Part 9 of this project

Thumbnails

Show a thumbnail strip

Goal for this part

Show a thumbnail strip.

Treat 09-Thumbnails as the source of truth for this checkpoint. If your local tree drifted, re-clone that folder rather than mixing files from neighbors.

What you should already know

You do not need prior gtk-rs experience for part 1. Later parts assume you finished the earlier snapshots on the same machine.

  • A Rust toolchain (cargo) is installed
  • GTK4 development libraries are installed

Why gtk-rs fits Lookglass

gtk-rs binds GTK4 for Rust. An image viewer teaches file choosers, pixbufs/textures, and keyboard navigation.

Show one image at a time with next/previous. Keep the directory listing separate from the display widget.

Checkpoint

After you run the snapshot, you should recognize the behavior described in the goal—before you move on. If the window (or server) never appears, stop and fix the run steps.

Code shape

Snapshots stay small on purpose. Look for this kind of core call as you read the folder:

Picture::for_filename(path)

How to run it

Clone the teaching repo, open 09-Thumbnails, install what the README asks for, then run cargo run.

git clone https://github.com/michaeldunga1/fcc-gtkrs-viewer.git
cd fcc-gtkrs-viewer/09-Thumbnails
cargo build
cargo run

Common mistakes

  • Ignoring platform-specific install notes in the snapshot README
  • Wiring the happy path only and ignoring empty states
  • Blocking the UI thread on a long operation
  • Losing selection after a refresh