From: Yasushi Shoji <yashi / yashi.com>

> # I'm Cc'ing this to ruby-talk, so someone, who knows ruby and Gtk+
> # better than me, can correct me if I'm wrong :)
>
> I'm not a gtk developer nor I have done any big gtk project.  All I
> have done is a few patches for gtk binding for Ruby.  So I might be
> completely misunderstanding the subject... but, here I goes.
>
> After we move type system to glib, will it be possible to use custom
> type system in Gtk+?
>
> there are many languages that support object system with language
> core. e.g. C++, perl, python, ruby and more.  I just feel that it
> would be better to use language feature for it.
>
> my understanding is that because Gtk+ is written in C, and C doesn't
> really support object orientation by itself, Gtk+ introduced type
> system.  if it's correct, why not allow to use language's type system?
>
> what I've been thinking is that Gtk+ could be separated to three
> parts.
>
> - API (which is language binding layer)
> - Widget (where actual work is done)
> - Core (type system, signal system, etc)
>
> would it help language bindings if Gtk+ can use custom systems in Core?
>
> I don't know any other language binding, but ruby/gtk already use
> custom signal handler, which handle not C function pointer but Ruby's
> own anonymous function.
>
> I don't think I have enough knowledge of Gtk+ internals, but... Any
> comment will be appreciated.

Well, I know even less at this point, but since I just started using
Ruby/GTK+, I am certainly interested in this. I don't know if this would be
any help, but since Python faces similar issues, here is a pointer to some
of their work:

    http://www.daa.com.au/~james/pygtk/

========================
<...>
PyGTK - Python Bindings for the GTK Widget Set

PyGTK is a set of bindings for the GTK widget set. It provides an object
oriented interface that is slightly higher level than the C one. It
automatically does all the type casting and reference counting that you
would have to do normally with the C API. I have also written GNOME
bindings. You can find more information about them here.
<...>
===========================

(Isn't Red Hat one of the places that uses Python for a lot of configuration
GUI stuff?)

Hope this helps,
Conrad