PyGTK FAQ Index

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Last changed on Sun Jun 5 11:46:46 2011 CDT

(Entries marked with ** were changed within the last 24 hours; entries marked with * were changed within the last 7 days.)

1. General information and availability

1.1. What is PyGTK?
1.2. Where can I get PyGTK?
1.3. How do I get the very latest PyGTK source code [from git]
1.4. What is the password to change and add FAQ entries?
1.5. How do I get support for PyGTK [mailing lists, IRC]?
1.6. Eeek, I found a bug in PyGTK. Where do I report it?
1.7. Where are the reference manuals?
1.8. I need PyGTK/libglade compiled for [insert Unix OS here]!
1.9. Are there any PyGTK tutorials available?
1.10. I have multiple copies of python but pygtk only works with one of them!
1.11. How do I extend PyGTK (or the art of wrapping)
1.12. Where can I find the API documentation ?
1.13. Where can I get gnome-python?
1.14. How do I compile pygtk or gnome-python from SVN?
1.15. How do I tell what version of PyGTK I'm running?
1.16. I wrote a patch for PyGTK that fixes bug X, or implements feature Y, what do I do?
1.17. How do I search Bugzilla for PyGTK bugs
1.18. My programs configure says: No package 'pygtk-2.0' found
1.19. Is there a PyGTK for MacOS X?
1.20. Can I use PyGTK to build closed-source applications?
1.21. Does PyGTK have timers?
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2. Changes from 1.2 to 1.3/2.0

2.1. How do I install PyGTK-2 and PyGTK-0 side by side in the same system?
2.2. What are the major changes in PyGTK-2 for GTK+ 2.2?
2.3. Is there a checklist of changes to migrate an application from PyGTK-0 to PyGTK-2?
2.4. If I installed PyGTK-0 and PyGTK-2 in parallel (using pygtk.pth) how do I indicate which one my script should use?
2.5. Which versions of PyGTK support parallel install using the pygtk.pth method?
2.6. FAQ 2.4 sucks and doesn't work. Truthfuly, how do I require a specific version of PyGTK (or When do I need to use pygtk.require())?
2.7. What happened to the GTK and GDK constants/symbols?
2.8. For some users import libglade (or GDK) is working and for some users it's not
2.9. FAQ 2.4, 2.6 and etc etc all suck. Python still doesn't find the version of pygtk I want.
2.10. How do I get my 1.2 gladefiles to work with 2.0?
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3. Signal handling

3.1. When I connect to a signal, my handler gets called but reports "XXX takes no arguments (1 given)"
3.2. How do I detect that a mouse or keyboard event has been triggered?
3.3. I connected to some signals but nothing happens. Why?
3.4. I've fiddled with the mask but nothing happened. Why?
3.5. Which widgets are unable to receive events or be styled?
3.6. I attach a callback to a signal, but I keep getting an error: "TypeError: object of type X is not callable"
3.7. How can I force updates to the application windows during a long callback or other internal operation?
3.8. I want my callback to execute, but not the default callback (or, how to I stop GTK from doing the default action when doing X)?
3.9. When creating a new signal, how do I define one of the signal arguments as Python data?
3.10. How do I specify user data to a signal?
3.11. How do signals and events propagate in GTK+?
3.12. Why does handling expose events break drag-n-drop?
3.13. How do I pass extra data to a signal handler?
3.14. How to construct my own "fake" gtk.gdk.Event?
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4. Themes, fonts and styles

4.1. How do I change font properties on gtk.Labels and other widgets?
4.2. Why don't my style changes apply only to the widget I requested it from?
4.3. My user defined styles get overridden by the default theme!
4.4. How do I change the background color of my application's dialog?
4.5. How do I use the style object?
4.6. How do I change the colour of a widget (or how do I get a GdkColor)?
4.7. How do I get a Graphics Context, or GdkGC?
4.8. How does the alloc() method to the GdkColormap work?
4.9. How do I use pango instead of GdkFont for font handling in a GtkDrawingArea?
4.10. How can I use Unicode (or other format) strings in my PyGTK application, or, why do I get a UTF-8 warning when using a string?
4.11. How can I create a new pango context()
4.12. How do I get antialiased fonts in GTK+?
4.13. Does PyGTK support TrueType fonts?
4.14. What units does pango use to define sizes and widths?
4.15. Can I find out how long (wide) a string is in a certain font?
4.16. How do I change the background and colour of an Editable (GtkEntry, GtkTextView and friends)?
4.17. Why does FontSelection's set_font_name return False?
4.18. How do I change GtkMenubar.shadow_type (or other style properties)?
4.19. Can I pass strings of unicode instance to gtk or do I need to convert them to utf8?
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5. Basic Objects: GObject, GtkWidget and other critters

