Re: obtaining the selection: gtk_selection_convert?

[Marius Vollmer <mvo at zagadka dot ping dot de>]

sen_ml@eccosys.com writes:

> > What is the meaning of format, data and length?
> 
> well, i can quote what i saw in the gtk tutorial ('Managing Selection"):
> 
>   format gives the length of the units (for instance characters) in
>   bits. Usually, you don't care about this when receiving data. data is
>   a pointer to the returned data, and length gives the length of the
>   returned data, in bytes.

Ok, thanks.  I think we should make two accessor functions: one for
returning the data as a string (because that should be a very common
need) and one for returning a vector of integers.

> > >     (pointer data)
> > 
> > and `pointer' should not be used.
> 
> what should be used instead?  "pointer" was a blind guess -- the type in
> gtkwidget.h is guchar*

We can't access data and length as fields.  Their semantics are too
complex for fields (or fields are too stupid).  We have to write C
functions that can be then be wrapped with define-func.  I'd have to
review what build-guile-gtk can actually do with vectors to say more.

> i wish i could say that i had the skill, but alas...

It's not so much skill, it's the sorry state of the guile-gtk
documentation.

- Marius