Glade and Gtk::Builder
Although you can use C++ code to instantiate and arrange widgets, this can soon become tedious and repetitive. And it requires a recompilation to show changes. The Glade application allows you to layout widgets on screen and then save an XML description of the arrangement. Your application can then use the Gtk::Builder API to load that XML file at runtime and obtain a pointer to specifically named widget instances.
This has the following advantages:
Less C++ code is required.
UI changes can be seen more quickly, so UIs are able to improve.
Designers without programming skills can create and edit UIs.
You still need C++ code to deal with User Interface changes triggered by user actions, but using Gtk::Builder for the widget layout allows you to focus on implementing that functionality.
- 26.1. Loading the .glade file
- 26.2. Accessing widgets
- 26.3. Using derived widgets