an experienced C programmer, and yet it's not complete enough to act as a reference guide either. Like most hacker's documentation, this is far from clear and complete; it seems geared towards people who are willing to fill in the blanks in the text themselves through reading source code or online docs. Of course, if you need to do that, why bother purchasing the book in the first place? Just read the online docs. I wish I could suggest this book, as it is an "open source" manual, but there's better material out there.

This book is almost unuseable. Most of its pages seem to be fragments from various GTK+/Gnome header files with only rudimentary explanations. It does not answer most GTK+/Gnome beginners questions, even if they are experienced programmers.

For example I wanted to call a file selection dialog. The index has one reference to GtkFileSelection, which consists of a screen shot and another reference to the corresponding #include file for this widget. That's it. The #include file contains several functions, none of them are explained or even mentioned in the book (at least I could not find them in the index).

I'm afraid I have to buy another book to get my job done.

Please be advised when you order this that it was published in 1999. It uses GTK 1.x series and really isn't very helpful since 2.x is the current standard.

This book stays open on my desk as a wonderful reference. I had been waiting for a thorough development book for Gnome. Havoc did a great job covering all the bases including internationalization issues, how to build custom widgets, and a thorough appendix of all the Gnome and GTK widgets. Great job!

This is easily one of the clearest and best-written computer books that I've ever seen. Instead of just rehashing the existing free documentation, Havoc takes the extra step and goes deep into the subject, shedding a clear new light on compex issues. This book is a must-buy!

Fair warning: I was one of the technical reviewers of this book.

This is currently the definitive book on Gtk+ and Gnome programming. Such a book is most definitely needed, as there isn't a lot of good documentation for Gnome programming right now.

One of the great strengths of this book is that it's based on real-life experience with Gnome. Havoc is one of the core Gnome developers, and author of the Guppi chart package among other things. Most of the technical reviewers are people that actually implemented major pieces of Gnome.

Thus, you're likely to find not just a rehash of the API reference (which actually would be useful in itself, given the state of Gnome documents), but a clear explanation of various design decisions you're likely to face, pitfalls to avoid, and recipes for solving problems. My guess is that this will quickly become a well-thumbed book on the shelf of any serious Gnome programmer.

I guess my biggest gripe with the book is its limited scope with regard to some of the more advanced areas in Gnome. For example, there's very little coverage of CORBA or Bonobo, the Gnome component framework. Given that these parts are still somewhat in flux, your best bet is to read the source. This book is a good guide to have along as you explore the Gnome development environment.

I bought this book hoping it would dilute the muck about linux GUI programming... Unfortunately, I found this to be very topical with a lot of the base of GTK. I can see this as more of a desktop reference rather than a intro/guide. I don't suggest buying this book if you don't already know a lot of GTK basics.

Hey, what more can I say... it's the first book I've ever seen that explains autoconf/automake so I can understand it. That alone made it worth purchasing for me.

This book is great. I am writing software for MS Windows but thanks to the GTK+ windows port and this book I can use the open-source GTK+ to do my work.

Also, even though the content is covered under the Open Publication License this book is well printed and bound making it very comfortable and well worth the price of a paper copy.

Havoc has written a very nice book, and it has a nice license. This means that we can actually maintain and keep the book up to date as the GNOME libraries evolve.

While the book does not describe absolutely everything in the GNOME libraries, it is a very good starting point for programmers who want to write GNOME applications. This book will give them a good idea of the range of functionality that the GNOME framework provides.