<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01//EN"> <HTML ><HEAD ><TITLE >The abstract message utility functions</TITLE ><META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.74b"><LINK REL="HOME" TITLE="Gnome Developers' Information" HREF="book1.html"><LINK REL="UP" TITLE="Talking to the user: GnomeDialog, GnomeMessageBox, GnomeAppBar, and utility functions." HREF="dialogapputil-docs.html"><LINK REL="PREVIOUS" TITLE="Using GnomeAppBar directly" HREF="gnomeappbar.html"><LINK REL="NEXT" TITLE="Utility functions if a GnomeApp is available" HREF="x2161.html"></HEAD ><BODY CLASS="SECT1" BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF" TEXT="#000000" LINK="#0000FF" VLINK="#840084" ALINK="#0000FF" ><DIV CLASS="NAVHEADER" ><TABLE SUMMARY="Header navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TH COLSPAN="3" ALIGN="center" >Gnome Developers' Information</TH ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="gnomeappbar.html" ACCESSKEY="P" ><<< Previous</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="80%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="bottom" >Talking to the user: <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeDialog</SPAN >, <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeMessageBox</SPAN >, <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeAppBar</SPAN >, and utility functions.</TD ><TD WIDTH="10%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="bottom" ><A HREF="x2161.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next >>></A ></TD ></TR ></TABLE ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"></DIV ><DIV CLASS="SECT1" ><H1 CLASS="SECT1" ><A NAME="GNOME-APP-UTIL" >The abstract message utility functions</A ></H1 ><P > Gnome provides utility functions for relaying simple messages to the user and asking simple questions. The utility functions serve two purposes: first, they keep programmers from writing dozens of identical dialogs; second, they let the user choose whether messages should appear in dialogs or on the appbar. The main set of utility functions assume that your app uses the <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeApp</SPAN > widget, and that one is visible at the time they're called. These functions have a dialog backend and an appbar backend. The dialog backend is exposed, so you can use it directly if you have no GnomeApp widget available. The <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeApp</SPAN > functions do <I CLASS="EMPHASIS" >not</I > assume you have an appbar available; you should use them even if your app has no appbar. In some cases it makes a difference (for example, dialog can be positioned relative to the <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeApp</SPAN >). </P ></DIV ><DIV CLASS="NAVFOOTER" ><HR ALIGN="LEFT" WIDTH="100%"><TABLE SUMMARY="Footer navigation table" WIDTH="100%" BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="0" CELLSPACING="0" ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="gnomeappbar.html" ACCESSKEY="P" ><<< Previous</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="book1.html" ACCESSKEY="H" >Home</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="x2161.html" ACCESSKEY="N" >Next >>></A ></TD ></TR ><TR ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="left" VALIGN="top" >Using <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeAppBar</SPAN > directly</TD ><TD WIDTH="34%" ALIGN="center" VALIGN="top" ><A HREF="dialogapputil-docs.html" ACCESSKEY="U" >Up</A ></TD ><TD WIDTH="33%" ALIGN="right" VALIGN="top" >Utility functions if a <SPAN CLASS="TYPE" >GnomeApp</SPAN > is available</TD ></TR ></TABLE ></DIV ></BODY ></HTML >