(old)Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

I had borked my gtkdialog3. I uninstalled the version that caused the problem and reinstalled the version with the patch by Patriot that fixes closing of a child dialog window from the child or from the main program.
I also found the correct syntax to use closewindow in a program as per HOWTO-gtkdialog-tips.
As to the other problem with the launch of ABOUT_DIALOG, I will try to investigate that further. Maybe do a run with the debug option and see if anything surfaces.
I may use that code line in a small gtkdialog3 script and see if the bug still surfaces.

Here's a weird thing: I tried making a stripped-down version of snap2 - just keeping the loop, and a very simple gtkdialog including the 'about' button, and that way the about button worked!

I did that too.
Compare mine that was broken into separate lines for ease of reading code to yours.
It is attached.
Notice that I added a line <variable>ABOUT_DIALOG</variable>
Placement of that is important!
I also changed <action type="/closewindow"/>ABOUT_DIALOG</action>
to <action type="closewindow">ABOUT_DIALOG</action>.
A suggestion is to NOT make the ABOUT_DIALOG one line.
It is easier to check for errors if it is broken up as I did.
Sorry for no indentation. I was in a hurry.

It worked fine in the small script that has two CHILD processes.

gktdialog ships with some example code, and one of them illustrates launching a child dialog. The code is essentially the same. I think that some gtkdialog feature I am using in snap2 (such as notebook, checkbox, etc.) is triggering the glitch. I ought to investigate further, but I am packaging up a new snap2 version. The new version has the main dialog close during backup, to draw the user's attention to the xterm window where the backup is happening. I also made compressed logfiles optional and made the names mirror.log and snapshot.log. Thanks for your feeback, 8-bit!

I wonder if the changing of MAIN_DIALOG is confusing the call.
I had noticed that you changed it conditionally for various actions to be done by your program.
Also, have you tried putting a For Statements in MAIN_DIALOG etc in the short test script to see what happens or make a dummy conditional MAIN_DIALOG change in the short test script to see if that is what is affecting the launch call.

I certainly don't think my recycling of the MAIN_DIALOG variable has anything to do with this, since each invocation of gtkdialog is entirely new and unrelated to previous invocations. However, I think I did already try avoiding re-use of MAIN_DIALOG, and got the same results...

I guess I could take a copy of snap2 and start cutting out portions of it step by step, until the 'About' dialog button starts to work. I'll do that later since I am busy with other things now.

You could just use Xdialog for your About window and avoid this whole mess altogether. Just a thought....

Yes, but the idea is to open a child window, leaving the main program window open, rather than terminating the main window in order to put up a new dialog. Use of xdialog would require terminating the gtkdialog window, I believe.

As it turns out, my workaround to this problem is to have a 'Help' on the main gtkdialog which terminates the gtkdialog and put up a new one to show program help, loaded from a file. In windows other than the main gtkdialog, the 'About' button works, and I'm using it.

In sum, I think I have a satisfactory workaround for my 'About' button. However, I would like to be able to launch warning boxes from the main program window without closing the window.

You can easily use Xdialog without terminating the main window. I use it in Pwireless2 for all my child windows.

Good point, thanks! I was trying to avoid more than one file for snap2, to have it simply install in /usr/local/bin/. I should consider a new install structure with multiple supporting files.

Executing a distinct script as you suggest, I could of course also just use a new instance of gtkdialog, rather than xdialog. I would probably choose that option, since I am targeting Debian systems also and I want to avoid adding dependencies unnecessarily (xdialog is not standard on Debian the way it is on Puppy).

If you really want a single file, you can possibly put a function call in there; though I haven't tested that so I don't know for sure. If that doesn't work, you could create/delete your supporting scripts on the fly every time your program is run.

Thanks, jemimah, that's good advice!