5.1. I want to understand this "data" object that is used in the set_*_data() and get_*_data() calls.
5.2. How do I check if a widget is currently sensitive?
5.3. Where is get_state() in PyGTK 0.6.x?
5.4. How do I catch right-click, middle-click and double-click on my widget?
5.5. How do I capture keypresses, and how do I perform a certain action depending on the key pressed?
5.6. How do I change the cursor for a certain widget?
5.7. How can I tell my program that the cursor should jump to a specific widget?
5.8. What signal is triggered when I change a widget's sensitivity?
5.9. How do I find out the size of a widget?
5.10. How do I focus a widget? How do I focus it before its toplevel window is shown?
5.11. My callback is getting a gtk.gdk.Event object, but I need an EventExpose!
5.12. How do I check if a widget is mapped? And realized? And visible? [...]
5.13. While calling get_property(), I get an "invalid property id" warning. Why?
5.14. How can I discover what properties and signals a GObject supports?
5.15. How do I access one of these properties in a GObject?
5.16. What's the difference between a property and an attribute?
5.17. Do I need to handle reference counting for GObjects? What about for other objects in PyGTK/gnome-python?
5.18. Focusing a widget after when selecting an item from Treeview
5.19. How can I listen to events from the scroll wheel on my mouse?
5.20. How do I move focus between widgets?
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6. Widget subclasses and user signals: GObject

6.1. What is the canonical reference on widget (and GObject) subclassing and property overriding?
6.2. When subclassing a widget (or a GObject), why are the additional signals I define not usable?
6.3. How do I wrap a GObject in Python?
6.4. How can I draw on top of a subclassed widget?
23.33. Using metaclasses in GObject subclasses.
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7. Labels: GtkLabel

7.1. How can I use mnemonics for my GtkLabel?
7.2. Where is GtkLabel.get_text()?
7.3. How do I make a GtkLabel font larger or bold?
7.4. How do I left, center, right, top, bottom, middle align a GtkLabel?
7.5. How do I change a Label's background color, or why doesn't my Label receive any signals?
7.6. How do I render a label in a button or menuitem with an underscore in its label?
7.7. I set my labels to use_markup in glade-2. Why don't they markup the contents I set?
7.8. How can I change the appearance of a label without using pango markup?
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8. Images: GtkImage, GtkPixmap, GdkPixbuf

8.1. How do I load an image from a filename into my application UI?
8.2. What about loading other image formats besides XPM, like JPEG or PNG?
8.3. How do I convert a Numeric array to a Pixbuf object?
8.4. Is there a resource leak? Why do I run out of memory using Pixbuf?
8.5. How do I to display an image from data (using a drawable or Image widget)?
8.6. How do I resize a gtk.Image?
8.7. What if I want to add a PIL image to a drawable?
8.8. Does somebody know what all these image/pixmap classes are?
8.9. How do I flip an image horizontally or vertically?
8.10. Is it possible to use SVG icons and images in PyGTK?
8.11. How do I get a Pixbuf of a stock icon?
8.12. How do I register stock icons from an image file?
8.13. How can I use an image as background in a gtk.Window?
8.14. How do I convert a pixbuf to a PIL Image?
8.15. How can I get the data of a gtk.Image and save it in an external file?
8.16. How to show data that I already own from outside, in a gtk.Image?
8.17. How to make a colorful image grayscale without using PIL?
8.18. How blend (composite) two images together?
8.19. How can I make a stock icon the default icon?
8.20. How do I draw a text [or something else] on a gtk.gdk.pixbuf?
8.21. How can I use an image as background in a widget?
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9. Buttons: GtkButtons

