Linux Device Drivers, 3rd Edition

Applications

Developing Linux Applications with GTK+ and GDK

Format: Paperback
Author: Eric Harlow
ReleaseDate: 08 February, 1999
Publisher: Sams
Rating:

very unprofessional
In this sense, Harlow's book is fine: there are good examples of real-life programs that could get the programmer going. There are a number of factors that separate good toolkit programmer manuals from less gifted ones:

* There should be a number of rather large realistic examples - not just dozens of snippets rivaling the "Hello, World's" complexity.

* There should be no cheesy stripped down (and ultimately useless) API reference, occupying the last third of a book. This book doesn't make this mistake either.

* API calls described must be presented clearly, with all parameters documented and return values explained. And that's where this book screws it up real bad.

Let me make it clear - it will be almost impossible for you to try any of the smaller examples from the book without having access to the API reference (or another book for that matter). I mean, having an example like:

htable = g_hash_table_new(HashValueKey, HashValueComparator);

how am I supposed to figure out what the type of htable is? And most examples in the book are just like that. This is a serious problem with the book that should've been caught by the editor or by anyone trying to look at the text with a fresh set of eyes.
And it is a pity - this book doesn't violate the two main principles stated above so it could've been the best one on the subject.

Pretty darn good book
GTK has saved me from a GUI-less life, and Harlow's book was my introduction. I have been programming console apps in pure, raw C for over ten years, but never could master GUI programming in Windows or X either.

Sure, it's not perfect, but I learned a lot years ago from Herb Schildt's books (remember him?) HIS code was fragile as cut glass. . . but debugging is good practice, and some of his methods were brilliant. (but sloppy)

Eric Harlow is much better. Many of the errors in the code presented (gpointer *data at the end of a callback declaration, when it should be gpointer data, for instance) may well be typographical in nature. I downloaded the example code and built several of the programs with much less difficulty than many console apps I have ported.

Give the man a break. He was the first into the breach, so to speak. If you need a more advanced book, get Havoc Pennington's "GTK+/Gnome Application Programming" and have at it. I have both, and am still learning a lot from them.

Very dissapointing
i program in VB and C so i thought this would be no challenge at all. Im a 13 year old computer wiz, and found this book at my local bookstore. When i started to read the book i was dissapointed by the lack of examples and useful content. It is more like a handbook to look back and see the syntax for widgets. i thought the source code was too long to post in the book," a cd should have come with the book with all of the latest GTK+ libraries and examples". im just telling you this so you dont spend 30$ thinking your getting a quality book.