How do I connect a custom function to the clicked action of a GTK Button?

Question

I am working my way through the Vala GTK+3 tutorial provided by Elementary OS. I understand that this code:

var button_hello = new Gtk.Button.with_label ("Click me!");
button_hello.clicked.connect (() => {
    button_hello.label = "Hello World!";
    button_hello.set_sensitive (false);
});

uses a Lambda function to change the button's label when it's clicked. What I want to do is call this function instead:

void clicked_button(Gtk.Button sender) {
    sender.label = "Clicked. Yippee!";
    sender.set_sensitive(false);
}

I've tried this:

button.clicked.connect(clicked_button(button));

But I get this error from the Vala compile when I try to compile:

hello-packaging.vala:16.25-16.46: error: invocation of void method not allowed as expression
    button.clicked.connect(clicked_button(button));
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Compilation failed: 1 error(s), 0 warning(s)

I'm new to both Vala and Linux so please be gentle but can someone point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

You need to pass a reference to the function, rather than the result of the function. So it should be:

button.clicked.connect (clicked_button);

When the button is clicked GTK+ will invoke the clicked_button function with the button as an argument.

The error message invocation of void method not allowed as expression is telling you you are calling (invoking) the method and it has no result (void). Adding parentheses, (), to the end of a function name invokes that function.