GEPS 029: GTK3-GObject introspection Conversion

Gramps was written with GTK 2 toolkit. This has been replaced upstream with GTK 3, so Gramps should convert to GTK 3.

Guideline

We try to convert 1 to 1. If there are problems due to deprecated features, or otherwise, add in the code:

# TODO GTK3: write what problem is due to gtk 3 conversion

Before release, all TODO GTK3 in the code must be cleaned up

Documentation

Python GTK3 docs: [1]

Alternative is to look at the base C documentation, and understand from experience how the introspection works. Gnome docs: [2].

As python works with classes, it looks somewhat like the C++ interface: [3]. To investigate the specific override (how to init Gtk classes):

• python overrides: [4]

Furthermore, for the other gi libs:

• PangoCairo
• Pango
• http://developer.gnome.org/

Installation

Ubuntu 12.04

For people on Ubuntu 12.04, you need:

1. add the gnome_shell repo to have the latest version of glib and friends, see how to add the ppa on: gnome_shell pppa Then upgrade your system via the system manager.

Note 1 : If you use Gnome3, also add the gnome3 ppa!

Note 2: this can make gnome shell unstable if the ppa is too bleeding edge!!

2. install version 3.3.2 of pygobject. No ppa for this, I use the git repo on gnome.org, so my git config:

     [remote "origin"]
       fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
       url = http://git.gnome.org/browse/pygobject

So to install it to folder pygobject, do

git clone git://git.gnome.org/pygobject pygobject

Then checkout tag 3.3.2, so

cd pygobject
git checkout 3.3.2

Make sure you have the dependencies installed, you will need:

1. libglib2.0-dev package (otherwise you will obtain an error like undefined mqcro: AM_PATH_GLIB_2_0.
2. autoconf, automake, libtool, intltool package
3. python-dev package
4. libcairo2-dev, python-cairo-dev
5. python-gobject-dev
6. libgirepository1.0-dev

So, use the line:

sudo apt-get install autoconf  automake libtool python-dev libglib2.0-dev libcairo2-dev python-cairo-dev python-gobject-dev libgirepository1.0-dev

Then compile pygobject:

./autogen.sh
make
sudo make install

Now this installs to /usr/local, so to run the test with that, on ubuntu in your terminal:

PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ python gramps.py

If you then get:

$ PYTHONPATH=/usr/local/lib/python2.7/site-packages/ python src/gramps.py
Gtk typelib not installed. Install Gnome Introspection, and pygobject version 3.3.2 or later.

Gramps will terminate now.

You may need to:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib

Also, I had to get rid of the older gobject:

sudo rm -rf /usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/gobject

Problems

• we cannot set strings in struct, see GTK bug [5]
• error in list_families on textview in styledtexteditor: [6]
• str and unicode no longer seem to work, the encoding must be passed too; Future: deprecate unicode() in the code, as we want to support python 3
• there is no longer automatic conversion to str utf-8 when using GTK functions, we must convert before passing to GTK.
• glade can no longer work with our catalog. We need to upgrade comboboxentry to combobox with has_entry manually, and hope editors keep working... - SOLVED: converted editevent.glade, all works
• expose is no longer present on gtk.widget. Draw must be used. Unclear how, [7].
• Gtk.Clipboard seems to work differently
• Pedigreeview is broken and must be converted to new drawing primitives. Same probably for fanchart.
• osmgpsmap is GTK2. There is a GTK3 branch in git, we should try it, and contribute to the conversion.
• menu.popup does not seem to work in some instances. Passing position function seems to be the workaround, see grampsbar.py for example

Related Gramps Bugs

• #5009: Use gobject introspection for GTK 3 dependency