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<div class="chapter" title="Chapter 26. Recommended Techniques">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title">
<a name="chapter-recommended-techniques"></a>Chapter 26. Recommended Techniques</h2></div></div></div>
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<p><b>Table of Contents</b></p>
<ul>
<li><span class="sect1"><a href="chapter-recommended-techniques.html#sec-application-lifetime">Application Lifetime</a></span></li>
<li><span class="sect1"><a href="sec-using-a-gtkmm-widget.html">Using a <span class="application">gtkmm</span> widget</a></span></li>
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<p>This section is simply a gathering of wisdom, general style guidelines
and hints for creating <span class="application">gtkmm</span> applications.
</p>
<p>Use GNU <span class="application">autoconf</span> and
<span class="application">automake</span>! They are your friends :)
<span class="application">Automake</span> examines C files, determines how they
depend on each other, and generates a <code class="filename">Makefile</code> so the
files can be compiled in the correct order.
<span class="application">Autoconf</span> permits automatic configuration of
software installation, handling a large number of system quirks to increase
portability..
</p>
<p>Subclass Widgets to better organize your code. You should probably
subclass your main <code class="classname">Window</code> at least. Then you can
make your child Widgets and signal handlers members of that class.
</p>
<p>Create your own signals instead of passing pointers around. Objects can
communicate with each other via signals and signal handlers. This is much
simpler than objects holding pointers to each other and calling each
other's methods. <span class="application">gtkmm</span>'s classes uses special versions of
<code class="classname">sigc::signal</code>, but you should use normal
<code class="classname">sigc::signal</code>s, as described in the
<span class="application">libsigc++</span> documentation.</p>
<div class="sect1" title="Application Lifetime">
<div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both">
<a name="sec-application-lifetime"></a>Application Lifetime</h2></div></div></div>
<p>Most applications will have only one <code class="classname">Window</code>, or
only one main window. These applications can use the
<code class="methodname">Gtk::Main::run(Gtk::Window&)</code> overload. It shows
the window and returns when the window has been hidden. This might happen
when the user closes the window, or when your code decides to
<code class="methodname">hide()</code> the window. You can prevent the user from
closing the window (for instance, if there are unsaved changes) by
overriding <code class="methodname">Gtk::Window::on_delete_event()</code>.</p>
<p>Most of our examples use this technique.</p>
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