addConstraintsFromDescription
Creates a list of constraints from a VFL description.
The Visual Format Language, VFL, is based on Apple's AutoLayout VFL.
The views dictionary is used to match iface@Gtk.ConstraintTarget instances to the symbolic view name inside the VFL.
The VFL grammar is:
<visualFormatString> = (<orientation>)?
(<superview><connection>)?
<view>(<connection><view>)*
(<connection><superview>)?
<orientation> = 'H' | 'V'
<superview> = '|'
<connection> = '' | '-' <predicateList> '-' | '-'
<predicateList> = <simplePredicate> | <predicateListWithParens>
<simplePredicate> = <metricName> | <positiveNumber>
<predicateListWithParens> = '(' <predicate> (',' <predicate>)* ')'
<predicate> = (<relation>)? <objectOfPredicate> (<operatorList>)? ('@' <priority>)?
<relation> = '==' | '<=' | '>='
<objectOfPredicate> = <constant> | <viewName> | ('.' <attributeName>)?
<priority> = <positiveNumber> | 'required' | 'strong' | 'medium' | 'weak'
<constant> = <number>
<operatorList> = (<multiplyOperator>)? (<addOperator>)?
<multiplyOperator> = [ '*' | '/' ] <positiveNumber>
<addOperator> = [ '+' | '-' ] <positiveNumber>
<viewName> = [A-Za-z_]([A-Za-z0-9_]*) // A C identifier
<metricName> = [A-Za-z_]([A-Za-z0-9_]*) // A C identifier
<attributeName> = 'top' | 'bottom' | 'left' | 'right' | 'width' | 'height' |
'start' | 'end' | 'centerX' | 'centerY' | 'baseline'
<positiveNumber> // A positive real number parseable by g_ascii_strtod()
<number> // A real number parseable by g_ascii_strtod()Note: The VFL grammar used by GTK is slightly different than the one defined by Apple, as it can use symbolic values for the constraint's strength instead of numeric values; additionally, GTK allows adding simple arithmetic operations inside predicates.
Examples of VFL descriptions are:
// Default spacing
[button]-[textField]
// Width constraint
[button(>=50)]
// Connection to super view
|-50-[purpleBox]-50-|
// Vertical layout
V:[topField]-10-[bottomField]
// Flush views
[maroonView][blueView]
// Priority
[button(100@strong)]
// Equal widths
[button1(==button2)]
// Multiple predicates
[flexibleButton(>=70,<=100)]
// A complete line of layout
|-[find]-[findNext]-[findField(>=20)]-|
// Operators
[button1(button2 / 3 + 50)]
// Named attributes
[button1(==button2.height)]Return
the list of class@Gtk.Constraint instances that were added to the layout
Parameters
an array of Visual Format Language lines defining a set of constraints
the number of lines
default horizontal spacing value, or -1 for the fallback value
default vertical spacing value, or -1 for the fallback value
a dictionary of [ name, target ] pairs; the name keys map to the view names in the VFL lines, while the target values map to children of the widget using a GtkConstraintLayout, or guides