Writing Gnome Applications

The GNU Network Object Model Environment (GNOME) is a free, open-sourced desktop and application programming environment that provides consistent appearance and functionality, a smaller code base, and better integration for UNIX/Linux-based applications. Although powerful and elegantly constructed, GNOME is large and complex, with a steep learning curve.

Writing GNOME Applications will help Linux programmers learn the basics of GNOME and understand how to write real-world applications using this important programming environment. Focusing on the essentials, this book guides you through GNOME's fundamental elements and explains how and why these elements function as they do. Rather than serving as an exhaustive reference, the book offers detailed discussion on the most important function calls, demonstrating how to put them to work in application development.

You will also find important background on UNIX and the X Window System, upon which GNOME is based. Writing GNOME Applications also presents the essentials of GTK+, GNOME's GUI toolkit. Featuring GNOME 1.2, the latest version, this book provides a comprehensive overview of the GNOME development environment and then discusses in detail such vital GNOME programming topics as: * Menus and toolbars, focusing on the GTK+ and GNOME menu systems
* Dialogs, featuring the GnomeDialog Widget
* GNOME MDI
* Session management
* Graphics, including X Window graphics, GdkRGB, Libart, and GdkPixbuf
* The GNOME canvas for scrolling, mouse control, and grabbing, dragging, and dropping
* Documentation, focusing on HTML help systems for applications

Sample applications throughout the book illustrate how these elements function in practice. You will come away from this book with a solid grounding in GNOME fundamentals and the knowledge you need to write a complete GNOME application from front to back.

John R. Sheets has been following the GNOME project on a day-to-day basis for more than two years. He is a software developer for Code Weavers, Inc., where he ports applications from Windows to Linux. In his free time, he is helping the WorldForge project to create a free online multiplayer gaming environment.

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