9.1. How does one group radio buttons to allow only one concurrent button to be depressed?
9.2. How do I create buttons that contain a pixmap?
9.3. PyGTK 0.6.x: The stock pixmap buttons in glade, but they don't show in my buttons? (pygtk0.x)
9.4. Why is a handler connected to a GtkRadioButton being called twice?
9.5. How do I render a stock button with a different label?
9.6. How do I add tooltips to a ToolButton in a Toolbar?
9.7. How do I add a stock icon to a ToggleButton?
9.8. How do I change the text color of a gtk button?
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10. Windows: GtkWindows and GtkDialogs

10.1. How do I get a GdkWindow from a GtkWindow?
10.2. Where are GtkDialogFlags defined?
10.3. How do I get my windows to show up where I want?
10.4. How do I make a dialog block the whole application, so the user is forced to answer it?
10.5. I click on the close button (X) to close my gtk.Window. It disappears, but the program seems to hang!
10.6. How do I avoid having my gtk.Window instance destroyed when I click on the window's close button? (or, When I redisplay my window, all my child widgets are missing and I get a bunch of Gtk-Critical errors!)
10.7. How do I change the window manager's icon for a PyGTK Window?
10.8. How do I get the GtkWindow's title?
10.9. How do I change the buttons on a MessageDialog?
10.10. How do I scroll a ScrolledWindow to the position of a given child widget?
10.11. How do GtkDialogs work?
10.12. How do I make ENTER in an entry box activate the OK signal
10.13. When closing the GnomeAbout box (or other GtkDialog subclasses), I get crashes and weird callback behaviour. What up with that?
10.14. I created a modal dialog, but clicking on the main window covers it!
10.15. How do I get the position of my window in absolute terms (IOW, relative to the root X window)
10.16. How do I start up a window maximized?
10.17. How do I run a dialog without running another main loop?
10.18. Changing a Window's background color
10.19. How do I get XID for a GtkWindow? And for the root window?
10.20. How can I make my window appear in the center of the screen?
10.21. How to hide a window when clicking the close button (instead of destroying it)
10.22. How can I find out when my GtkWindow is minimized?
10.23. How can I find out if a gtk.Window is visible?
10.24. How do I create a shaped window?
10.25. How do I raise a window that is minimized or covered?
10.26. Creating dialogs using the Glade file
10.27. How can I focus an external window?
10.28. How do I make a ScrolledWindow take the size of its child?
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11. Menus: GtkMenu and GtkMenuItem GtkToolbar

11.1. How do I turn off tearoff menus in libglade?
11.2. How do I pop up a menu with a button click?
11.3. How do I find out if a GtkCheckMenuItem is selected (active)?
11.4. I create a menubar with ItemFactory, but it disappears
11.5. When specifying items to an ItemFactory, I pass the extra argument for the image but I can't see anything!
11.6. How do I specify and save accelerators for my menu?
11.7. How to i put a custom icon and custom label in a gtk.ImageMenuItem
11.8. How can I make the label for an action created using ui_manager appear beside rather than below the icon?
11.9. How can I insert space in a toolbar created with ui_manager to spread out groups of action buttons?
11.10. How can I display the tooltip of the currently selected menuitem in a statusbar?
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12. Simple Containers: GtkBoxes, GtkTable, GtkFixed, GtkAlignment

12.1. What are the parameters to GtkAlignment.set()
12.2. How does packing work (or how do I get my widget to stay the size I want)
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13. Lists and Trees: GtkList/TreeView

