eosbuddy,

I just found the reason explained at:
http://www.daa.com.au/pipermail/pygtk/2007-July/013988.html


Note:
modify_bg() only affects widgets that have an associated gtk.gdk.Window.

The weird thing is that calling the modify_bg method on HBox does not throw an error.

Thanks again,
Ray

eosbuddy,

Yes, packing the label into an EventBox and setting its bg_color worked! Thank you very much for your quick response.

However, in re-writing the code, I think I might have found something that was screwing with my HBox color getting set right. If I find something, I'll post that solution also.

Ray

I mention this in case you need to worry about portability. Many installations are using pixmap based themes now, so people running your code, will not be seeing what you think. In discussions on the maillists, all the experts say "do not try to override someone's theme". I guess that's the way it's going, even though I personally like to customize colors.

I would say to be sure that your end user is seeing what you want, use the pango markup, as shown in the second example.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Glib qw/TRUE FALSE/;
use Gtk2 '-init';

Gtk2::Rc->parse_string(<<__);
style "default"
{

bg_pixmap[NORMAL] = "<none>"
bg_pixmap[INSENSITIVE] = "<none>"
bg_pixmap[ACTIVE] = "<none>"
bg_pixmap[PRELIGHT] = "<none>"

bg[NORMAL] = { 1.0, 1.0, 1.0 }

}class "GtkWidget" style "default"
__

my $greyl = Gtk2::Gdk::Color->new (0x9999,0x9999,0x9999);
my $bluel = Gtk2::Gdk::Color->new (0,0xCCCC,0xFFFF);
my $red = Gtk2::Gdk::Color->new (0xFFFF,0,0);
my $white = Gtk2::Gdk::Color->new (0xFFFF,0xFFFF,0xFFFF);

my $window = Gtk2::Window->new('toplevel');
$window->signal_connect( destroy => sub { Gtk2->main_quit; } );

$window->set_title("Label");
my $vbox = Gtk2::VBox->new( FALSE, 5 );
$window->add($vbox);
$window->set_border_width(5);
$window->set_size_request(300,200);
#$window->modify_bg('normal',$greyl);

my $frame = Gtk2::Frame->new("Colored Label");
my $label = Gtk2::Label->new("This is a  Colored Label");
$label->modify_fg('normal', $white);

$frame->modify_bg('normal', $red);

$vbox->pack_start( $frame, FALSE, FALSE, 0 );

#used for coloring background
my $coleventb0 = Gtk2::EventBox->new();
$coleventb0->modify_bg ('normal', $bluel);
$coleventb0->set_border_width(2);

$frame->add($coleventb0);
$coleventb0->add($label);

$window->show_all;

Gtk2->main;
[download]

#! /usr/bin/perl
use warnings;
use strict;
use Glib qw/TRUE FALSE/;
use Gtk2 '-init'; 

my $window = Gtk2::Window->new('toplevel');
$window->signal_connect('delete_event' => sub { Gtk2->main_quit; });
$window->set_border_width(5);
$window->set_position('center_always');
my $vbox = &ret_vbox();
#add and show the vbox
$window->add($vbox);
$window->show();
Gtk2->main();

sub ret_vbox {
#create a vbox to pack the following widgets
   my $vbox = Gtk2::VBox->new(FALSE,5);
   #create a label that will demo pango markup
   my $label_w_markup = Gtk2::Label->new();

   $label_w_markup->set_markup("<span background = 'black' foreground=
+ 'green' 
   size=\"40000\">Label with <i>markup</i></span>");

 $vbox->pack_end($label_w_markup,FALSE,FALSE,4);    
 $vbox->pack_end(Gtk2::HSeparator->new(),FALSE,FALSE,4);
 $vbox->show_all();
 return $vbox;
}
[download]

Zentara,

Thanks for coming to my rescue before I got knee deep in Gtk2+ coding, and then finding I had done color schemes all the wrong way!

I had been reading about pixmaps and Pango markup, but skipped over it in order to get something working fast.

Now, I'll go back and do it right (the user-customizable Gnome way).

Thanks again,
Ray