[sldev] GTK 2.8

[Alissa Sabre]

> > I'm considering some changes to the Linux client (mostly Alissa's
> > LLWindowGTK) which would require GTK 2.8+.

> Out of curiosity, what improvements are planned? 

I guess the "Alissa's LLWindowGTK" refers to a series of patches
attached to VWR-2261.  (Although the patch does not use the name
LLWindowGTK...)

If the above guess is correct, the most significant, end user visible
improvement of the patch is the viewer's handling of input method
(i.e., a mechanism to enter Chinese, Japanese, etc. letters from
keyboard.)  That's what the JIRA issue VWR-2261 is about.  The SL
viewer performs the so-called on-the-spot style feedback with the
patch applied, as opposed to the off-the-application (aka root-window)
style that the current viewer supports.  You can consider the feature
as a Linux counterpart to the 1.19.0 viewer's improvement on input
method handling on Windows and MacOS.

Other minor improvements as side effects include: color mouse pointer
(cursor) and more stable handling of full-screen operations.

For developers on this list, the patch removes the viewer's dependency
on SDL completely, and changes the viewer's window system interface as
follows:

- Creating a GL rendering context using GtkGLExt in combinatin with
  Gtk/Gdk.
- Mouse/keyboard handling is through Gdk events/signals.
- Interacting with input methods through GTK immodules.
- Passing data to/from system clipboard through Gtk clipboard
  abstraction.
- Manipulates display (monitor) resolution though XRandR (where
  available.)

An early discussion on this change is available on a SLDev archive,
in a thread starting from the following message:

https://lists.secondlife.com/pipermail/sldev/2007-October/006319.html

    Alissa Sabre
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