[gtkada] learning GtkAda

[Dmitry A. Kazakov]

On Fri, 26 Oct 2012 10:02:43 +0200, you wrote:

> In several occasions in the past I was reading about GTK+ (gtk2hs
> binding, C tutorials etc.), but never went far enough to learn GUI, so
> GtkAda will be my first real encounter so I wonder how complete is
> GtkAda binding

You have to remember that GTK is more than GUI, it encompasses a large set
libraries some of which have nothing to do with graphics. e.g. glib or gio.
So GtkAda is necessarily incomplete, but you should not worry about that
most of the time. (Some of the things missing in GtkAda you find in the
GtkAda contributions.)

> and/or whether GtkAda's USer Guide & Reference Manual
> are sufficient to learn/use GtkAda or is one recommended to consult/use
> 'official' GTK+ docs as well?

You should likely read GTK tutorials first in order to understand GTK
fundamentals. Essential are packing, signals/events, the object model and
reference counting, the GTK's MVC. 

Rosetta Code 

   http://rosettacode.org/wiki/Rosetta_Code

has many short samples of GUI tasks implemented in GtkAda which you can
study.

GtkAda user guide is helpful to learn how GtkAda bindings work, but it is
too sketchy regarding GTK itself. You will not use it much because GtkAda
design is easy to understand by reading package specifications. It is Ada,
after all. (:-))

GtkAda reference manual is for your daily work. Look for an older version
(from 2.14), which is more comfortable to use.

You will need to refer to the official GTK/glib/... RMs time to time. You
fill find a strong correspondence between GtkAda and the RMs.

-- 
Regards,
Dmitry A. Kazakov
http://www.dmitry-kazakov.de