13.1. Is there a nice tutorial on using GtkTreeView and GtkTreeModel?
13.2. How do the TreeStore and ListStore sequence APIs behave? [PyGTK2]
13.3. How do GtkTreePaths work? [PyGTK2]
13.4. How do I define columns for a TreeView using TreeViewColumn?
13.5. How do I create my own custom TreeModel.
13.6. How do I put icons in a TreeView?
13.7. How do I get all the selections in my TreeView.
13.8. How do I delete the selected rows in a TreeView?
13.9. Is there a way to mass-specify columns in ListStore?
13.10. How do I make a GtkTreeView with editable cells?
13.11. What signal is emitted when a user selects/clicks on a row in a GtkTreeView?
13.12. How do I change the color of the alternate row shading on the TreeView widget?
13.13. How do I create a lazy TreeView?
13.14. How do I show different images when a TreeView item is expanded and collapsed.
13.15. My TreeView/TreeModel rows represent instances (or any python object), but how can I keep track of them?
13.16. My Treeview shows all my strings/text values as numbers in the columns!
13.17. How do I make a popup menu appear when I right-click my TreeView?
13.18. Is it possible for a TreeModel to tell a CellRendererToggle that it is in an "in between" (inconsistent) state?
13.19. How do I change alignment on a specific cell renderer?
13.20. How do I keep GenericTreeModel from leaking references?
13.21. How do I get changes in my TreeModel to show up in my TreeView?
13.22. How do I display a combo box in a Treeview?
13.23. Why doesn't expand_row() display an expanded row for paths longer than one element?
13.24. How do I transform the value in my model before displaying it in the TreeView?
13.25. How do I delete multiple selections?
13.26. How do I perform an action when the user clicks on the title column of a TreeView?
13.27. How do I run a command for each TreeModel row, or how does TreeModel.foreach() work?
13.28. When connecting to 'row-inserted', my model value is always None. Why?
13.29. How do I use a python object to store data for all the columns in a row?
13.30. How do I move rows around in a GtkTreeView?
13.31. How do I change the color of a row or column of a TreeView?
13.32. How do I select [or edit] a row in my TreeView?
13.33. How do I handle DnD operations in a GtkTreeView?
13.34. How do I work with the reorderable() property of GtkTreeview?/The reorderable() property of GtkTreeView is too limited
13.35. How do I use the TreeModelFilter to process tree/store data automatically?
13.36. How do I unselect a path in a TreeView?
13.37. How do I avoid displaying (hide) a certain column in a TreeView?
13.38. How do I display pixbufs instead of numbers for integer or boolean values in my treemodel?
13.39. I defined a TreeView in glade, how do I manipulate its columns and other properties?
13.40. How do I change the font of a CellRendererText?
13.41. How do I show a GtkImage (even animations) in a treeview? (subclassing GtkCellRenderer)
13.42. How do I show a picture (image) in a treeview background or exist any way how to set treeview (and window with treeview) as transparency ?
13.43. Are there tips for improving performance when adding many rows to a Treeview?
13.44. What is TreeRowReference and how to use it?
13.45. How do I create a custom gtk.CellRenderer?
13.46. How do I add a tooltip to a cell, row or column of a TreeView
13.47. How do I create a GtkTreeView having nodes with underlined text?
13.48. How do I hide some rows in a TreeView?
13.49. How to manually sort rows?
13.50. Target sensitive tooltip for treeview/iconview.
13.51. How do I get to previous row in the model when iter_prev() method doesn't exist?
13.52. How can I save and restore which rows are expanded in a TreeView?
13.53. How can I expand a range of nodes specified by first and last path?
13.54. How can I cut/copy/paste TreeStore rows using clipboard?
13.55. How do I enable editing of CellRendererProgress?
13.56. How do I create my own CellRendererDate?
13.57. How do I create my own CellRendererMultiline?
13.58. How do I hide the row expanders (or How do I share a model between tree and table view)?
13.59. Changing full background color of Treeview
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14. Editables: GtkEntry, GtkCombo, GtkText, GtkSpinButton, GtkTextView

