Non-Homogeneous Box Packing Patterns

There are three interesting ways to pack a non-homogeneous box. First, you can pack all the widgets into the end of the box, with their natural size. This means setting the expand parameter to FALSE:

  gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box),
                     child, 
                     FALSE, FALSE, 0);

The result is shown in Figure 6. The expand parameter is the only one that matters in this case; no children are receiving extra space, so they wouldn't be able to fill it even if fill were TRUE.

Second, you can spread widgets throughout the box, letting them keep their natural size as in Figure 7; this means setting the expand parameter to TRUE:

  gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box),
                     child, 
                     TRUE, FALSE, 0);

Finally, you can fill the box with widgets (letting larger children have more space) by setting the fill parameter to TRUE as well:

  gtk_box_pack_start(GTK_BOX(box),
                     child, 
                     TRUE, TRUE, 0);

This configuration is shown in Figure 8