>

>

>Theory of Signals and Callbacks

>

NAME="GENERATOR"

CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.79">

REL="HOME"

TITLE="GTK+ 2.0 Tutorial"

HREF="book1.html">

REL="UP"

TITLE="Getting Started"

HREF="c39.html">

REL="PREVIOUS"

TITLE="Compiling Hello World"

HREF="x111.html">

REL="NEXT"

TITLE="Events"

HREF="x182.html">

>

CLASS="SECT1"

BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF"

TEXT="#000000"

LINK="#0000FF"

VLINK="#840084"

ALINK="#0000FF"

>

CLASS="NAVHEADER"

>

SUMMARY="Header navigation table"

WIDTH="100%"

BORDER="0"

CELLPADDING="0"

CELLSPACING="0"

>

>

COLSPAN="3"

ALIGN="center"

>GTK+ 2.0 Tutorial

>

>

>

WIDTH="10%"

ALIGN="left"

VALIGN="bottom"

>

HREF="x111.html"

ACCESSKEY="P"

><<< Previous

>

>

WIDTH="80%"

ALIGN="center"

VALIGN="bottom"

>Getting Started

>

WIDTH="10%"

ALIGN="right"

VALIGN="bottom"

>

HREF="x182.html"

ACCESSKEY="N"

>Next >>>

>

>

>

>

ALIGN="LEFT"

WIDTH="100%">

>

CLASS="SECT1"

>

CLASS="SECT1"

>

NAME="SEC-THEORYOFSIGNALSANDCALLBACKS"

>Theory of Signals and Callbacks

>

>

CLASS="NOTE"

>

>

>

CLASS="NOTE"

WIDTH="100%"

BORDER="0"

>

>

WIDTH="25"

ALIGN="CENTER"

VALIGN="TOP"

>

SRC="./stylesheet-images/note.gif"

HSPACE="5"

ALT="Note">

>

ALIGN="LEFT"

VALIGN="TOP"

>

>In version 2.0, the signal system has been moved from GTK to GLib, therefore the

functions and types explained in this section have a "g_" prefix rather than a "gtk_" 

prefix. We won't go into details about the extensions which the GLib 2.0 signal system

has relative to the GTK 1.2 signal system.

>

>

>

>

>

>Before we look in detail at 

CLASS="EMPHASIS"

>helloworld

>, we'll discuss signals

and callbacks. GTK is an event driven toolkit, which means it will

sleep in gtk_main() until an event occurs and control is passed to the

appropriate function.

>

>This passing of control is done using the idea of "signals". (Note

that these signals are not the same as the Unix system signals, and

are not implemented using them, although the terminology is almost

identical.) When an event occurs, such as the press of a mouse button,

the appropriate signal will be "emitted" by the widget that was

pressed.  This is how GTK does most of its useful work. There are

signals that all widgets inherit, such as "destroy", and there are

signals that are widget specific, such as "toggled" on a toggle

button.

>

>To make a button perform an action, we set up a signal handler to

catch these signals and call the appropriate function. This is done by

using a function such as:

>

BORDER="0"

BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"

WIDTH="100%"

>

>

>

CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"

>gulong g_signal_connect( gpointer      *object,

                         const gchar   *name,

                         GCallback     func,

                         gpointer      func_data );

>

>

>

>

>where the first argument is the widget which will be emitting the

signal, and the second the name of the signal you wish to catch. The

third is the function you wish to be called when it is caught, and the

fourth, the data you wish to have passed to this function.

>

>The function specified in the third argument is called a "callback

function", and should generally be of the form

>

BORDER="0"

BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"

WIDTH="100%"

>

>

>

CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"

>void callback_func( GtkWidget *widget,

                    ... /* other signal arguments */

                    gpointer   callback_data );

>

>

>

>

>where the first argument will be a pointer to the widget that emitted

the signal, and the last a pointer to the data given as the last

argument to the g_signal_connect() function as shown above.

>

>Note that the above form for a signal callback function declaration is

only a general guide, as some widget specific signals generate

different calling parameters.

>

>Another call used in the 

CLASS="EMPHASIS"

>helloworld

> example, is:

>

BORDER="0"

BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"

WIDTH="100%"

>

>

>

CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"

>gulong g_signal_connect_swapped( gpointer     *object,

                                 const gchar  *name,

                                 GCallback    func,

                                 gpointer     *callback_data );

>

>

>

>

>g_signal_connect_swapped() is the same as g_signal_connect() except

that the instance on which the signal is emitted and data will be swapped when

calling the handler. So when using this function to connect signals, the callback

should be of the form

>

BORDER="0"

BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"

WIDTH="100%"

>

>

>

CLASS="PROGRAMLISTING"

>void callback_func( gpointer   callback_data,

                    ... /* other signal arguments */

                    GtkWidget *widget);

>

>

>

>

>where the object is usually a widget. We usually don't setup callbacks

for g_signal_connect_swapped() however. They are usually used to call a

GTK function that accepts a single widget or object as an argument, when a signal

is emitted on some 

CLASS="EMPHASIS"

>other

> object. In the 

CLASS="EMPHASIS"

>helloworld

> example, we connect to the "clicked" signal

on the button, but call gtk_widget_destroy() on the window.

>

>If your callbacks need additional data, use g_signal_connect() instead

of g_signal_connect_swapped().

>

>

CLASS="NAVFOOTER"

>

ALIGN="LEFT"

WIDTH="100%">

SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"

WIDTH="100%"

BORDER="0"

CELLPADDING="0"

CELLSPACING="0"

>

>

WIDTH="33%"

ALIGN="left"

VALIGN="top"

>

HREF="x111.html"

ACCESSKEY="P"

><<< Previous

>

>

WIDTH="34%"

ALIGN="center"

VALIGN="top"

>

HREF="book1.html"

ACCESSKEY="H"

>Home

>

>

WIDTH="33%"

ALIGN="right"

VALIGN="top"

>

HREF="x182.html"

ACCESSKEY="N"

>Next >>>

>

>

>

>

WIDTH="33%"

ALIGN="left"

VALIGN="top"

>Compiling Hello World

>

WIDTH="34%"

ALIGN="center"

VALIGN="top"

>

HREF="c39.html"

ACCESSKEY="U"

>Up

>

>

WIDTH="33%"

ALIGN="right"

VALIGN="top"

>Events

>

>

>

>

>

>