Our examples all tend to have the same structure. They follow these steps
for using a Widget
:
Declare a variable of the type of Widget
you wish to
use, generally as member variable of a derived container class. You could also
declare a pointer to the widget type, and then create it with
new
in your code. Even when using the widget via a pointer,
it's still probably best to make that pointer a member variable of a container
class so that you can access it later.
Set the attributes of the widget. If the widget has no default constructor, then you will need to initialize the widget in the initalizer list of your container class's constructor.
Connect any signals you wish to use to the appropriate handlers.
Pack the widget into a container using the appropriate call,
e.g. Gtk::Container::add()
or
pack_start()
.
Call show()
to display the widget.
Gtk::Widget::show()
lets gtkmm know that we have
finished setting the attributes of the widget, and that it is ready to be
displayed. You can use Gtk::Widget::hide()
to make it
disappear again. The order in which you show the widgets is not important, but
we do suggest that you show the top-level window last; this way, the whole
window will appear with its contents already drawn. Otherwise, the user will
first see a blank window, into which the widgets will be gradually drawn.