Table of Contents
The general steps to creating a widget in GTK are:
Gtk2::Widget::show() lets GTK know that we are done setting the attributes of the widget, and it is ready to be displayed. You may also use Gtk2::Widget::hide() to make it disappear again. The order in which you show the widgets is not important, but I suggest showing the window last so the whole window pops up at once rather than seeing the individual widgets come up on the screen as they're formed. The children of a widget (a window is a widget too) will not be displayed until the window itself is shown using the Gtk2::Widget::show() function.
For your reference, here is the class hierarchy tree used to implement widgets. (Deprecated widgets and auxiliary classes have been omitted.)
Glib::Object | Gtk2::Object +Gtk2::Widget | +Gtk2::Misc | | +Gtk2::Label | | | `Gtk2::AccelLabel | | +Gtk2::Arrow | | `Gtk2::Image | +Gtk2::Container | | +Gtk2::Bin | | | +Gtk2::Alignment | | | +Gtk2::Frame | | | | `Gtk2::AspectFrame | | | +Gtk2::Button | | | | +Gtk2::ToggleButton | | | | | `Gtk2::CheckButton | | | | | `Gtk2::RadioButton | | | | `Gtk2::OptionMenu | | | +Gtk2::Item | | | | +Gtk2::MenuItem | | | | +Gtk2::CheckMenuItem | | | | | `Gtk2::RadioMenuItem | | | | +Gtk2::ImageMenuItem | | | | +Gtk2::SeparatorMenuItem | | | | `Gtk2::TearoffMenuItem | | | +Gtk2::Window | | | | +Gtk2::Dialog | | | | | +Gtk2::ColorSelectionDialog | | | | | +Gtk2::FileSelection | | | | | +Gtk2::FontSelectionDialog | | | | | +Gtk2::InputDialog | | | | | `Gtk2::MessageDialog | | | | `Gtk2::Plug | | | +Gtk2::EventBox | | | +Gtk2::HandleBox | | | +Gtk2::ScrolledWindow | | | `Gtk2::Viewport | | +Gtk2::Box | | | +Gtk2::ButtonBox | | | | +Gtk2::HButtonBox | | | | `Gtk2::VButtonBox | | | +Gtk2::VBox | | | | +Gtk2::ColorSelection | | | | +Gtk2::FontSelection | | | | `Gtk2::GammaCurve | | | `Gtk2::HBox | | | +Gtk2::Combo | | | `Gtk2::Statusbar | | +Gtk2::Fixed | | +Gtk2::Paned | | | +Gtk2::HPaned | | | `Gtk2::VPaned | | +Gtk2::Layout | | +Gtk2::MenuShell | | | +Gtk2::MenuBar | | | `Gtk2::Menu | | +Gtk2::Notebook | | +Gtk2::Socket | | +Gtk2::Table | | +Gtk2::TextView | | +Gtk2::Toolbar | | `Gtk2::TreeView | +Gtk2::Calendar | +Gtk2::DrawingArea | | `Gtk2::Curve | +Gtk2::Editable | | +Gtk2::Entry | | `Gtk2::SpinButton | +Gtk2::Ruler | | +Gtk2::HRuler | | `Gtk2::VRuler | +Gtk2::Range | | +Gtk2::Scale | | | +Gtk2::HScale | | | `Gtk2::VScale | | `Gtk2::Scrollbar | | +Gtk2::HScrollbar | | `Gtk2::VScrollbar | +Gtk2::Separator | | +Gtk2::HSeparator | | `Gtk2::VSeparator | +Gtk2::Invisible | +Gtk2::Preview | `Gtk2::ProgressBar +Gtk2::Adjustment +Gtk2::CellRenderer | +Gtk2::CellRendererPixbuf | +Gtk2::CellRendererText | +Gtk2::CellRendererToggle +Gtk2::ItemFactory +Gtk2::Tooltips `Gtk2::TreeViewColumn |
Since GTK2-Perl offers an object oriented interface to the underlying C libraries, we can take advantage of this, and use methods of generic classes on instances of classes derived by them. For instance, the Gtk2::Window class inherits its packaging methods from the Gtk2::Bin class, which, in turn, inherits methods from its parent class, Gtk2::Container. All these classes are widgets, so they inherit methods from the Gtk2::Widget class. Above all, each class inherits from Glib::Object, which is used, for instance, when handling signals and events.