344 lines
11 KiB
XML
344 lines
11 KiB
XML
<!-- WSDG Chapter User Interface -->
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<!-- $Id$ -->
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<chapter id="ChapterUserInterface">
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<title>User Interface</title>
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<section id="ChUIIntro">
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<title>Introduction</title>
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<para>
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Wireshark can be "logically" seperated into the backend (dissecting of
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protocols, file load/save, capturing, ...) and the frontend (the user
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interface). However, there's currently no clear seperation between
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these two parts (no clear API definition), but this might change in the
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future.
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</para>
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<para>
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The following frontends are currently maintained by the Wireshark
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development team:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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Wireshark, GTK 1.x based
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Wireshark, GTK 2.x based
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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TShark, console based
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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There are other Wireshark frontends existing, not developped nor
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maintained by the Wireshark development team:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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Packetyzer (Win32 native interface, written in Delphi and released
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under the GPL, see:
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<ulink url="http://www.networkchemistry.com/products/packetyzer/"/>)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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hethereal (web based frontend, not actively maintained and not
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finished)
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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This chapter is focussed on the Wireshark frontend, and especially on
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the GTK specific things.
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTK">
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<title>The GTK library</title>
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<para>
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Wireshark is based on the GTK toolkit, see: <ulink url="http://www.gtk.org"/>
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for
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details. GTK is designed to hide the details of the underlying GUI in
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a platform independant way. As this is appreciated for a
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multiplatform tool, this has some drawbacks, as it will result in a
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somewhat "non native" look and feel. For example: on Win32, the "File
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open" dialog of Wireshark looks very different compared to the native
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Win32 dialog the Win32 users are used to see.
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</para>
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<para>
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GTK is available for a lot of different platforms including, but not
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limited, to: Unix/Linux, Mac OS X and Win32. It's the foundation of
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the famous GNOME desktop, so the future development of GTK should be
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certain.
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GTK is implemented in plain C (as Wireshark itself), and available under
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the LGPL (Lesser General Public License), being free to used by
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commercial and noncommercial applications.
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</para>
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<para>
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There are other similar toolkits like Qt, wxwidgets, ..., which could
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also
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be used for Wireshark. There's no "one and only" reason for or against
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any of these toolkits. However, the decision towards GTK was made a
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long time ago :-)
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</para>
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<para>
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At the time this document is written there are two major GTK versions
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available:
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</para>
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<section id="ChUIGTK1x">
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<title>GTK Version 1.x</title>
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<para>
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GTK 1.x was the first major release. Today there are 1.2.x and 1.3.x
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versions "in the wild", with only very limitted differences in the API.
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</para>
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<para>
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Advantages (compared to GTK 2.x):
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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available on a lot of different platforms
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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very stable as it's matured for quite a while now
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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Disadvantages:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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the look and feel is a bit oldfashioned
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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not recommended for future developments
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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GTK 1.x depends on the following libraries:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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GDK (GDK is the abstraction layer
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that allows GTK+ to support multiple
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windowing systems. GDK provides drawing and window system facilities
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on X11, Windows, and the Linux framebuffer device.)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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GLib (A general-purpose utility
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library, not specific to graphical user interfaces.
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GLib provides many useful data types, macros, type conversions,
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string utilities, file utilities, a main loop abstraction, and so on.)
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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GTK 1.x is working on GLib 1.x (typical for Unix like systems) or 2.x
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(typical for Win32 like systems).
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</para>
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<para>
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XXX: include Wireshark GTK1 screenshot
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTK2x">
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<title>GTK Version 2.x</title>
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<para>
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Advantages (compared to GTK 1.x):
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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nice look and feel (compared to version 1.x)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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recommended for future developments
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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Disadvantages:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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not available on all platforms (compared to version 1.x)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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maybe a bit less stable compared to version 1.x (but should be
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production stable too)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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more dependencies compared to 1.x, see below
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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GTK 2.x depends on the following libraries:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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GObject (Object library. Basis for GTK and others)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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GLib (A general-purpose utility
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library, not specific to graphical user interfaces.
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GLib provides many useful data types, macros, type conversions,
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string utilities, file utilities, a main loop abstraction, and so on.)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Pango (Pango is a library for internationalized text handling. It centers
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around the #PangoLayout object, representing a paragraph of text.
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Pango provides the engine for #GtkTextView, #GtkLabel, #GtkEntry, and
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other widgets that display text.)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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ATK (ATK is the Accessibility Toolkit. It provides a set of generic
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interfaces allowing accessibility technologies to interact with a
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graphical user interface. For example, a screen reader uses ATK to
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discover the text in an interface and read it to blind users. GTK+
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widgets have built-in support for accessibility using the ATK
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framework.)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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GdkPixbuf (This is a small library which allows you to create #GdkPixbuf
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("pixel buffer") objects from image data or image files. Use a
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#GdkPixbuf in combination with #GtkImage to display images.)
