How to: Use GTK# in .NET.

[Cander]

For those interested in portablity between Mono and .NET, the biggest issue you will have is windows and controls. On mono there has been work on GTK# which is a managed wrapper of the GTK+ windowing widgets often used to wite gui apps on Linux. I have spent lots of time trying to get around using GTK# on Windows with .NEWT so that I can use it instead of the normal System.Windows.Forms to make it easier to port my .NET windows developed stuff over to Linux.

Finally I figured out the steps and some example code to create a window, buttons, textbox and adding text to textbox from a button click. Simple stuff really, but enough to get started in understanding using GTK.

Here are the step you need to do first to use them.

1) Install Cygwin - www.cygwin.com
2) Install GTK+ runtimes - http://www.dropline.net/gtk/download.php
3) Install GTK# - http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/g...p.exe?download
4) Right click My Computer. Properties. Click Advanced tab. Goto Environment variables and change your path variable to include the following

a) path_you_installed_cygwin\bin
b) path_you_installed_gtk+\lib
c) path_you_installed_gtk#

Now for an example

Imports System
Imports Gtk
Imports GtkSharp
 
Public Module ToggleButtons
    Dim tb As Gtk.TextView
    Dim buffer As Gtk.TextBuffer
 
    Sub OnDeleteEvent(ByVal obj As Object, ByVal args As DeleteEventArgs)
 
        Application.Quit()
 
    End Sub
 
    Sub OnExitButtonEvent(ByVal obj As Object, ByVal args As EventArgs)
 
        Application.Quit()
 
    End Sub
 
    Sub OnClick(ByVal obj As Object, ByVal args As EventArgs)
        ' Create a new buffer object
        buffer = New Gtk.TextBuffer(System.IntPtr.Zero)
        ' Set the buffer to point to the textviews buffer
        buffer = tb.Buffer
        ' Set text to display
        buffer.SetText("hey there")
    End Sub
 
    Public Sub Main()
 
        Application.Init() ' pre initialization
 
        Dim window As Window = New Window("Testing Widgets") ' Declaring a new window
        AddHandler window.DeleteEvent, AddressOf OnDeleteEvent
        window.BorderWidth = Convert.ToUInt32(0)
 
        Dim box1 As VBox = New VBox(False, 10) ' Creatinga child container for window to hold
        ' Note that the window object can only hold 1 child. So we use the Boxes to hold our main widegts
        window.Add(box1)
        box1.Show()
 
        ' Create a button with a Clicked event wired up
        Dim btnClick As Button = New Button("Click to add text to textview!")
        AddHandler btnClick.Clicked, AddressOf OnClick
        box1.PackStart(btnClick, True, True, Convert.ToUInt32(0)) ' Add it to the Box container we creates
        btnClick.Show() ' make it visible
 
        Dim separator As HSeparator = New HSeparator() ' horizontal seperator
        box1.PackStart(separator, False, True, Convert.ToUInt32(0))
        separator.Show()
 
        ' Create a quit button
        Dim btnQuit As Button = New Button("Quit")
        AddHandler btnQuit.Clicked, AddressOf OnExitButtonEvent
        box1.PackStart(btnQuit, True, True, Convert.ToUInt32(0))
 
        tb = New Gtk.TextView()
        tb.SetSizeRequest(100, 100)
        box1.PackStart(tb, True, True, Convert.ToUInt32(0))
        btnQuit.CanDefault = True ' Make quit button default
        btnQuit.GrabDefault()
        btnQuit.Show()
 
        window.ShowAll() ' Display the child to window object
        Application.Run() ' Run the application
    End Sub
 
End Module

Add reference to the 3 follwoing dll's in the gtk# dir
atk-sharp
glib-sharp
gtk-sharp

Now build and run the built exe. For some reason it doesnt work by just hiting F5 and running it in the IDE. Nopt sure why yet.

If everything was done right, you should have a GTK based window come up.

Now this code SHOULD compile and work using mono bas on Linux as well. I will test this once I get my Linux system back up.

If nothing else, this is something new to play with.
Enjoy

[Cander]

It actually does run in the IDE. I just had to close VS.NET as the path changes didnt get reloaded by the ide.

Still get some kind of exception on close of the app. Dont know why yet.

[Cander]

UPDATE:

Yes the same exact code compiled under Linux. Here is the screenshot.


So yes protable code between Windows and Linux is possible under .NET/.Mono

[DevGrp]

Good stuff. Will this run on Redhat? I'll try this in VMware.

[Cander]

Shouldnt have any problems under REd Hat. It was running it under Gentoo using VMware as well.

[DevGrp]

Ok cool.