[crossfire] GTK-V2 and the gtk-v2.glade problem

[Kevin Bulgrien]

> The GTK-V2 client gets a bad rap because the default sizing has been removed
> from the layout.  People who start up the client think it is not working
> because it is all jumbled, etc.  I think either the change should be reverted,
> or a different, more first-timer friendly layout made the default.
> 
> I understand that the defaults were removed to prevent issues with making
> the layout smaller than default, but IMO this is the wrong way to fix it.
> People are trying to play on gtk-v1 which doesn't work anymore on new
> servers.  This is not going to go well for getting new players.  It puts
> people off right at the start when they can't make heads or tails of what
> to do.  It should not be a first-time players job to have to unjumble a
> display.  It should come up right, and the complexity of adjusting display
> hassle should be deferred until after they see they love the game.
> 
> With the release coming up, I think that this is a non-trivial issue, and
> suggest that gtk-v2.glade be fixed to be more friendly, or replaced as
> the default.
> 
> Kevin Bulgrien

Well, I played around with it a long time tonight to try to fix without putting
the sizes back in and didn't get anywhere...  Not sure there is a quick fix
unless we find some GTK/glade geniuses somewhere.  That said, I think there
are issues that aggravate it.  I think homogenous on some of those widgets
is contributing to the mess.

On another note, I can trigger the lockup MasseR was seeing by fiddling with
shrink settings on widgets in an hpane or vpane.  The freeze up appears to
be related to desktop size and client size.  I might get a freeze at one
desktop resolution, change it, and it won't freeze up.  I can fix it at one
res by adding a viewport in a key location, but then it freezes at another
desktop resolution.  When it freezes, you are stuck with a blank client and
metaserver page.  Running under GDB shows you stuck in a metaserver loop.
Shrink allows you to shrink a widget below its requisition.  Seems something
in gtk/libglade gets annoyed at times when you do that under certain
conditions.