[pygtk] widget containers for free placement

[Donn]

Hello,
I am *really* new to GTK and company and I am snowed-under by the bewildering 
array of classes. For example, I really can't figure out how to look for the 
classes I need, they all sort of look the same!

I am reading the main tutorial, but the way I work is to aim for something: I 
want to put custom widgets (drawn by cairo calls) onto a vast, endless, plane 
at arbitrary x,y positions. (I am probably my own worst enemy.)

As a starting point, I am just trying to get two widgets onto a single window, 
but--oh, man--am I ever not getting anywhere.

Eventually I want this to be dragged around and zoomed etc. Like Inkscape for 
example. I also want the widgets to have a "life" in that they can move, 
react, signal and be animated. I also want each widget to be able to contain 
other widgets -- very much like what happens in flash/swf.

I *think* the term for all this is a "canvas". I have a problem in that my 
system is Kubuntu Dapper and I just cannot get GTK+ > 2.8 installed. (I have 
tried compiling from sources, but that was simply too confusing for me.)
So, I can't use hippo canvas or any of the other stuff that's GTK+ 2.10

I have managed to get the latest cairo and pycairo installed from source.

I realize this post opens a lot of questions, but has anyone a few tips on how 
I can start? Any pointers to basic concepts?

/d
-- 
He couldn't ad-lib a fart after a baked-bean dinner. -- Johnny Carson (about 
Chevy Chase)