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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GDK (GDK is the abstraction layer that allows GTK+ to support multiple
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windowing systems. GDK provides drawing and window system facilities
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on X11, Windows, and the Linux framebuffer device.)
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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XXX: include Wireshark GTK2 screenshot
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTKCompat">
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<title>Compatibility between 1.x and 2.x</title>
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<para>
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The GTK library itself defines some values which makes it easy to
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distinguish between the versions, e.g.:
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GTK_MAJOR_VERSION GTK_MINOR_VERSION
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will be set to the GTK version at compile time somewhere inside the
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gtk.h headers.
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</para>
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<para>
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There are some common compatibility issues in Wireshark between the two
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versions.
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</para>
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<para>
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Most of them (the more simple ones) are collected in
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gtk/compat_macros.h and can be used in an version independant manner.
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</para>
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<para>
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However, there are major differences between the two versions, making
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it necessary to distinct between them, like:
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<programlisting>
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<![CDATA[
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#if GTK_MAJOR_VERSION >= 2
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...
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#else
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...
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#endif]]>
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</programlisting>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTKWeb">
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<title>GTK resources on the web</title>
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<para>
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You can find several resources about GTK.
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</para>
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<para>
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First of all, have a look at: <ulink url="http://www.gtk.org"/> as this
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will be the first place to look at. If you want to develop GTK related
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things for Wireshark, the most important place might
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be the GTK API documentation at: <ulink url="http://gtk.org/api/"/>.
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</para>
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<para>
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Several mailing lists are available about GTK development, see <ulink
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url="http://gtk.org/mailinglists.html"/>, the gtk-app-devel-list
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may be you friend.
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</para>
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<para>
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Theres no Win32 specific GTK mailing list. If you want to post
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a Win32 specific problem (e.g. a problem in the GtkFileChooser dialog)
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and you are sure that it's really Win32 specific, you
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could send it to GIMPwin-users at <ulink
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url="http://www.gimp.org/mail_lists.html"/>.
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</para>
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<para>
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As it's often done wrong: You should post a mail to *help* the developers
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there instead of only complaining. Posting such a thing like "I don't like
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your dialog, it looks ugly" won't be much helpful. You might think about
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what you dislike and describe why you dislike it and a suggestion for a
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better way.
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</para>
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</section>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGUIDocs">
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<title>GUI Reference documents</title>
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<para>
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Although the GUI development of Wireshark is platform independant, the
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Wireshark development team tries to
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follow the GNOME Human Interface Guidelines (HIG) where appropriate.
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This is the case, because both GNOME and Wireshark are based on the GTK+
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toolkit and the GNOME HIG is excellently written and easy to understand.
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</para>
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<para>
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For further reference, see the following documents:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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GNOME Human Interface Guidelines at:
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<ulink url="http://developer.gnome.org/projects/gup/hig/"/>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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KDE user interface related documents at:
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<ulink url="http://developer.kde.org/documentation/library/ui.html"/>
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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Win32 XXX - where are good Win32 styleguides available?
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTKDialogs">
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<title>Adding/Extending Dialogs</title>
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<para>
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This is usually the main area for contributing new user interface features.
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</para>
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<para>
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XXX: add the various functions from gtk/dlg_utils.h
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTKWidgetNamings">
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<title>Widget naming</title>
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<para>
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It seems to become common sense, to name the widgets with some
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descriptive trailing, like:
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<itemizedlist>
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<listitem><para>
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xy_lb = gtk_label_new();
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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xy_cb = gtk_checkbox_new();
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</para></listitem>
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<listitem><para>
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XXX: add more examples
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</para></listitem>
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</itemizedlist>
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However, this schema isn't used at all places inside the code.
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</para>
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</section>
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<section id="ChUIGTKPitfalls">
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<title>Common GTK programming pitfalls</title>
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<para>
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There are some common pitfalls in GTK programming.
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</para>
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<section id="ChUIGTKShowAll">
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<title>Usage of gtk_widget_show() / gtk_widget_show_all()</title>
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<para>
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When a GTK widget is created it will be hidden by default. In order to
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show it, a call to gtk_widget_show() has to be done.
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</para>
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<para>
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It isn't necessary to do this for each and every widget created. A call
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to
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gtk_widget_show_all() on the parent of all the widgets in question
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(e.g. a dialog window) can be done, so all of it's child widgets will
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be shown too.
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</para>
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</section>
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</section>
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</chapter>
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<!-- End of WSDG Chapter User Interface -->
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