You can use Glade and proably any tools that talk to glade (I have not tried the ones you mention) to generate code that works with gtk-perl. I understand the easiest way is to generate the XML with glade, then read that into your perl program. Again, I have not tried it, but there has been discussion on the list and you should check the archives at the link noted above.

To answer some of your specific questions, Gtk+ exists on Linux and Windows. A Win32 version of the perl bindings should be out any time now. You do not need Gnome for Gtk+. You do need Gnome if you use Gnome features (i.e. you use Gnome widgets in your design).

HTH, --traveler

So I'd suggest looking into Perl/Tk and avoiding IDE's. Of course, that's just my own opinion, but if you decide to take my advice, then get Tk off CPAN, read its documentation, and get familiar with it. I highly recommend O'Reilly's Mastering Perl/Tk, butthere's at least one tutorial right here in the Monastery.

Also, the first time you use Tk, you might be a bit disheartened by its appearance - I was. Look at this node for a quick but extremely effective way of cleaning up Tk's appearance.

And if you don't belive me that Tk lets you make working UI's quickly, take a look at this sample:

use Tk;
$mw = MainWindow->new;

# the next two lines fix the default Tk aesthetics
$mw->optionAdd("*font", "-*-arial-normal-r-*-*-*-120-*-*-*-*-*-*");
$mw->optionAdd("*borderWidth", 1)_;

$e1 = $mw->Entry->pack;
$e2 = $mw->Entry->pack;
$sum = $mw->Label->pack;

$mw->Button(-text => 'Compute', -command => sub {
        $sum->configure(-text => ($e1->get() + $e2->get()));
})->pack;

MainLoop;
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Thank you for your reply, and I will take Tk into consideration. I just always thought the GUI's in Tk were a bit ugly. The reason for wanting to use GTK+ was because the newest GTK+ supports Gnome themes, i.e. the programs you write take on the look and feel of the theme currenlty applied.

The thing I would really like to do is to create a GUI that is highly customized to the way that I wanted it to look. I suppose I should've mentioned that before. I do not know how possible this is in Tk as I've never used it. If its possible, I'd gladly use it.

I really like the way some applications look when you buy them, even if sometimes a different look makes them a little harder to use. I hoped that with GTK+ and a Gnome theme, I might be able to make a GUI that looks very close to what I'd like it to.

If any of you have any advice on how to do something like that, I'd appreciate it. I'll definitely take more of a look at Tk, and Qt as you guys mentioned, and I definitely want to thank you all for your posts, especially the one with the link to the gtk-list.

P.S. I think the Gtk-perl interface is faster when running, if that is a consideration.

P.S. I think the Gtk-perl interface is faster when running, if that is a consideration.

And what's your basis for this?

---

The computer can't tell you the emotional story. It can give you the exact mathematical design, but what's missing is the eyebrows. - Frank Zappa

Ah, thank you for that, speed is a consideration in this case. Not a huge one, but still a consideration. Like I said, it sounds like Tk would be ideal, but I really would like to make a very nice looking GUI, and the Tk ones always seem very plain and a little ugly.

--traveler

http://wxperl.sf.net

Oh man! You see, that's why I love this place. Just when I think that I've exhausted my options and that I'm not totally happy with my solutions, someone comes and tells me about something I've never even heard of and it looks like exactly what I want!

I want to thank everyone again for their advice, especially for how quickly the advice came. I've got a lot to think about now, but I think its boiling down to either gtk+ or this wxPerl thing. I may however, start off writing it in Tk as someone suggested, since I do need to get it done rather quickly.

I would be most appreciative if anyone could point me to additional resources on programming in gtk+ and wxPerl. I really like this wxPerl since its cross platform! Thanks guys!

As far as the gnome extension problem, you need to have the gnome libs installed if you use the gnome widgets. You don't need to run Gnome as your desktop, but it helps for full functionality of the gnome widgets. Otherwise just don't use the gnome widgets.

My favorite gtk library is the gtk-image-viewer at gtk-image-viewer

It allows mouse zooming and panning of images, try that with Tk (and the speed is smooth). Here is a little perl script to use it:

#!/usr/bin/perl
######################################################################
+ 
#  Simple image viewing application with mouse zoom and pan. 
######################################################################
+ 
use Gtk;
use Gtk::ImageViewer;
init Gtk;
init Gtk::Gdk::Rgb;
init Gtk::Gdk::Pixbuf;
init Gtk::ImageViewer;

if(@ARGV<1){print "Usage: imageview file\n";exit}

$window = Gtk::Widget->new("GtkWindow",
                 -type    => "-toplevel",
                 -title   =>    "Image viewer",
                 -delete_event => sub { print exit Gtk; }
                 );

$image = Gtk::Widget->new("GtkImageViewer",
                          -parent  => $window,
                         );

$file = shift;
$pb = new_from_file Gtk::Gdk::Pixbuf($file);
$image->set_image($pb);

$window->show_all();

main Gtk;
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