14.1. How do I make a GtkEntry exactly 5 characters long?
14.2. What is a GtkTextIter, and how do I get one for position X (and other positions)?
14.3. How do I change the cursor for a GtkEntry?
14.4. Why does GtkText's insert_text generate critical messages complaining "assertion `index <= TEXT_LENGTH (text)' failed."?
14.5. I want to change the text being typed into an entry or textbox, but the original text is also inserted!
14.6. Why does the second parameter to insert_text (the `text' parameter) contain garbage?
14.7. Why isn't GtkText.insert_defaults() generating the signal insert_text
14.8. How do I get the currently selected text in a GtkCombo?
14.9. How do I programatically set the max value for a GtkSpinButton?
14.10. How do I scroll a TextView to display the text being inserted?
14.11. How do I insert colored text into a TextView?
14.12. How can I make GtkTextView to always show the last line
14.13. How do I add items into GtkCombo
14.14. How can get back the strings that I set using Combo.set_popdown_strings()
14.15. How do I change the mouse cursor on a TextView (or how do I get the "right" GdkWindow from a TextView)?
14.16. Is there a signal sent when a user hits enter in an editable?
14.17. What X clipboard do TextView's context menu items use?
14.18. How do I get the clipboard functions to work properly?
14.19. I'm getting a Gtk-CRITICAL messsage: assertion `g_utf8_validate (text, len, NULL)' failed [using insert_*]
14.20. How do I write clipboard callbacks for multiple widgets?
14.21. How do I right-align text in an Entry?
14.22. How do I create a mask or validator for a GtkEntry?
14.23. How do I send the output of an external process to a gtk.TextView without freezing the GUI?
14.24. How do I add completion support for an entry?
14.25. How can I place a background image on a TextView widget?
14.26. The text in the TextView is not aligned! Any ideas?
14.27. How do I prevent unselected gtk.Entry from being highlighted after losing focus?
14.28. How do I make the Enter key behave as a Tab key in a GtkEntry?
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16. GtkOptionMenu, GtkComboBox, GtkComboBoxEntry

16.1. Why doesn't the GtkOptionMenu work like a real listbox?
16.2. Let's say I accept it as it is. How do I implement one using pygtk?
16.3. If I set the OptionMenu's state to insensitive, and i call set_history() on it, and put it back to sensitive, the previously selected menuitem still looks insensitive!
16.4. How do I find out which is the selected item in a GtkOptionMenu?
16.5. What signal is emitted when an optionmenu's item is selected?
16.6. How do I get the label of an OptionMenu's item?
16.7. How do I get the text from the selected item in GtkComboBox/ComboBoxEntry
16.8. How do I populate a ComboBox or ComboBoxEntry with strings?
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17. GtkNoteBook

17.1. How do I get a reference to the page my GtkNotebook just switched to (or, what is the deal with the second argument to GtkNotebook's switch_page handler)?
17.2. How do I make one toolbar button (e.g. an Add button) call a different function for each notebook tab?
17.3. How do I create a popup menu on a notebook tab and figure out which tab a click comes from
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18. GtkDrawingArea

18.1. How do I make a gray-scale gradient picture?
18.2. When I place a DrawingArea inside a ScrolledWindow the event object in callbacks has X and Y coordinates off by a few pixels!
18.3. How do I set line attributes for draw_line() and draw_lines()?
18.4. How do I draw dashed or dotted lines in a GtkDrawingArea?
18.5. What's the essential approach to tracking mouse events in a GtkDrawingArea?
18.6. How do I get scrollbars to work with a DrawingArea?
18.7. How do I make my DrawingArea have the same background used in other widgets?
18.8. What basic pattern should I follow when using a DrawingArea?
18.9. How to set a tiled background pixmap on gnomecanvas.Canvas? Or, how do set custom background on gnomecanvas.Canvas?
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19. Other widgets

19.1. Are there any HTML rendering widgets for PyGTK?
19.2. What about HTML widgets for PyGTK2?
19.3. GnomeIconList's get_icon_data() method doesn't work!
19.4. Can I do plots or charts with PyGTK?
19.5. How do I get the current color from a gnome ColorPicker?
19.6. Is there a syntax highlighting widget for PyGTK?
19.7. When displaying a GnomeAbout box, it doesn't display the program name or version.
19.8. How do I pass extra arguments to a Gnome Applet's setup_menu() callback?
19.9. In creating a Gnome Applet, how do I use class members for callbacks?
19.10. How do I hide the toolbar of a gnome.ui.App() instance?
19.11. Can I use OpenGL to draw in a PyGTK application?
19.12. Is there support for tray notification area clients?
19.13. How do I a signal a callback when a gtk.Paned widget handle is dragged?
19.14. Is there a grid or spreadsheet-like widget available?
19.15. How do I embed something using Plugs and Sockets?
19.16. How can I use the IconView widget?
19.17. How can I distribute gtkhtml2 (outside of gnomepythonextras)?
19.18. Why does gtkmozembed somtimes crash in load_url()?
19.19. How can I change the background color of the IconView widget?
19.20. Could I get another example of how to use the IconView please?
19.21. How can I send a pdf file to a printer over the gtk printing dialog?
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20. The GTK Mainloop and Threading

