Customer Reviews

Sams Teach Yourself GTK+ Programming in 21 Days

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

 

 

Don't buy this book! It was decent in 2000, but after six years, it is almost criminal that the book is still sold. Since this book was published, GTK+ has gone through 5 complete new revisions (from 1.4 to 2.8, with 2.10 due out in the next few weeks) and nearly every API has changed. Buy the Official GNOME 2 Developer's Guide instead- it isn't spectacularly up to date either (it is based on gtk 2.4), but it is at least in the right ballpark.

Having read the first few chapters of the book, I can already tell the purchase has been a good investment. The material is well structured and enjoyable to read (like all good books should be!). Another good thing about the book is the careful use of source code listings. Some other books just stuff page after page with source code listings which does nothing more than increase the page count. The source code listing in this book is brief and to the point.

The book has good coverage on GDK and GLib. It is divided into two main sections, a user guide (~700 pages) and reference (~100). The small appendix on Motif is useful for us old Xt/Motif timers. I was able to quickly grasp the key differences between both programming models.

The one thing that should have been left out is the "C Programming Review" appendix (~40 pages). If you don't know C yet then you shouldn't be reading this book anyway.

The poster is a nice touch. There is no CD-ROM but you can download most of the code from the web. I say most because week 3 of the source code is not yet available but will soon. I am willing to overlook this for now since the book has just been published.

I generally hate "Teach yourself in 21 days" series by Sams, but this book is something different.
Donna Martin explains concepts gradually and with great style.
No long examples with hard to read source code. All the code is simple, fits the point and is very productive. This book covers all arguments you need to begin GTK+ programming, from simple label management to advanced selections and drag'n drop techniques.
The weeks are well organized, you'll never feel lost. The sensation is you're well guided trough GTK+ features and concepts. The poster included with this book is very useful, especially during the first week, when you are trying to figure out how the GTK+ class hierarchy works.
Even if this book covers GTK+ 1.2, don't worry. All the material presented here works with the 2.x series. What you have to learn are concepts, and the author is a master in doing this.
Once you are familiar with concepts presented here, buy and study
"Developing Linux Applications with GTK+/GDK" by Eric Harlow.
You'll have all the skills required to master more advanced documentation about GTK+. Finally, read the "GTK+ 2.0 tutorial" available for free from the GTK+ website to "update" your knowledge to the latest advances in GTK+ programming. It will be a snap.
Great book. Highly recommended. Hope Donna will write a new edition entirely updated for GTK+ 2.x series.

There are quite a few GTK+ programming books available in the market, but only 21days provides you the details you DEFINITELY need! A simple example is: when use g_list_remove_items ( GtkList *, GList * ), you have to make a copy of the original GList, and pass in the copy, otherwise, you will have nasty runtime errors. It is a matter of simple remind, but GNOME/GTK+ Programming Bible does not even mention it(I don't understand how the author can name his book so BRAVELY!).

This is one of those reader unfriendly books. For example, the book only gives a small segment of the code. The author then indicates in many occasions that this code segment is from xxx.c but does not say where the xxx.c is. In some occasions, the author says "this segment of code is from xxx.c (available from the website)" but does not spit out which website. I found in one occasion (p489) the author finally says this code segment is from fixed.c (found on this book's accompanying Web site) but still does not spit out the Web address. I eventually found the web address at the very back of the book. The author certainly knows how to torture the readers who paid $40 for that book!

Very good step by step reference. Make diving into the Linux and GTK+ enviroment a pleasure. I wish the example source was posted on the web though ...

After I read the glowing reviews of this book, I was very excited to go to the store and pick up a copy of it. When I sat down with it and started reading it, I couldn't believe the glaring number of typos, editing errors, and formatting problems this book had! If only someone had proofread this book before it was sent out, this could have been avoided completely. From the 100 or so pages I browsed, there was at least one error every 3 pages or so.

This is the second time that I have bought a very poorly edited book from Sams (the first being Teach Yourself Emacs in 24 Hours, which isn't even fit to toss in your fireplace). Although the content of the book and the organization seems deceny (which is why I gave this book 2 stars), I will never ever buy a Sams book again for the mere fact that I don't feel I am getting quality for my money. I think I'll stick to O'Reilly instead.

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