Category Archives: Programming

GObject design pattern: attached class extension

Posted on August 9, 2017 by swilmet

I wanted to share one recurrent API design that I’ve implemented several times and that I’ve found useful. I’ve coined it “attached class extension”. It is not a complete description like the design patterns documented in the Gang of Four … Continue reading →

Posted in Amtk, gspell, GtkSourceView, Library development, Programming, Tepl | 3 Comments

Re: Consider the maintainer

Posted on January 29, 2017 by swilmet

I’ve read this LWN article: Consider the maintainer. It was a great read, and I want to share my thoughts, from my experience on being a maintainer (or helping the maintenance) of several GNOME modules. GNOME has a lot of … Continue reading →

Posted in GtkSourceView, LaTeXila, Library development, Me Myself and I, Programming, Thoughts | 5 Comments

Smooth transition to new major versions of a set of libraries

Posted on December 10, 2016 by swilmet

With GTK+ 4 in development, it is a good time to reflect about some best-practices to handle API breaks in a library, and providing a smooth transition for the developers who will want to port their code. But this is … Continue reading →

Posted in GtkSourceView, Library development, Programming, Thoughts | 7 Comments

Thoughts on the Linux Mint X-Apps forks

Posted on June 18, 2016 by swilmet

You may be aware that Linux Mint has forked several GNOME applications, either directly from GNOME (Totem -> Xplayer, Evince -> Xreader, Eye of GNOME -> Xviewer), or indirectly via MATE (gedit -> pluma -> XEd). GNOME is like the … Continue reading →

Posted in gedit, gspell, GtkSourceView, Library development, Programming, Thoughts | 12 Comments

Doing things that scale

Posted on April 23, 2016 by swilmet

In the software world, and with internet, we can do a lot of things that scale. Answering a user question on IRC doesn’t scale, only one person and a few lurkers will benefit from it. Answering a user question on … Continue reading →

Posted in Library development, Programming, Thoughts | Comments Off on Doing things that scale

API vs ABI

Posted on April 23, 2016 by swilmet

I repeatedly see other people doing the mistake, so a little reminder doesn’t hurt. API: Application Programming Interface ABI: Application Binary Interface The difference can be easily explained by knowing what to do for some code when the API or … Continue reading →

Posted in Library development, Programming | 6 Comments

Libtool convenience library to unit test private functions

Posted on April 17, 2016 by swilmet

Only the public API of a library is exported, so when a program is dynamically linked to the DSO (Dynamic Shared Object), it can only use the public functions. So how do you unit test the private classes of your … Continue reading →

Posted in gspell, GtkSourceView, Library development, Programming | Comments Off on Libtool convenience library to unit test private functions

Changing quickly between a final and derivable GObject class

Posted on October 10, 2015 by swilmet

When doing code refactorings, it is sometimes desirable to change between a final and derivable GObject class. So it is important that that operation can be done quickly, as every other small refactorings that you usually do in your code. … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming | 6 Comments

Object-oriented design best practices

Posted on August 27, 2014 by swilmet

Here is another book review, this time about object-oriented design. Programming Best Practices We can learn by our own experience, we can use our common sense, we can learn by more experienced developers when contributing to an existing project. But … Continue reading →

Posted in book reviews, Programming | 1 Comment

{specialized, general-purpose} × {text editors, IDEs}

Posted on February 11, 2014 by swilmet

Some thoughts about text editors, IDEs, specialized or general-purpose applications. Several languages Other tasks Plugins Specialized text editor No No ? General-purpose text editor Yes No Yes Specialized IDE No Yes ? General-purpose IDE Yes Yes Yes The above table … Continue reading →

Posted in Programming, Thoughts | 14 Comments