I'm new to Ruby/Gtk and find it, so far, exactly what I want for a GUI.
  However, I have one problem that I can't seem  to figure out and that
has to do with setting sizes of widgets.   For example, I want to
create a status bar with four display areas.   I can use an HBox for
the container and use four status bars for the info.  Works great.
I can set the first three to be small for position data and the fourth
one to be long for general messages.   Done all the time.   (there may
be a better way to do this, but it works)

However, if the user resizes the main window, the statusbars stretch in
all directions, including height.   I want only the last area to
stretch and it only in width.   Setting height and width_requests seem
to only affect shrinking the window.

I'm having the same problem with my menubar - it stretches in height
when the window is resized.   There has to be an easy fix to this, but
so far it eludes me.

Bill