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Date: Wed, 17 Oct 2012 09:49:08 +0200
Subject: Re: Fwd: system tray or notification area in python
From: Daniel Fetchinson <fetchinson@googlemail.com>
To: Python <python-list@python.org>
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>>>> Hi folks,
>>>> So I thought I would write a brand new stand alone system tray or
>>>> notification area in python. I guess I need to use gtk bindings or
>>>> some such but don't really know what my options are.
>>>>
>>>> Where would I start something like this?
>>>> Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!
>>>>
>>> Why not look at the source code of the current app your using to get
>>> an idea how that application accomplishes said task?
>>
>> I actually did that already it's using the C bindings of gtk.
>
> I think you are mistaken - if its this one:
> 	http://stalonetray.sourceforge.net/

Yes, that's it.

> I had a quick look into the sources, it does not use gtk at all, it uses
> low level X11 calls. Programming in this way is very tedious.

Sorry, you are right. I was mixing things up, I just remembered it was
gtk, apparently it's not.

>> But I have zero experience with gui programming in python. So any
>> pointers would be much appreciated how to implement a system tray in
>> python. Gtk is I guess just one option, one could use other stuff from
>> python but I wouldn't know what the simplest approach is.
>
> I'm not sure it is even possible. "Usual" GUI applications just need to
> request certain features from their window manager such as the setting
> the program icon or requesting a certain position on the screen. That is
> what is implemented in the usual toolits like Tk, QT, and gtk.

That is my impression as well, tk, qt, etc, won't be good for this
task but I thought there are some sort of X bindings in python that
will make writing low level X applications in python possible. For
instance a system tray :)

> A window manager, on the other hand, must be able to recieve and
> interpret these messages. For a system tray, they are described here:
>
> http://standards.freedesktop.org/systemtray-spec/systemtray-spec-0.3.html
>
> I have not studied the whole interface of the aforementioned toolkits,
> but I suspect that there is no way around writing low level Xlib code in
> order to recieve these messages.

Right, but nobody wrote Xlib bindings for python?

> Don't take it wrong, but when you write that you have no experience with
> GUI programming, I'd start another projet first - I think you will have
> a tough way to succeed with this project.

I certainly wouldn't start with Xlib in C, but if python bindings
would be available that would make life much easier.

Cheers,
Daniel


> 	Christian
> --
> http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list
>


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