Kickstart me for GUI app development!

I've recently switched to Linux for learning to develop and hopefully one day to assist the community. I've learned to use the autotools and vim. I know C/C++ and a bit Perl.
I was wondering what is the best way to start developing GUI appz for Linux.
I need something that is rapid straightforward, and have no need for GUI design tools for the moment. Just a suggestion on which software interfaces would be most appropriate if it is not too much to ask?

The most popular three are Qt (KDE is based on this), GTK+ (Gnome is based on this), and wxWindows (the Linux version is implemented as a layer on top of GTK+). You typically use whatever fits your preferred desktop environment. Xfce also makes use of GTK+. If you don't like the C interface, you can use GTK-- (GTKmm), the C++ wrapper.
Oh, and Tk is very popular in scripting languages, such as Tcl, Perl or Python.

Thanx i think i'll go for GTK+ then.

Ok, i got the developer kit, and the doc... but i have a small problem.
I used a script, to make vim ctags for assisting with code autocompletion. (The interface has long long names... )

Code:

#!/bin/bash # # addtag : A small script to make a whole directory of sources into a tag file # located at the current directory. # if [ -z $1 ]; then echo "Usage: addtag DIRECTORY <tags file>"; exit -1; fi; tagdir=$1; if [ -z $2 ]; then tagfile="tags"; else tagfile=$2; fi; basedir=`basename $tagdir`; linkfile=".$basedir"; if [ -f $linkfile ]; then rm -f $linkfile; fi; /bin/ln -s $tagdir $linkfile; ctags -R --language-force=c -f $tagfile $linkfile;

I invoked the script as: ./addtag /usr/include/gtk-2.0 gtk-2.0.tags
Then i edited the appropriate tags entry in ~/.vimrc
My problem is that most gtk-2.0 functions are not appearing in the resulting tag file.
I read the man of ctags but failed to realize if an option would amend things.
is my --language-force switch to ctags wrong? Has anyone got a good link with vim ctags readily compiled to use, or knows how to create one?

I know this is a bit off-topic but any help would be appreciated...

I'm also interested in learning how to write gtk apps in linux. I'm sorry I don't have an answer to the scripting question, but I do have another question: When I try to compile my first app, it can't find my included header file gtkmm.h or anything it requires. I know it's installed, and I set my PATH variable to point to the directory where it is, but it's still not found. Does anybody know what I might be doing wrong?

When compiling you can use:

Code:

compile: gcc -o xxx.o -c xxx.c `pkg-config --flags gtk-2.0` link: gcc -o xxx a.o b.o c.o `pkg-config --libs gtk-2.0`

This expands the include directories needed to correctly compile, and libraries needed to link when linking. Don't forget the backquotes.

PATH is for programs. include path is for includes.

xuftugulus: this didn't work for me...
robwhit: how do I edit include path?

Sorry to bump, but I guess it's better than starting a new thread. I'm still wondering how to get started making a basic prog with a gui in linux. I'm running UbuntuStudio 7.10, installed gtkmm from synaptic, but it can't find the header files, and I don't know how to configure it... Can anybody help? I'd rather not move my source code to the directory containing the headers.

From expirience, I'd suggest Gtk+

If you don't like creating the GUI by hand, use glade and implement via GtkBuilder but libglade in the meantime, AFAIK GtkBuilder isn't 100% complete. You should note libglade is being superseded by GtkBuilder.

> how do I edit include path?

Quote:

Originally Posted by man gcc

Code:

-Idir Add the directory dir to the head of the list of directories to be searched for header files. This can be used to override a system header file, substituting your own version, since these directories are searched before the system header file directories. However, you should not use this option to add directories that contain vendor-supplied system header files (use -isystem for that). If you use more than one -I option, the directories are scanned in left-to-right order; the standard system directories come after. If a standard system include directory, or a directory specified with -isystem, is also specified with -I, the -I option will be ignored. The directory will still be searched but as a system directory at its normal position in the system include chain. This is to ensure that GCC's procedure to fix buggy system headers and the ordering for the include_next directive are not inadvertently changed. If you really need to change the search order for system directories, use the -nostdinc and/or -isystem options. -I- Any directories you specify with -I options before the -I- option are searched only for the case of #include "file"; they are not searched for #include <file>. If additional directories are specified with -I options after the -I-, these directories are searched for all #include directives. (Ordinarily all -I directories are used this way.) In addition, the -I- option inhibits the use of the current directory (where the current input file came from) as the first search directory for #include "file". There is no way to override this effect of -I-. With -I. you can specify searching the directory which was current when the compiler was invoked. That is not exactly the same as what the preprocessor does by default, but it is often satisfactory. -I- does not inhibit the use of the standard system directories for header files. Thus, -I- and -nostdinc are independent.

Also, gtkmm probably uses pkg-config to give you its required compiler flags.

Type
pkg-config --cflags gtkmm-2.4
on the command line and it ought to tell you the compiler flags you need to compile gtkmm programs. Type
pkg-config --libs gtkmm-2.4
and it will tell you the linker flags.

If you compile from the command line, you can get these directly.

Code:

g++ -c main.cpp `pkg-config --cflags gtkmm-2.4` g++ -c other.cpp `pkg-config --cflags gtkmm-2.4` g++ -c module.cpp `pkg-config --cflags gtkmm-2.4` g++ -o program main.o other.o module.o `pkg-config --libs gtkmm-2.4`

Thank you guys very much, I finally got my simple gtk app running. I just realized that "back quotes" is the key above tab, because I was just trying to use the single quote key next to enter. I'm not used to using back quotes... I'll be sure to post when I run into any more problems (which will probably be pretty soon).

I don't like backquotes either, for several reasons: they can be hard to distinguish from single quotes, as you have seen, and you can't nest them, and some other people evidently agree with me because I'm pretty sure they're now deprecated according to the POSIX standard. Not that they'll ever get rid of them, but still.

There is an alternative: $(code) is the same as `code`. You can nest them, too.

Code:

grep -n function $(find -name $(cat filename))

There are a few troubles with this notation as well, however. Most notably, Makefiles use the same $() syntax for their variables. You can get around this, however, by using $(shell code) instead of `code` in Makefiles.

Good luck with GTK+. :)