20.1. What are the general tips for using threads with PyGTK?
20.2. On Win32, the input_add() function doesn't work!
20.3. How can I make Ctrl-C in the console quit my app which uses PyGTK 1.99.13 or older?
20.4. I get random crashing when using lots of threads in PyGTK
20.5. I want to show a splash screen and make it disappear. How?
20.6. I am using a separate thread to run my code, but the application (or the UI) hangs.
20.7. I set up a timeout handler using timeout_add, but the handler only runs once.
20.8. How do I check if threading was compiled in my version of PyGTK
20.9. I don't want to use threading. What other options do I have?
20.10. When an exception is raised, it is printed out to standard error! (or how do I get exceptions to be printed to X or displayed in a window?)
20.11. How can I monitor sockets or files inside the gtk mainloop (or how does gtk.input_add() work)?
20.12. How do I get an action to run periodically, say, every 30 seconds?
20.13. The GTK thread dies, but some windows remain open. I don't want that, what can I do?
20.14. My application uses threads and GtkDialogs seem to freeze it! What can I do?
20.15. I'm using threads and timeout or idle or input handlers and the app freezes. What's wrong?
20.16. So how do I use gobject.io_add_watch (used to be input_add) ?
20.17. Why isn't my thread running?
20.18. How do I write a qt application using gobject.MainLoop?
20.19. What does "Fatal Python error: GC object already tracked" mean?
20.20. gobject.io_add_watch doesn't work with non-blocking sockets on win32!
20.21. How do I download something without freezing the GUI (and without threading)?
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21. Win32 and PyGTK

21.1. How do I get PyGTK running on MS Windows?
21.2. Is there a walkthrough on getting PyGTK2 and libglade2 to work on win32
21.3. Does the Win32 port support threading?
21.4. Where is GdkImlib for MS Windows?
21.5. How can I bundle a PyGTK program in windows so my users don't need to install Python or the GTK+ libs?
21.6. How do I change the Window icon of a Win32 PyGTK app?
21.7. How do I make the my PyGTK app look a bit more like a `normal' Windows app?
21.8. How do I compile PyGTK for win32
21.9. How do I find out the GTK+ installation path on windows?
21.10. DLL Errors after upgrading to PyGTK-2.0.0.win32-py2.3
21.11. Is it possible to have antialiased fonts on Win32?
21.12. How do themes work on win32?
21.13. Can PyGTK have the native filechooser of Windows?
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22. libglade

22.1. How do I use PyGTK and glade together (using libglade)?
22.2. How do I internationalize a PyGTK and libglade program?
22.3. Why doesn't gettext work on my libglade UIs with Python <= 2.2?
22.4. I'm using libglade, but what do I do with the signals and handlers I set in the glade file?
22.5. I'm using Gnome and libglade, but some widgets don't work properly.
22.6. When I invoke GladeXML() or glade.XML() all the widgets in my gladefile are displayed!
22.7. How do I create and use a custom Glade widget?
22.8. How do I retrieve the ID of a signal connection made by signal_autoconnect?
22.9. My libglade files have widgets that don't show up in the GladeXML tree!
22.10. When I load a glade file in GladeXML I get evil warnings about GnomeApp and a crash!
22.11. How do I produce or reuse a [portion of a] widget tree in glade?
22.12. How can I get a new instance of a widget defined in a glade file?
22.13. Tabs in Notebook don't show up!
22.14. How do I create and use a custom Builder widget?
22.15. How can I make glade to know my custom PyGTK widgets?
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23. Miscellaneous questions

23.1. Why does ancient PyGTK versions segfault with Python 2.2?
23.2. Are there any helpful tools when developing with PyGTK?
23.3. How do I find out the current X and Y position of my mouse?
23.4. Are there any tips for UI designers?
23.5. Why does my X selection disappear when my window dies?
23.6. When compiling PyGTK, I get a bunch of weird "Could not write method ..." messages!
23.7. Is there a way to get version information from pygtk?
23.8. How do I beep the speaker?