[WJG] (06/03/10) Ok, its pretty clear that I'm a Penguin. I love [Linux], [Gnome] and the principles of OpenSource. But, and its only a small, yet annoying but typical of any loving relationship, that there are little things not done that we take for granted will be done. Sounds familiar? The [Gdk] libraries contain some really useful tools, so why some of the simpler things are omitted? For example, there is a `gdk_pixBuf_fill` command, for clearing the screen to a single colour by painting each pixel individually, yet there is no library command for painting a single pixel itself! Not an insurmountable problem, but a capability that one would expect to be there. The assumption is, perhaps, that any drawing operations will be done to `GdkDrawables`, i.e., anything in a window rendered to the screen. `GtkPixBufs` are off-screen, the buffers that can be draw and worked with independently or prior to any rendering operation. My guess too is that if a programmer needs to draw to a buffer, its better done by rendering to it using [Cairo].

To resolve this omission, I have examined the Gdk source code for something useful to hack. Of the course the right func is the above said `gdk_pixbuf_fill`. Now I have a usable pixel painting function that runs nicely, having put together what might be described as the missing `gdk_pixbuf_set_pixel`. Now the complement, a `gdk_pixbuf_get_pixel` function, is the thing to put together. Where is all this leading, one might ask... to the addition of a set of pixbuf image manipulation commands! More on this later.