My first C#/Gtk#/Glade# application

It’s bloody useless and really simple, but it works and was really easy to write. I created the GUI in Glade, a GNOME program which outputs the UI as XML. Then using Glade# I can load the UI and connect the signals from the XML file. And since in C# I can include resource files in my binary at compile time, I don’t even have to distribute the .glade XML file, I can compile it in as a resource.

Why is all this cool? Well, for me, writing GNOME applications in C has been quite challenging and has a steep learning curve. C# is a pretty easy language to program in and when you throw in Glade# you have a winner. This is also neat because the compiled binary will run in Windows provided the system has Gtk# and Glade# installed.

All the app does is produce a small window with a button that says “Press me!” When you click the button it writes to the console text saying that it was pressed. So I won’t bother including a screenshot. But click below for the really simple code.

// CSharp.cs
//
// Author: Jamin P. Gray
//
// (c) 2002 Jamin P. Gray
namespace GladeSamples {
	using System;

	using Gtk;
	using Gnome;
	using Glade;
	using GtkSharp;
	using System.IO;
	using System.Reflection;
	public class CSharp
	{
		public static void Main (string[] args)
		{
			new CSharp(args);
		}
		public CSharp (string[] args)
		{
			Application.Init();
			Glade.XML gxml = new Glade.XML (null, "c-sharp.glade", "window", null);
			gxml.Autoconnect (this);
			Application.Run();
		}
		public void OnWindowDeleteEvent (object o, DeleteEventArgs args)
		{
			Application.Quit();
			args.RetVal = true;
		}

		public void OnButtonClicked (System.Object obj, EventArgs e)
		{
			Console.WriteLine ("Button 1 clicked");
		}
	}
}

and the XML file looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" standalone="no"?> <!--*- mode: xml -*-->
<!DOCTYPE glade-interface SYSTEM "http://glade.gnome.org/glade-2.0.dtd">
<glade-interface>
<widget class="GtkWindow" id="window">
  <property name="visible">True</property>
  <property name="title" translatable="yes">Gtk#</property>
  <property name="type">GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL</property>
  <property name="window_position">GTK_WIN_POS_NONE</property>
  <property name="modal">False</property>
  <property name="default_width">100</property>
  <property name="default_height">100</property>
  <property name="resizable">True</property>
  <property name="destroy_with_parent">False</property>
  <signal name="delete_event" handler="OnWindowDeleteEvent" last_modification_time="Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:30:05 GMT"/>
  <child>
    <widget class="GtkButton" id="button">
      <property name="visible">True</property>
      <property name="tooltip" translatable="yes">Press the button</property>
      <property name="can_focus">True</property>
      <property name="label" translatable="yes">Press Me!</property>
      <property name="use_underline">True</property>
      <property name="relief">GTK_RELIEF_HALF</property>
      <signal name="clicked" handler="OnButtonClicked" last_modification_time="Thu, 12 Dec 2002 17:28:36 GMT"/>
    </widget>
  </child>
</widget>
</glade-interface>

Tags: GNOME