Nautilus file explorer and GtkIconView

Question

Hello all, In order to learn GTK programming, I am building a simple GTK application that reads files in a directory and displays them as icons. I am trying to build something like the Nautilus icon view file explorer. I know the right pane uses GTK IconView but what does the left pane use to display list of places? Also I have looked at the Nautilus source code but find it pretty complex for me, can anybody give me a simple example of using GTK IconView in C++? thanks.

Answer 1

I'm guessing that the left pane uses the following:

• Places - gtk.TreeView
• Information - Custom layout made up of gtk.Image and gtk.Label widgets
• Tree - gtk.TreeView
• History - gtk.TreeView
• Notes - gtk.TextView
• Emblems - gtk.Layout with gtk.Image widgets positioned on it

As for the Nautilus window, I've heard that when showing in Icon View and Compact View modes, it uses a custom surface as the gtk.IconView was not deemed good enough. The List View mode most likely uses a gtk.TreeView.