Very Computer

For a long time I wanted to have access to GUI widgets while using shell
scripts. I wanted to have something for Linux, similar to "dtksh" on CDE. So
my goal was to think of a way which enabled GUI access for multiple script
languages. It had to be flexible, extendable, it had to give access to GTK
1.x and 2.x, and it had to be a feasable project. Finally I did not want to
investigate other people's sourcecode to implement extra GUI commands.

The concept of a GTK server was born. The basic idea behind this concept is
a binary, which can be started from within a script. The script has to
communicate with this binary by using 2-way pipes (stdin/stdout) or by using
sockets (tcp). The script sends original GTK commands as plain text to the
pipe or the socket, and the gtk-server sends information back which must be
captured by the script.

A problem was the callback mechanism. The GTK-SERVER has to keep track of
callback signals. Right now, every time a widget is created, one callback
signal per widget can be realized.

Another problem was the variable GTK function name. How to look up a GTK
function whose name is held in an array of chars? And if this function was
found, how to handle the variable amount of arguments, each of which may
have a different type? This is where the configfile comes in. In the
configfile the user has to describe the name of the function, the
callbacksignal, the returnvalue, the amount of arguments and the type for
each argument.

You can find the GTK-server at http://www.turtle.dds.nl/gtk-server/. Both
Linux as Windows are supported.

My site includes demo script programs, precompiled GTK-server binaries as
well as the sourcecode. I hope somebody of the shell scripting community may
find my efforts useful.

Cheers everybody.