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All the Old Showstoppers

November 4, 2008 C, Hacking, glib, rants 10 Comments

okay, new rule¹: it’s okay to install a GObject property like this:

pspec = g_param_spec_string ("title",
			     "Title",
			     "The title of the item",
			     NULL,
			     G_PARAM_READWRITE);
g_object_class_install_property (gobject_class, PROP_TITLE, pspec);

instead of the usual way you see in other GObject-based libraries, where we l33t h4×0rs dispense from the use of an explicit GParamSpec variable. this is especially true if you are trapped in 1983 and are still using an ANSI 80×25 terminal — though you should probably know that here, in 2008, 100+ columns are safe.

oh, and fill out the name and blurb fields of the property: GObject provides a little bit of introspection, but if you willfully ignore it then we can just forget about stuff like the GObject-Introspection project.

please, every time you install a property using a line like this:

g_object_class_install_property (
	gobject_class, PROP_TITLE,
	g_param_spec_string ("title", NULL, NULL, NULL,
	                     G_PARAM_READABLE | G_PARAM_WRITABLE));

an unfortunate incident will involve a bucket of puppies and a belt sander.

comments saying “gobject sucks you should be using ${ZEALOTS_OWN}” will be deleted without mercy because they miss the point by a hundred and fortyseven miles

1. apologies to Bill Maher [↩]