Micah Carrick

Choosing a Programming Language for GTK+ Development

In part 1 of the GTK+ and Glade3 GUI Programming Tutorial series, we designed a graphical user interface (GUI) for a GTK+ text editor application. After doing so, we were left with an XML file (tutorial.glade) which described our application's user interface.

In this part of the GTK+ and Glade3 GUI Programming Tutorial series I will be discussing the various programming languages available for GTK+ development. Subsequent parts of this tutorial will cover both C programming and Python programming. With my help, you will have to make the decision of which one you want to learn how to use (or both!).

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Designing a User Interface using Glade3

In part 1 of the GTK+ and Glade3 GUI Programming Tutorial series, we will be designing the graphical user interface (GUI) for a GTK+ text editor application (shown below) which will be used throughout these tutorials. This GUI design will be created using the Glade Interface Designer and is completely independent of the programming language used to implement the design, which will come in subsequent tutorials.

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Though an input can be from any number of sources, one of the mose common and the easiest to implement, would be a swith. Due to mechanical properties of a switch, when a switch is closed, there is a period of time in which the electrical connection "bounces" between open and closed. To a microcontroller, this "bouncing" can be interpreted as multiple button pushes. Therefore, we must either build a circuit to supress the "bouncing" or we must do so in our software. This is known as "debouncing a switch".

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The ATMega8 AVR is shipped with it's clock source configured to the internal 1MHz RC oscillator (see: "Calibrated Internal RC Oscillator" in the datasheet p.30). This configuration works fine for many small projects where timing isn't crucial and is also convenient as it reduces parts count (1 crystal and 2 capacitors). However, you may run in to situations where you need a more accurate clock source.

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The AVR family of 8-bit microcontrollers from Atmel are quickly growing in popularity for electronics and robotics hobbiests. Their major selling point for me, as opposed to the PIC microcontrollers from Microchip, are their being designed to be developed using higher languages such as C. This allows them to be developed using the open-source GNU tools (gcc). This works out especially well for me working in Linux.

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